BootsnAll Travel Community

My husband and I have been debating the merits of hostels over hotel/self-catering units when travelling with kids. Since hostels usually charge by the bed, wouldn't it be cheaper to rent a cheap hotel/motel room or self-catering unit?

Has anyone tried hostelling with their kids? Do hostels give deals to families in the same room? Can anyone recommend family-friendly hostels in Oz/NZ or Europe?

We like the idea of the camaraderie of a hostel, but if it's not going to save us any money, why not get our own digs?

I've been wondering about that myself, kidsnall. In some places it won't be a savings, and in some more expensive places it will. I forget which travel book writer said that in places where hotels and food are cheap (like SE Asia), you stay in a hotel, but in places like W. Europe, you'd be better off in a hostel.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can do your own cooking in a hostel, which will shave quite a lot off the budget. We avoided hostels for years for the reason you gave, but then I had the epiphany about cooking.

I heard a rumor on this board but I've had a hard time confirming it: that IYH places will let you board your under 16 kids for free if with parents. Anyone know?

Here is how we plan to keep down lodging costs: lots of camping in Oz and NZ, hotels in SE Asia, hostels in Turkey and Greece, camping thruout much of W. Europe, with some hostel stays. Also, we plan to WWOOF some of our trip. This will enable us to keep our food costs down too, and we can use our money to splurge on stuff like elephant rides in Thailand, swimming with the seals in Oz.

Another thing about hostels is that some of the ones in Turkey sound very fascinating. There are some that are in treehouses, and some that are in underground cities. How cool is that? Also, they are great places to meet people, but you need to do your research to make sure you're not getting into an all night party place!

We're not to that point yet--we're getting ready to sell the house and move in with my grandmother for a few months, when we'll hit the net on a research binge. Then this thing will get real.

I found on our recent trip (U.S. and Canada) that this was something I had to deal with on a case by case basis. I was only traveling with one child though, and in EVERY case for the two of us it was less expensive to stay at a hostel. We did have a few hotel stays, at locations where there was no hostel or where it was inconvenient for us (Jasper).

Some hostels in North America, at least, give a discount for children under 10, 12, or 15. Ask what their rates are. Many also require that you rent a private room if you have a child along. I found that this sometimes meant you paid a flat fee, while others let you have the private room at the per bed rate (including the discounted child's rate).

Some hostels would have allowed my son to stay in the men's dorm while I stayed in the women's. Others required a private room. Personally, I was not comfortable with him staying in a different room with people I didn't know. We did stay in the mixed gender dorm at a couple of hostels, which was not a problem.

We paid from $15 to $55 for the two of us at hostels per night. The hotels we stayed at in various towns ranged from $50 to $65, for shoulder season, cheapest in town rooms. For that rate, we stayed in everything from fleabag dumps that I would NEVER suggest to anyone to a luxury suite.

I recently went to Namibia with my partner and our 2 year old daughter. When in Windhoek we stayed in a hostel because the cheapest hotel rooms were way over budget. My daughter charmed all of the other travellers in the hostel and we had a good time. Problem was it was a bit noisy so took a while to get her to sleep. The other time was spent in self catering chalets which I personally prefered as it gave us some family privacy and we mixed with fellow chalet renters as when we pleased which is far different to a hostel where it can be difficult to find a quiet spot. So I would personally recommend self catering accomadation but in big cities where this is expensive a couple of nights in a hostel is not a real problem

Just to give an update (since I started the debate). We've now completed the NZ/Oz leg of our trip and we ended up staying predominantly in hostels in NZ and caravan parks in Australia. NZ's BBH system is wonderful and their guide tells which hostels are family friendly and gives ratings. We didn't have one bad experience.

In Australia, it's more chaotic and the hostel crowd seems a bit younger and more party oriented. Without a guide (like BBH) you take your chances. We discovered that, for a family of four, a self-contained cabin in a caravan park was cheaper and the kids loved having other kids to play with and the swimming pools and playgrounds were a definite bonus.

All in all, you have to be flexible and play it by ear. We've enjoyed both experiences and will continue to experiment with budget accomodation throughout our trip. South East Asia should be interesting - anybody done it with kids?

Let me first commend everyone in this forum who has traveled with kids!!! You are my heros. I went RTW with my husband 5 yrs ago. Now we have 2 young kids and I dream every day about getting back on the road with them.

So on this subject bear with me, I dont speak from experience with kids, but I have put a lot of thought in about places I've been and how it would be to bring kids with us next time.

In SEA:
Thailand- In BKK, we stayed in budget hotel, I cant imagine a hostel being kids friendly there (I may be wrong)
In the south, while hotels on the beach with all ammenities will cost you much less than in the West, we found budget huts on the beach excellent. You'll know as you go which places are party huts vs non party huts. We also stayed in the rainforest interior in S Thailand, all family friendly budget lodges.

Vietnam & Cambodia- Budget hotels all the way. .


Turkey:
I cant wait to bring my kids here...I get the sense that you will be treated very well as a traveling family. While most hostels there attract a younger party crowd, there are always very nice family run pensions available. This applies anywhere you go in Turkey...off the top of my head, look at Kelebek Pension in Goreme (the cave rooms). Even in Olympos, which is a big backpacker hangout (the tree houses), is family friendly with self contained cozy huts available for families. FYI, the treehouses would be fun for an older kid but are a bit overrated if you really want to sleep!

Greece:
We found all hostels to be big party dorms. We were able to find self contained apartments to rent on several islands through touts. We were off peak season so we had much to choose from.

OZ:
I agree 100% with kidsnall's experience. While we found the hostels nice in OZ, but if we bring the kids here it will be camping. The park facilities are amazing in OZ.

Happy travels! Thanks for sharing your family travel experiences, they are inspiring!

We have not done any hostels yet on our almost 6 months on the road, so I can not speak to that.

We have been absolutely thrilled with camping in Europe via small motorhome love not having to pack or unpack as we go. I am amazed that more families do not at least use the little chalets and motorhomes that are at every campsite as it is one of the cheapest ways to go in Europe.Campsites are a great place for kids to hang out and there are always wonderful playgrounds ,usually pools and things to do with other kids.


We have also really loved being in rental for an extended time to experience authentic Spain in a deeper way. This place can be rented by the week ,but we have really enjoyed the experience of a longer stay ( 5 months and having our child in school in Spain). It is a whole different experience than being in a place for 2 weeks like when we are on the move. We love all the celebrations here ( endless holidays) and flamenco dancing and music because we KNOW the people and see them everyday in our tiny village.


We have also done a few hotels along the way ( at excellent rates ...again off season) and really enjoyed the luxury of that for a change.

I guess the bottom line is we are really enjoying all the modes that we are trying out. We love our ancient moorish rental and tiny village and look forward to coming back to it next winter,but we also are looking forward to taking off soon on a 7 month roam around Europe ( and Russia) via camper.

We like that both allow us to buy groceries at hypermarkets and cook our own food and the family privacy ,yet closeness to transportation,supplies and other people.

I am looking into the same issue as I plan a RTW trip with my 3 kids. I did travel in Europewith 1 of my children and we looked for and stayed in hostels that had family rooms. They were usually no more than a private room with a double bed but it did work for us. The cost was more than the single but NOT double the single cost. The down side is that the family rooms are limited so advanced reservations are suggested which means more planning and scheduling(which is what I try to stay away from on these adventures. I am currently looking into the family room option in an effort to draft a preliminary budget for our up coming trip. I will be keeping up on this conversation for helpful advice.

Good luck.

I can help with some of your questions, Mom:

1) You don't always have to get a family room, sometimes a 4 bed dorm will do (usually at 4 X single rate though). If you're really nice they'll sometime cut you a break and give you a discount (depends on how busy they are).

2) If you want to stay in one place for 2 weeks or more you can often get a better rate on a self-contained short-term rental - often a lot nicer than a hotel or hostel or even cabin in a caravan park.

3) You don't have to have camping gear to stay in holiday parks - the self-contained cabins usually come fully equipped with dishes, etc. Often you have to pay extra for linen so we invested in some $20 silk sleeping bag liners which do nicely when you don't have sheets (or don't want to sleep on the ones provided). Saved us a lot on linen hire.

4) I agree with Quimby on SEA - we're in Bali right now and are staying in budget hotels and homestays for anywhere from $12-35 US/night including breakfast. We haven't seen the inside of a grocery store since we got here since it's so cheap to eat out. We're averaging less than $100/day in total expenses here for a family of four - not bad!

Hope that helps! Have fun planning your dream trip with your kids.

In europe at least, I can say that the hostel has worked out great for us. The availability of a kitchen makes a huge difference. With that being said, in some places we have traveled to, it was cheaper to use a hotel, so we went to a hotel.

The other think that I would look at is the length of stay. If you are going to stay for a longer period of time, you can usually get a better deal on a hotel then you could on a hostel.

If you can get a longer ( off season) rental in parts of Europe, you can live extremely cheap. We have a lovely 4 bedroom ( king bed, double bed,4 twins) village house with spectacular ocean and mountain view terraces in southern Spain and pay $33 dollars a day or less for food & housing ( for a family of three)... and we live really well.

We could live on MUCH less if we wanted to as we certainly do not need all this space or luxuries.


A French family of four traveled the world in a motorhome and kept to their budget of 1500 euros a month for four years including planes and cargo boats etc. http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcc...ev=%2Flanguage_tools