Work In A Hostel

So you’re thinking about travelling for a long time and heading into the great unknown, you might know the basics or be an expert. It doesn’t matter what level of experience you have, working in a hostel will only make you a better traveller.

Why You Should Start Travel Life By Working In A Hostel

Wherever you plan to travel in the world, a hostel won’t be far away. With their locations all around the world and there need to be filled with staff, This could be the best job for a 1st time, long term traveller. Apart from the fact “It’s a way of earning money” there are many reasons why you should start your travel life working in a hostel, which is everything this article is about.

But if you don’t know what a hostel is, check out this article: Everything You Need To Know About Hostels (Backpackers) then read this.

Be Around Other Travelers

If you are planning to long term travel, as a solo or as a couple or a group, it’s always nice to meet new people. Especially when these people are like-minded.

There is a big chance before you head off on your trip that never truly experienced a travel-minded community. A lot of people you have spoken to before your big adventure seemed to be unsure and wary of what lies ahead. The Travel community is the opposite you go from being “the crazy person that wants to give up work, their house and their future for just a Holiday” in the eyes of your friends and family, to the “The newbie that thinks he is dreaming big but everyone and their nans have already been and completed that adventure”.

How you meet new people

If you have ever been to a hostel before you can find these are some of the most social places found on the planet. But not only will you be living in the hostel at times but you will meet people while working. You get to meet all kinds of different people, People that pass through and other times, people that call the hostel their home for a short period.

You can meet people all around the hostel, While you working or when you are off work and hanging out in the hostels like the other guests. Some of the best people you can meet in a hostel are other travellers just like yourself that work alongside you.

The benefits of meeting lots of travellers

The higher amount of other travellers you meet the higher odds your find someone that is looking at going to the same next destination as you and have the same likes and dislikes. The perfect companion for the next big trip.

Learn The Area Like A Local But See It As A Traveler

When you plan on staying in a brand new place but you have to work and promote the local area, you need to know there area as a local would, Ie how close the shops are, the best place for coffees and things to do when it’s raining. But you learn all these things as well as having the eyes of a traveller, unlike the actual locals that might overlook that beach that they see every day or the waterfall 5 minutes away. You get the best of both worlds, while you slip on the best coffee and you take in an amazing experience of the water crashing down on the rocks at the local waterfall.

You can truly experience a place when working there, you learn the balance of the touristy side of things in the area vs the hidden gems that the locals know. The little hidden gems might not be the reason that area is known for but could be the reason you remember it for, A little thing like the area is now the home of your favourite cafe in the world.

A great example of this was living in Australia, there was a fantastic beach, that’s a bit understated, this beach boasted having won the whitest sands in the world and was less than an hours drive from the area I was living in. Most of the locals had not even ventured out to go to this beach as they saw beaches every day. They never promoted this beach to me or mentioned it, the beach was beautiful and one of the best beaches I’ve seen to date. they didn’t mention the beach but they mentioned a local Go Karting to me, which isn’t something I would normally do but the go-karting is now one of the things I would do if I returned, to the area due to it being an experience.

Learn To Talk To Travelers

As a newbie traveller or someone that finds it hard making conversation with new people working in a hostel this forces you to break that cycle. You literally get paid to talk to travellers and the best thing is, you will get bored of asking the same generic questions

The Standard traveler questions

“Where you from?” “Where the favourite place you been too?” “Where you going?” “how long have you been here?”

These questions are the generic traveller questions which is a great place to start to get to know someone, minus the fact, it normally doesn’t lead to a further conversation but leads to bragging competition.

How working in hostel leads to better conversations

Imagine saying the same standard question to 20 plus people every day, you will bore yourself into actually learning to pay interest into people. But the real reason is the fact you will be interacting with travellers in every moment of your day, you learn quickly that travellers are not basic robots that can be asked a set number of questions that they are humans and have more hobbies than travelling and living.

You will end up making real friends!

You Have, Money, a Bed & A Place To Make Food

The best thing about starting travel life in a hostel is the fact your basic needs are met, it really leaves you more time to focus on the thing that truly matters, seeing your new local area (travelling).

The perks of a free bed in new area

The bed might not be exactly free but a lot cheaper, I paid £15 a week in Scotland where you would be paying twice that for a day in a dorm and free in Australia (actually that’s a lie I was paid to sleep there, I got a sleeper rate, which means I was paid to be on call)

It might seem like little perks but having a bed in a location that is brand new you have not only the local area to explore by foot but at least an hour radius by car or local transport easily. Which can be a lot of new areas to explore.

For Example, if you choose Manchester in England as your hostel location. You would have the whole city of Manchester to explore. Then within an Hour, Liverpool, Bolton, Preston, Warrington, Leeds, Sheffield, Macclesfield, Burley and the whole Peak District all within an hour

With everything being so close there are 2 main perks, One, cheaper travel. The second is the fact you don’t need to spend money on hotels as you can make things into day trips.

The perks of a place to make food

It’s a simple thing but having a place to make food is a massive saving for money, eating out can get expensive, if your moving from hotel to hotel or even hostel to hostel it can be hard to cook for yourself.

I would write a paragraph on the perks of having an income when travelling but that’s a bit self-explanatory

Plan Your Next Place

As I was saying above meeting people and talking to them will give you an idea of where to go next, But other than that you will get a feel of the area and or country so you can truly get a sense of where you want to go next.

For example for me, I worked in a Hostel in Crianlarich (Scotland) which is in the middle of nowhere and moved to Glasgow City (Scotland) afterwards as it seemed a very good move especially due to the friends I made in Scotland while working at the Hostel. The Other time I worked in a Hostel in Fremantle (Australia) then after I had a short trip to Bali as it was mentioned by all the other travellers as a must-see, and it was.

What I’m trying to say, having a bit of time in an area while working in one spot can help you plan out your next location or even your next big trip. Without having the pressure of running out of money, or boredom from not traveling.

Want to Know How I did it?

I did this when I started my Long-term travel life, I started in Crianlarich in Scotland which is an area that would be quite hard to stay in for the long term due to its remoteness. But this gave me a chance to learn a little bit more about Scotish culture as well as see some parts of Scotland that would have been a lot harder to visit if it wasn’t for the fact they were so close, Like Glencoe, Oban, Killin and Falls of Falloch.

Here is a playlist to watch to get to know a little more about why and how I travel

If you want to learn more about how I travel and plan to see the world then make sure you Subscribe to me on Youtube or Read my Travel Diary