Paris Hostel

Hostels have a bad (and sometimes false) reputation to be grimy and dirty.  Everyone hears horror stories of co-ed rooms containing 12 beds.  After living in tiny dorm rooms with a roommate for almost three years I figured how bad could it really be.  We stayed at the Aloha Hostel in Paris, France which was very affordable.  We found this hostel through an online search on www.hostels.com.When we booked our room our only choices were 4 beds or 6 beds.  As there were only three of us we had to choose a room with four beds and hope that our random roommate would not be some creepy 40 year old man. The hostel was small but kept rather clean.  It did have about 8 computers that had free internet access which helped us immensely and safes to lock up any valuables.  The location was great! It was about a 15 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower which made everything convenient. Overall, I would suggest this hostel to a future traveler. The official link for the hostel can be found here.

 Here, the plaid print makes the bed look covered with a comforter.  Don't let that fool you. That is just the mattress with no  sheets or anything.

 Our excitement is clearly evident when we first walked into the room and only found three beds.  No creepy roommate for us!

 The hostel had a sink in the room which was nice and made getting ready in the morning really easy.

Some Tips about Hostels:

Hostels do not provide sheets or towels.  Our beds came with a blanket, a mattress, and a pillow.  There were no pillow cases or any sheets at all. There is a communal bathroom so there are no towels, soaps, or shampoos provided. You can usually rent the linens from the hostel at a fee or feel free to bring your own. We rented them as we were traveling light.

Bring shower shoes. Like I said the showers are communal and usually one per floor. There is no magnificent tile or marble flooring but rather cement.  Jackie was the only smart one to think of this.  She had a cheap pair of flip flops that were passed around between the three of us for the couple nights we stayed there.

Pretend like your camping.  Hostels aren’t known for being luxurious.  You are not staying at the Four Seasons or even a Holiday Inn for that matter. If you go into your stay with a positive attitude that you will be ‘roughing it’ for the next couple days you won’t be disappointed and may even enjoy the coziness of it. Overall, hostels are an excellent value and an easy solution for lodging.