10. Toiletries. Let’s face it. After a day out touring or a night out partying, you smell like something fierce. Clean yourself up, but don’t expect the hostel to give you anything besides hot water to help with that, so be sure to bring soap and shampoo. Or if you’re like me, the all-in-one bodywash slash shampoo. That’s only one thing to pack and no squishy bar of soap to deal with.
9. Lock. In most hostels you’ll be staying in a dormitory style room with 6-10 other people and often times there will be lockers in the rooms. Despite most backpackers’ good intentions, some jerks might try to run off with your stuff. Don’t let them. Bring a lock for that locker of yours. If you don’t mind the extra weight and space, you can buy a wire mesh that goes around you entire backpack. It will make a safer, but I don’t use one.
8. Drugs. No, not that kind. Do whatever you want outside the hostel, but the bad kinds aren’t allowed inside. However, an Advil is a good thing to have when you need it. So is Imodium…yep and try buying Imodium at a corner store in Germany from an attendant who doesn’t speak English and you have to explain what you need. Got the image in your head yet? Good. So pack it before you leave.
7. Sturdy Piece Of String. Be like MacGyver. Having a few lengths of string can be surprisingly useful as a clothesline, a curtain rod, backpack tie, zip line, etc. It takes up no room and weights nothing so there should be no problem fitting this in your pack.
6. Book Light. If you’re crawling into your room at 3am, chances are that you’re not being too quiet. So instead of adding to the ruckus by fooling around in the dark trying to find a toothbrush, have a book
light or miniature flashlight nearby so you can shed some light on the situation and get to where you need to be faster. Your roommates will thank you. There are more obvious uses such as using it to read a
book in the dark. Shocking I know.
5. Quick Dry Towel. Not many hostels provide towels for their guests so bring your own. Having a quick dry towel a good step up. It allows you to take that morning shower and get on the road without having to
wait for the towel to dry, or have a wet towel stinking up your pack.
4. Sleeping Bag. Most hostels in Europe do offer linens for the beds, while others charge extra and some outright don’t have any. Having a light sleeping bag is worthwhile not only for the sheetless hostels but also can act as a pillow for the often lackluster paper thin pillows provided. There are usually a couple of straps on a backpack to secure the sleeping bag to the outside of the pack.
3. Alarm clock. If your plans are sipping margaritas on a beach all day then this might be an issue. But if you’re a backpacker on a 30-day quest to see as much as you can then you need to be up early and out the door to start another life change adventure. Sometimes a small alarm clock can help with that.
2. Shower Shoes. I don’t like athlete’s foot, and I’m betting you don’t like it either. This is considered optional for some people as it does take up some room, but for me flip flops are always there to keep my feet off of those wet, hopefully not too sticky bathroom floors.
1. Right Attitude. Hostels are about people just as much as they are about a cheap place to sleep. Having an open mind and a willingness to talk with your fellow hostelmates will help you uncover some great travel stories, cultures, ideas and relationships that are just not possible when staying in hotels. Be willing to accept the hostel and its guests for who they are and revel in it.
(photo credit: Christian Horcel)
I have never meet a traveler who, after five trips, brags, “Every year I pack heavier.” The measure of a good traveler is how light he travels. You can’t travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two.