I know what it’s like to live life in a hostel since I have lived quite a few months in several hostels as I began to enjoy my freelance life. There is something euphoric about having a hostel life experience because you are completely free from any fixed rent and can just decide to move out whenever you want.
To be fair, I have thoroughly enjoyed my hostel life, and I am now quite settled in London (where you have some of the best cafes to work in Shoreditch for freelancers and students), at least for the moment. Today, let me share a few tips and insights about what life in a hostel is when you’re freelancing or want to travel and study abroad. By the way, if you’re in the city and would like to discover the best places to write in London, read, or just chill, definitely check out the guide I’ve put together for you.
New to The Working Line?
If you’re new to The Working Line, welcome to your online BFF magazine for work productivity and life management. Here, I write a lot about the best coworking spaces in Rome, the best Starbucks cafes to work in London, and lately, I’ve told you all about my best tips for homemade meal prep as a college student.
The goal of this platform is to share my tips and tricks for you to improve your work performance while working from home. It is a magazine designed for freelancers, digital nomads, students, and people working remotely who just don’t want to work at home.
Maybe you would much rather discover new coworking spaces in Paris, London, Rome, Australia, the USA, and many more countries and cities around the world. Now, if you want to know how to survive hostel life, and why hostel life is better for an experience where you look for programs for studying abroad, you’ve landed on the right page today.
8 Best Tips For Life in a Hostel To Freelance & Study Abroad
Life in a hostel can be absolutely amazing. I have been to hostels where the experience was very basic, where cleanliness was a bit doubtful, and even hostels where there was no kitchen – not even a shared kitchen! – for meal prepping. And boy, do I love my meal preps. If you want to know why hostel life is better, in my opinion, I’d say that the connections you make there are different from any other connections you could make in, say, hotels.
For instance, when you look for programs for studying abroad, one of the main things you want to do is discover a new country, a new culture. With that comes making new connections with different people from all over the world. I think that life in a hostel can be an absolute blast if you’re an open-minded person, and that, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert. I am quite easy-going but I’m also shy and for me, living life in a hostel was either a big hit or a big miss every time I booked a room.
Read: The Most Inspiring Bookshop Cafes in London
Sometimes, you will meet people who want to talk with you, who want to learn your language, and sincerely want to know where you come from. But sometimes, hostel life experiences can be a bit different since you will meet people in your dorm that are here long term, with the hostel being their actual home. Those people might not want to connect with anyone, they just want to do their own thing and be left alone.
You will see that after some time, you will also get bored of hearing the same old ‘So where do you come from?’ and ‘Where are you going next?’. The truth is, if you want to study abroad and travel, your budget might not allow you to stay at a hotel. Even if you do have the budget, life in a hostel was so fun for me that I would do it over and over again. Below, you will find my best tips on how to survive hostel life, especially if you are used to living on your own or with your parents.
Best Tips For Life in a Hostel: Don’t Be Stingy With Comfort
When you want to study abroad, the hostel life experience is one of the best experiences you can choose to go through. Traveling and following programs for studying abroad will definitely help to shape you up for the future. I also think that life in a hostel can really be a test of patience, friendliness, and overall maturity for anyone.
The first of my tips for hostel life is that you cannot be gambling with comfort. I have stayed in rooms in about a dozen different hostels in different cities, and so there are three things I would like to tell you so your hostel life experience drastically improves.
For starters, if you are a female, do get the female dorm unless you’re going for a private room. I am not one that is scared of mixed rooms, but I have had my fair share of weird experiences as a female in mixed rooms.
If you want to study abroad for free, then hostels might not be free, but they are definitely the cheapest option for rent. Still, you will not want to overlook your comfort when you study and travel. You’re going to want to get a decently-sized dorm unless you’re staying only for a couple of days.
Read: The Best Cafes For Coworking in Rome Italy
Even if it is more expensive, do rent out a bed in a 4, 6, or 8-bed dorm rather than a 16 or 20-bed dorm. It is already quite stressful to kickstart your hostel life in terms of storage and sleep, so if you have to make do with people who snore and come back to the hostel at every hour of the night, one of my best tips to survive your hostel life will be to have to make do with fewer people in your room.
The other thing I’d like to talk about so you have a great start to your study abroad experience is the distance from which the hostel is from the center of the city. You are going to want to rent something that is is quite close to the center, otherwise, you’re just going to suffer with daily transportation – I’m talking from my own hostel life experience. Do not try to cut pennies here and there when you could be having a much more enjoyable hostel experience for just one or two more pounds or euros.
How To Survive Hostel Life: Read The Reviews
Of the most important parts of this guide to a good hostel life experience is to read the reviews on whatever hostel website you’re going to use to book your room. What I usually do, so I am sure that my experience is good, is to understand how far the hostel is to the center of the city.
I make sure to read the most detailed reviews when it comes to cleaning and if there’s a kitchen. I try to understand whether there is a free breakfast or not, how many bathrooms there are, and if there are mixed or not. One of the most important reviews to read when you’re about to start life in a hostel is also so you understand if the reception is open 24/7 and if late check-ins are allowed.
Some hostels provide free sheets and pillows as well as towels, while in some others, you will have to rent out sheets, towels, and locks for any potential locker you’d like to rent. You also need to figure out if the people that have left reviews about their hostel life experience were used to a higher standard of life or not.
For instance, having lived in hostels for as long as I have during my time abroad, there are some things I know are normal for a hostel. The kitchen cannot always be clean when it is shared. Yet, I will always put cleanliness and freebies first, like a free breakfast to start the day. That’s always one of the best things to wake up to and it helps you not only with how to survive life in a hostel but also to live a proper and amazing study abroad experience.
Best Tips For Life in a Hostel: Get a Lock & Storage
The third thing is to get a lock and storage as soon as you arrive at the hostel – and even before if you can bring a lock from home. At some point in my life when I used to work, study and travel all at the same time, I would always have a lock in my bag. I had kept this habit of going to the gym regularly and having to bring my own lock.
Life in a hostel might be one of the best abroad experiences you’ll ever live, but you do not know the people you’re going to live with. They might be some of the friendliest people ever, but in my hostel life experience, I know it’s better to be safe than sorry.
A lot of hostels will provide you with an under-bed cage that you can lock and usually, it is big enough for you to put even a very big suitcase inside. If you plan to live in a hostel dorm for a few weeks or months, that’s going to come in handy. That’s where the ‘don’t be stingy with comfort’ part comes into play, because you want to find a room big enough to be able to store your stuff without bothering others and without fearing that your things get stolen.
It has personally never happened to me in all my life in hostels that I got something stolen. However, I was always very careful with my belongings, and that’s one of the best tips for hostel life I can give you if you want to freelance or study abroad almost for free. Be very careful with your things and your hostel experience will be great from the get-go.
How To Survive Hostel Life: Plan Your Food Schedule
In my hostel life experience, it has been sometimes very difficult to eat healthily. It is widely known that you will put on weight while you live in a hostel if you do not pay attention to what kind of food you buy. I understand you’re looking for programs to study abroad in the summer or for a full year in a different country. All you want to do is go out, meet new people, maybe buy new used books speak a new language, and eat new food.
I’ve always been of the opinion that food really echoes the way the people think in a country, and when I first arrived in Rome I put on so much weight! That’s because I was trying all the pizzeria around, all the restaurants for pasta, seafood, suppli, and more of the great Italian food you can find in the capital city.
Do enjoy the food by any means, however, if you really want to survive life in a hostel in a healthy way, you are going to have to do some smart meal planning. Especially if you’re a freelancer or studying abroad for the first time and you are short on money.
A lot of hostels have got great kitchens where you’ll be able to cook, but you’re going to have to find out when the kitchen is least used if you want to cook your little homemade dishes without being interrupted. Just because you’re living life in a hostel doesn’t mean you’re going to want to talk to people all the time. What you’re looking for is to study abroad for free or almost for free.
So, you’re going to want to save money on restaurants and eating out at some point. One of the best tips I can give you is to start eating raw, like big salads that you can eat two days in a row. That could be one portion in the evening and one portion in a plastic box the following day as you’re walking around the city. You might be lucky enough to meet travel buddies with whom you roam the city and be able to cook together, which is one of the best parts of life in a hostel, as it will be saving you a fraction of the price of the food.
Best Tips For Life in a Hostel: Make Connections
Life in a hostel is better in my opinion because people are actually open to making new connections and friends from all over the world. Hostels are great because they shape you up for the future in terms of human connections. As I said earlier, they also provide a test of patience because you’re going to have to deal with people who do not have the same education as you or the same ways of living at all.
In my hostel life experience, it hasn’t always been easy to deal with new people, especially since I’m a freelancer and like being on my own a lot. But what are hostels, if not cheap hotels where you have a shot at making new connections with like-minded people? I have met a lot of lifelong friends in hostels, especially when I rent out beds long-term.
If you can get long-term in a hostel sometime during the year (when it’s not summer or holidays), you can even get a private room. That will ensure you have your intimacy but are still able to connect with new people when you go down to the kitchen or the living area.
Read: The Best Proactive Tips For Successful Students
Some really great hostels will also offer cooking classes, tours, and free experiences with the people who work there. For instance, when I used to live in the center of Rome for a few months, I hung out with lots of people and went to the park, to the beach, or to the restaurant.
If you choose a cheap enough city, you’re going to be able to eat out pretty often, especially street food or breakfast. If you’re lucky enough, you’re also going to be able to make business connections and meet other freelancers or students who can become work or study buddies, at least for the time you’re living your life in a hostel.
How To Survive Hostel Life: Prepare Your Stuff in the Evening
To make your life in a hostel easier and ensure you have the best experience, prepare your things in the evening . Having a study abroad experience or being a freelancer in a new city can be stressful enough. When you add to it that you’re sleeping in the same room as people that you’ve never seen before, you will quickly see that you might have trouble falling and staying asleep.
There will always be people that come back late at night because they’re partying, and there will be those people that prepare their things early in the morning especially if they have a flight and need to take a shuttle bus. Those people who are less organized than you are will literally get on your nerves. After all, all you want to do is sleep and you might have a full day at uni or projects to deliver that day.
Read: The Best Starbucks Cafes To Work in London Or Study
Don’t be one of these people, and make your life in a hostel and people’s lives easier by being as organized as you can. By organization, I mean anything from light and easy meal prepping to getting all your things ready in the evening before you go to uni or roam the city the following day.
This will ensure your hostel life experience gets only better and your roommates don’t actually have anything against you, thus increasing the possibility that you make new lifelong connections. Finding programs for studying abroad and not being at home is already stressful enough, and you will really thank yourself for being organized.
Best Tips For Life in a Hostel: Pay in Advance
That right there is going to be one of my best tips for living life in a hostel: pay in advance as much as you can! A lot of hostels offer bulk prices and if you pay weekly or monthly, then you can enjoy a pretty little discount there. That’s also why hostel life is better, as when you’re looking for programs for studying abroad, you’re going to want to save as much money on rent as possible. That way, you can go out, party, and have dinner or have unexpected breakfasts with your new friends.
Read: The Best Branded Notebooks To Get Inspired For Work
More times than I can count, I have paid months in advance and that made my hostel life experience that much easier. All I had to do then was think of clients, articles I wanted to write, and new websites I wanted to open. Pay in advance, pay for as much time as you can, and I promise that you’ll save a lot of money.
Also, a lot of hostels have an onsite restaurant or coffee shop, like the YellowSquare hostel in Rome which also has its own coworking space. Usually, as you’re a guest of the hostel, you’ll be able to enjoy discounts on the food and drinks, and even the hostel’s spaces in some cases. And that, friends, makes living life in a hostel that much more enjoyable.
How To Survive Hostel Life: Ask For a Job
Lastly, one of my best tips on how to survive life in a hostel is to find out whether the hospital has opportunities whether it comes to a job or collaborations for bloggers, writers, or graphic designers. If you want to study abroad and find a good program, you might have enough time off to be able to work part-time in the hostel.
Now, that’s one of the best tips I could give you when it comes to having a great hostel experience because you will live where you work. That means you might have the room for cheaper or for free if you are doing some kind of collaboration. There is no definite way of knowing what kind of room and what price you will be able to have the room in the hostel for, especially if you’re onto a collaboration.
For instance, at one of the hostels I stayed at, I had a room for free for a few days in exchange for write-ups. With another one, I had a free room for a few months as I was helping the hostel translate their website.
If you’re planning to look for programs for studying abroad in the summer, then you might be able to do so for free or almost for free by checking out the kind of jobs and partnerships the hotels have in that city. For sure, life in a hostel is going to become that much better when you can meet people from all over the world and gain some experience at the same time.
8 Best Tips For Life in a Hostel To Freelance & Study Abroad
There they are, my best tips for life in a hostel if you’re looking to study abroad for the summer or are starting a new freelance career and would just like to sharpen your mindset. Life in a hostel is definitely one of the best abroad experiences you’ll ever have. If you’re open-minded enough, you will spend some amazing moments learning new languages, practicing new experiences and hobbies, and getting to know the most amazing individuals. You’ll quickly realize that living in a hostel is not just about having a place to stay—it’s about immersing yourself in a vibrant community that fosters creativity and new ideas. For those who work on the go, incorporating freelancer productivity tips in hostels can make all the difference when it comes to balancing work and play. By setting up designated work times and finding inspiring spaces within the hostel, you can stay focused while still making the most of your incredible surroundings.
The sad part of living life in a hostel is that people come and go. If you are the kind of emotional person I am, this will impact you very much, at least at the beginning. If you are sincere about following up with the people you meet and are down to visit them in their own countries, then you have understood everything it means to really live life in a hostel.
If you would like to learn more about organizing your work and managing your life, then these are the following guides on The Working Line I can recommend for you:
- the best second hand bookshops in London
- the best safety tips when you work from home
- and the best places to study in Rome, read, or work
- Best cafes to work in London and study
Until next time!
PS. Did you know that there are some amazingly cute cafes to work in Paris? Be sure to check them out if you pass by this oh-so-romantic city!
PIN ME: 8 Best Tips For Life in a Hostel To Freelance & Study Abroad
