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Hostels were invented in 1909 by Richard Schirmann in Germany in order to provide inexpensive accommodation for budget travelers. This teacher actually used unused classrooms during the hollydays to provide a confortable room for student who wanted to take cultural tours of the countryside. The idea is now all over the world and has helped an innumerable amount of people like you and me to travel around the world.

Hostels can have low fares because they have removed much of the comfort and privacy that a Hotel provides. Normally you will find rooms of 4 or 6 people who do not know each other. Some provide a few private rooms for one or two persons, and very rarely you will find 20 people in a single room. Some hostels separate boys and girls, but in other cases rooms are mixed. They are usually mixed if you are traveling in a group and you all know each other.

Bathrooms are also shared, and again, separate genders. Some rooms have its own bathroom, but they are more expensive.

Hostels offer breakfast (some for the better and some for the worst) and also they might offer some other common facilities, like lockers, laundry or self-catering services.

You must bring your own sheets, some hostels do not provide them or they might charge you extra, sleeping bags are not permitted.

The term "Youth Hostel" does not mean that you have to be young to get in, the age does not matter, except in Bavaria where you must be under 27. Except that weird case all you need is an ID card from the IYHF if you are going to stay in one of their hostels, if you do not have it then they will charge a little bit more and they will give you a stamp, and after 6 nights they will give you your brand new Hostel card.

There are two basic types of hostels:
• The hostels from the International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF) have a standard of service. They have common rules which are more or less the same all around Europe, they also share a the International Booking Network (IBN) so you can virtually make reservations from any hostel to any other one in the network. There are other rules that specify that you must leave your room at certain time of the day for clean up, also you cannot check in before 3:00 or 4:00pm, and you have to be inside of the hostel before midnight. These rules are getting every day more relaxed and in some cases they do not apply anymore. Ask ahead of time for all those details.
• The Independent Hostels have their own rules, some of them are far better than the ones of the IYHF, but some other just suck. They also have a discount card but it only covers a certain number of hostels, this card is not mandatory. But the good thing is that they have less rules than the IYHF hostels.

Hostels in Europe get crowded in summer, so you must book ahead of time. Also, hostel listings on the guidebooks are the most popular, so do not expect to find a vacancy on them on the peak season, better look for alternative listings, like the internet.

Listing of Hostels in Europe and all the wold can be found on the Internet at our Hostels directory page.