- So I just got a message on Instagram the other day
and they said, "how do I keep my stuff safe
if I'm in a hostel?"
And I was like, before I get too old to do a video
about what you need for a hostel, I better make this.
- Hey guys, my name is Shayla
and I make these videos every Wednesday.
I have been traveling full time since 2015
and this Wednesday I'm in Washington.
We're going to be in Washington until the rest of the year
so you're going to hear that a lot.
If you like this video, please give it a like
and if you want to see more travel tips please subscribe.
Hopefully they're informational
and entertaining (clicks tongue)
but I can't guarantee either one of those.
I just got a message on Instagram the other day
and they said, "how do I keep my stuff safe
if I'm in a hostel?"
And I was like, before I get too old
to do a video about what you need for a hostel,
I better make this.
What is a hostel?
A hostel is like a big giant room that's like a dorm.
So sometimes there's four beds
and you pay a little bit more for that.
Sometimes there's 15 beds
and you pay a little bit less for that.
Sometimes there's all girl ones,
sometimes there's coed ones.
$7 a night.
It varies but basically, it's just,
you all share a room that you sleep in
and then you share the kitchen and you share the bathrooms.
As I'm getting older, I'm staying in the four bed one
that has its own little bathroom and it's more private
and not, like, 15 people sleeping in a room.
But when I was younger I loved that.
I'll probably do it again
'cause I think they're so much fun.
Even if it's the same price as a hotel,
I would much rather stay in a hostel
because you get to meet people
and there's, everyone's, it's like freshman year of college.
Oh, what's your name? Where you from?
When you're in a hotel,
you're like in your hotel room and you're like,
well don't know how I'm going to make a friend.
People always ask, "are hostels safe?"
Have you watched that movie?
I feel like the US is the only country that's like,
mm, hostels are dangerous.
All over the rest of the world everyone does hostels.
I've done everything from $60 hostels in Austria
to $5 hostels in Nicaragua, I wouldn't recommend those.
It worked for us 'cause it was cheap at the time.
This was a bar and they turned a side room into a bedroom
by putting a bed in it and a fan
but the fan just blew all the smoke
from the bar into the room.
But I mean, it was fine when we did it.
And I remember when I was in Santorini,
I stayed in a hostel.
I have a whole video about Santorini on a budget.
I just like, when down to the cafe and was like,
oh what's your name?
Are you going hiking today? Cool.
And all of sudden we had this quad squad.
Let's all get ATVs and ATV around the island.
So that's all we did, so we had this quad squad,
we called oursel, I called us.
Zooming around the island.
So we took the ATVs from the hostel
all the way to Fira, Fira.
- Yeah, there ya go. (Shayla laughs)
- Pretty awesome.
Now we're off to the next town.
Off to the next town!
It was a freaking blast.
There's just experiences that I've had
in hostels that are so good.
You can also be super antisocial and not do anything.
It's really up to you.
A huge question that people have been asking is
how do you get service?
There's a couple different options.
Just Google pocket WiFi for the country
that you're going in.
I've worked with iVideo.
There's Skyroam and they're a little bit more expensive
but seem pretty reliable.
Go to your cellphone provider
and see if they have any sort of pocket WiFi things.
Their international deals are not usually good deals.
Honestly, what I do now is I just get to the place,
in the airport there's a SIM card place
that sells you SIM cards.
They usually have traveler deals
that are for the month or whatever.
I just buy one of those and just do data.
Use an app, WhatsApp, to like call and text home.
Make sure your family has it.
That's what I'd recommend.
The hostels.
I've put together some of my tips for hostels
and then I also looked up a few other people's tips
for what they had for hostels, in case I missed anything.
I'll tell you my tips
and I'll tell you what they recommended
and why you might need those things.
I'm going to tell them to you
because some people think you need them.
So, you can just do whatever you want.
What would I recommend?
How do you keep your stuff safe?
You have your camera, you have your computer,
you have other expensive things.
Every hostel gives you a locker.
Does every hostel give you a lock?
No, they don't.
Do I bring a lock to every hostel I go to?
No, 'cause I forget.
Most of them will rent you one or they're like,
oh down the street you can buy a lock for $10.
Do I have a collection of locks at home
'cause I have to buy one every single time
I stay in a hostel?
Yes.
Do I know where any of those are?
(laughs) No.
I usually just put my whole backpack in there
and shut it and lock it
and I've never had a problem with it.
It works really well.
If you want to charge those things,
first you need the adapter.
So if it's a different country
and it's a different plug, you need that.
But then an extension cord that gets it
from the wall to your bed or the wall to the top bunk
or like, the wall into your lockable locker.
Which kind of is a red flag that there's something in there
so maybe don't do that.
It does not take up that much space.
That is a huge little hack for ya.
For the bathroom, bring your shampoo and conditioner.
Go to the travel section in Target
and just buy the little bottles of your shampoo
or you can just go buy those little bottles
and take your shampoo, put 'em in there.
Whatever you want, but put them in a Ziplock baggie
in case they explode in your bag.
A towel.
Do I remember my towel usually? No.
Do they rent one to you? Yes.
Do you want to pay for that? No.
So, bring a towel.
Don't bring your bath towel.
Go to REI or somewhere, I'll put a link below for this.
Buy a microfiber towel that's quick dry.
Because you just hang it over your bed
and it dries quickly and it's really thin
so it's like, not my favorite thing to dry with.
And it takes up like zero space in your suitcase.
(sighs) If you don't want to get
weird foot things from public showers (rolls tongue)
bring a pair of flip-flops.
I always have my Birkenstocks
and my Birkenstocks, they're like $100.
And I was like, oh my god $100.
Okay, I'm just going to, I'm just going to buy these.
It'll be fine.
I love them.
And they dry surprisingly fast.
I wear them in the lake.
I wear them in hostel showers
when I don't want to touch the nasty, slimy floor.
And I just set them up like this and they just dry.
So if you want to invest in some Birkenstocks, do it.
If you don't, then just buy some
cheap old flip-flops from Walmart.
But pack those so you don't have to step on the dirty floor.
Be respectful.
(gasps) Apparently some people get real lucky in hostels.
I'm not like a big hooker-upper
but that's like a thing, people do that a lot in hostels.
If you are that person, I would hate you in a hostel.
I've never experienced anyone hooking up in a hostel
but get yourself some condoms, safe sex please.
I don't even know what I would do if that happened.
I wouldn't tell on them
but I wouldn't, I wouldn't like it very much.
If you're not that person
and you don't want to listen to that person,
bring yourself some earbuds and a nice face mask.
Or like your earbuds (clicks tongue)
so you can listen to some music or an audiobook
or whatever else grandmas do these days.
I looked up all these recommendations
for what to bring to hostels.
I wanted to tell you what other people said
and tell you that I don't really agree with it.
One of them was a sleeping bag liner.
This is a good idea
because then you can be in your own sleeping bag liner
and you're not going to have bedbugs.
You can check, you curl up the edge of the mattress
and you look under there for little black bugs.
Those are bedbugs, don't stay there.
Like go ask for a refund and go somewhere else.
But you can get a sleeping bag liner,
that will help with that.
I've never done that, I've never had a problem with it
but if you did have a problem with it
that would be a bummer.
They recommended laundry detergent.
(exhales)
Yeah, I've done laundry in hostels
and you usually have to go find little laundry pods.
Sometimes they sell them to you.
I would say just do that.
I don't want to carry around laundry detergent
or laundry pods, so that's your call.
Cooking tools.
I don't know, I don't really think so.
Almost every hostel has some sort of kitchen area
where you get to cook and do stuff like that.
You can bring cooking tools but usually they're provided.
You just have to go buy the food and cook it.
And the last one that someone recommended
that I was like, eh.
Mesh laundry bag.
In the van, 100%.
Do I need to carry it around? No.
Like I just roll it up together
or like put it in a plastic baggie or something
and like, put it somewhere else.
Those are just my recommendations for like, eh,
things that you might need if you're worried about bedbugs
or if you don't want to go looking for laundry detergent.
Otherwise, I found that you don't really, it's fine.
If you guys have any more questions just let me know.
If you have any more suggestions for things
that you think people should bring to hostels,
put them below.
If you like this video, please give it a like.
If you want more travel tip videos, please subscribe,
if you're not already.
If you're a Patreon, if you're a $5 Patreon,
I am doing behind the scenes videos, at least one a month
and I just uploaded my last one yesterday.
It was a farmhouse tour.
If you're interested in that,
please click on my Patreon below.
Sneak peak of that will be in the bonus footage.
And I will see you guys all next Wednesday.
(kiss)
- [Man] Look at this guy, or girl.
- [Shayla] Oh, this is going to make a really sad story.
- Wah, wah, wah.
They gave me eggs this morning so I mean, can I ask to.
This is like a MTV Cribs. - Yeah.
That's it, thanks for coming to our crib.
- (laughs) What the-- - Is that good?
- [Man] Do that again.
- That's it, thanks for coming to our crib.
- Let me try. - Okay.
Hope you guys enjoyed the dogs
and the chickens and the goats.
It almost hit me in the face.
Hey, you need to stop swearing in my video.
- Baseball. - You're so cool.