Cheap accommodation for backpackers

Hostels are traditional backpacker accommodation, providing cheap beds in a communal atmosphere. Most have rooms with four to ten bunks each, kitchen facilities for individual use, showers, a common room with television, and clothes washers. Some have swimming pools, gardens, camping areas, game rooms, and other amenities.

Hostels belonging to Hostelling International usually enforce certain rules and standards. These include a midnight curfew and a mid-morning until late-afternoon lockout when all guests are required to leave the premises, although you can leave your stuffthere. (Many urban HI hostels now offer 24-hour access.) Simple chores such as emptying wastebaskets may be assigned. Non-HI hostels generally do not have a lockout period, and curfews are non-existent or flexible. Most hostels segregate guests by sex, but not all all the time.

Backpacker hotels are such a force in Australia and New Zealand that they are simply referred to as 'backpackers'. There are about thirty in Sydney, a dozen in Auckland, and every other city and town of size has at least one or two. While similar to hostels, they have no or looser lockout and curfew rules. Some guests really enjoy the atmosphere and stay for months while working, or looking for work. Some are large, older homes, while others are former regular hotels adapted to meet the new backpacker market.

Traditional bed-and-breakfast accommodation is common in Britain and Ireland. In Scarborough, England, I recall walking several streets where almost every house had a sign proclaiming vacancy. In seaside and other vacation towns bed-and-breakfast hotels are often clustered like this, so it can be relatively easy to find an available room.

Pensions are the rough equivalent to bed-and-breakfast hotels on the European continent. These small hotels have two to ten rooms, with usually shared bath facilities. Breakfast is provided, which is something of a social event as guests chat away. Many English patrons go to the same bed and breakfast at the same time every year, creating a family atmosphere.

Accommodation in private homes is also common in Eastern Europe and developing countries, where enterprising families trying to make ends meet take in guests on an informal basis. You maybe met at train stations by groups of older women holding signs declaring 'room' or 'zimmer' (German for room).

For every hostel in Europe there are four or five legal places to erect a tent, ranging from delightful municipal campgrounds in city parks, to gigantic caravan (RV) parks. Many small towns and villages, and nearly all medium-sized and larger towns, have a campground, usually within the city limits.

Norway, Sweden, and Finland have an 'Everyman's Right' law. This means campers are allowed one or two nights on private lands outside city limits as long as they stay out of sight and leave without a trace. Ireland, with its long tradition of tinkers (traveling menders), has many accommodating farmers if you ask permission. Many hostels have a lawn area where campers are allowed to set up at half-price, but with full use of all facilities.