Hostels in Rome

Hostels and shared dorms in Rome, Italy

If you're really scrimping on every eurocent, or are particularly fond of fraternizing with primarily youthful backpackers, you might want to stay in hostels, where you can get a bunk in a shared dorm for around $15 to $35.

I'm not a fan of hostels. Never did like them, really, not even when I was a backpacking student, but that's just me.

You, though, might enjoy the camaraderie, the chance to rub elbows with other English-speakers, the evenings of contributing an ingredient to the communal spaghetti dinner someone is whipping up in the kitchen while your laundry spins in the back room, a dreadlocked dropout strums a guitar, and everyone sits around and shares travel tips and recently discovered gems not yet in the guidebooks.

Oh, and the massive savings. That's the upside to the hostelling experience.

The downsides, though, are enough to keep me away, despite the savings. Though some private hostels have done away with most of the old rules, some (especially official HI hostels) still impose evening curfews (10pm-midnight or so), midday lockout periods, and limits on how long you can stay (often no more than three days). » more

Tips

• Private hotels are usually far superior to HI hostels—better locations, nicer decor, smaller rooms (often only 4-8 beds per room), more private baths, far fewer rules, and better perks (like free WiFi, often free breakfast).
• There are lockers for your bags; use them.
• Bring a sleep sack, which is basically a sheet folded in half lengthwise and sewn across the bottom and most of the way up the side—sort of like an ultra-thin sleeping bag. These are required at most hostels. Should you lack one, some hostels will sell you a sleep sack on the spot.
• Hostels are a savings for singles, but since you pay a per-person rate, two or three people traveling together can usually find a hotel for the same price or even less.
• Families can often find hostels with 4-bunk rooms for semi-private housing.
• Meals will be cheap (if offered), but lackluster.
  

Finding Hostels in Rome

Hostel Search:

HostelWorld (www.hostelworld.com) - Premier independent booking site for 20,000 hostels around the world. It also helpfully includes particularly cheap hotels as well as campgrounds.

Hostelbookers.com (www.hostelbookers.com) - Some 17,000 hostels in 2,500 destinations.

Hostelling International (www.hihostels.com) - The official international hostelling body, giving its stamp of approval to one or two hotels in cities and town around the globe. This ends up totaling more than 4,000—around 100 of which are in Italy. Sign up as a member (under 18 us free; age 18-54 costs $28, over 55 costs $18—or pay $250 for a lifetime memberships) and you get a card good for about 5% to 10% discount at official hostels—many of which will sell you (or insist upon selling you) the membership/card on the spot. The website lets you search to find official HI properties around the world so you can get the info on location, rules, and prices.

Hostels.com (www.hostels.com) - One of the biggest repositories of hostelling information and reviews of some 6,000 hostels, both HI and independent.

Hostels in Europe (www.hostels.net) - Another independent guide to hostels.

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