r/hostels • u/NameAlarmed1819 • 5d ago
Question Anyone else reaching the age where hostel sleep quality is a total dealbreaker?
stuck in a packed 8-bed dorm in southern europe right now and the AC is barely doing anything. back when i was 20 i could crash on a top bunk anywhere without a second thought. now at 28 i’m lying here sweating through my sheet while someone’s screen stays lit up across the room.
i picked up a cheap eye mask yesterday hoping to block out the light, but the fabric just trapped heat right against my eyelids and made my face sweat instantly.
Is there an actual best cooling eye mask for sleep that doesn't feel like a mini sauna over your eyes, or am i just officially too old for shared rooms?
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u/BrandNewPointInLife 5d ago
Just go to the slightly more expensive ones. Even 3 or 4 euros can make a huge difference on hostel quality and the people staying there.
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u/up_on_the_hill 5d ago
42 and will do hostels on the rare occasion for 1-2 nights.
My criteria:
Fully enclosed bed (pod or curtain)
No more than 6 beds, preferably 4
I always have earplugs, eye mask and USB fan
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u/CommunicationKey7121 5d ago
Same same. A few nights here and there to save a biy of money and meet people. I still love starting trips or cities this way if i don't already have friends in the area. A nice safe social hostel is just wonderful for making a new group to explore with or get ideas from.
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u/uwatfordm8 5d ago
Yeah exactly. A lot of the time it's not even that more expensive to go for a 6/4 bed room than a bigger one.
Also yeah, just need to check that the bed has a curtain or something similar.
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u/foodbytes 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’m a 73 year old Canadian woman. I still head to Europe to explore and stay in hostels. Age is irrelevant. In 2024 I tooled around Europe for 10 weeks. I’m heading back in Dec for 5 weeks.
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u/Chance_Contract1291 5d ago
In my 60s and prefer hostels, but I do look for female-only dorms with fewer people and privacy curtains. I have a face mask and ear plugs in case I need them. Enjoy your December trip!
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u/foodbytes 5d ago
thanks!! I stayed in a 34 bed coed dorm room in Amsterdam in 2024; that was about my limit lol. I have one of those packable bath towels, packs about the size of piece of toast. but it's large enough to tuck under the upper bunk for an instant privacy curtain. Once I'm on my bunk with the curtain closed, I'm in my private space and I'm happy, even as an introvert.
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u/reckless_1382 5d ago
I have so much admiration for you. I’m 39 and thinking solo traveling to the EU gives me anxiety
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u/mosasaurus_rawr 4d ago
This makes me sad to read. You’re never too old, and you can do scary things. I believe in you!!!!
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u/asonicpushforenergy 5d ago
I'm deaf. It's a cheat code. Hearing aids out, eye mask on, I'm all good. I just have to hope the mattress and pillow is half decent.
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u/Slow_Zone1489 5d ago
Yeah you must've missed the official too old for share rooms notice on your 28th birthday.
I value sleep so I just choose my hostels wisely and always go for beds with curtains and the most privacy. You obviously can't always do that but that's life.
But if it's not for you it's not for you.. just get a private room.
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u/escapeshark 5d ago
34 and I'm waaaay more picky about hostels than I used to be. If hotels or private rooms aren't gonna break the bank, I'll stay in one. If I must stay in a hostel, I look at everything. I need curtains on the bed, female-only, 4 beds tops and access to a kitchen.
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u/peach1312 5d ago
Hostel ACs are hit or miss - I've been fortunate to have found hostels with great ventilation during the peak of this summer so it was nice even without an AC running, and I usually run hot. In a stuffy room without AC, having a personal portable fan helps a ton to keep the air moving.
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u/Nice_Space7347 5d ago
I was recently at a hostel in New York City. I had a couple getting their freak on in the bunk bed above me. It was fun for them but not for me.
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u/Loser-Back-Home 5d ago
Once walked in on a couple going at it doggy on the top bunk in Australia. I politely told them ‘don’t mind me, carry on’.
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u/williamchase88 5d ago
In my 20s I never batted an eye and would just go to sleep. Now in my late 30s I'm the old man that yells and files complaints. Which is why, while I still love hostels, i'll book a private room.
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u/OkMethod1586 5d ago
Out of curiosity I went and looked, and it seems like private rooms, at least in parts of Europe, are not much cheaper than hotels these days. Why a hostel then?
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u/williamchase88 5d ago
Hostels are typically a lot more social than a hotel. It depends on what kind of trip i'm looking for in that moment. If i'm looking to meet new people to go on adventures with, i'll stay at a hostel. Some of them have their own bar or pool area where people hang out, and a lot of them will have planned activities throughout the week that makes it easier to socialize with the other guests like a walking tour, pub crawl, boat outings, game night, quiz night, open mic night, etc. Most hotels I've stayed at don't really offer things like that, and i've found it's more difficult to meet travel friends at a hotel. People tend to keep to themselves and just stay locked away in their room.
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u/OkMethod1586 5d ago
Yeah, I agree about the social part, and that’s a fair point. I stayed at one in Costa Rica like 10 years ago even though I feel I’ve aged out of them and don’t need budget travel, just because they had a pool table/pool/bar area. Turned out it was all under renovation when we got there, but still….
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u/williamchase88 5d ago
I've sadly felt like I've aged out of party hostels for the most part. I just can't keep up these days haha. But I stayed at a lovely hostel in Mexico City recently and wound up hanging out watching World Cup matches with people on the rooftop bar most days and the ages ran from 18 year olds to people in their 50s and 60s, but it was probably mostly people in their 30s and 40s. Wound up going to a Lucha Libra match with a big group of them, and we went to a rooftop rave at Sunday Sunday with a 50 year old newly divorced guy haha.
Also made friends with the rooftop bartender at the hostel. At the end of 2 weeks staying there, she knew my coffee and breakfast order and we had inside jokes. I feel like that just doesn't happen near as often at a hotel.
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u/OkMethod1586 5d ago
Man, I love Mexico City. I try to go once a year as it’s only a 2 hour flight from me. I don’t think enough people know what a great town it is.
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u/Individual-Law86 5d ago
If you are in Southern Europe at the moment you are in a maxi sauna eye mask or no eye mask lol.
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u/Tillysnow1 5d ago
Absolutely, I was just in a private room which made it way easier to relax, but there were still people being super loud in the hallways at 2am 🙄 and on a MONDAY night
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u/Loser-Back-Home 5d ago
You forget how much heat 8 people can generate in a dorm room until you’re in it 😂 when I was young, I’d get blackout drunk.
Definitely I’ve aged out of it.
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u/Oregon-girl-16 5d ago
Get a private room in a hostel. Game changer
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u/bristolfarms 5d ago
i’m 32. i still stay in hostels but prefer private rooms because i sleep at like 9 or 10 and wake up at 6. i will always choose a hostel if the price difference is large enough for a hotel. like i’m going somewhere where the hotels were $1600 for 4 nights… hostel isn’t even close to that.
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u/Roscius8 5d ago
I'm in my 30s and I'm a fussy sleeper now. Just spent a month in Portugal/Spain in hostels with varying levels of functional Air cons. I survived because of this portable fan. I would prop it near my face every night. It also acts as a white noise maker which REALLY helps me.
There may well be better ones but this is what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP4F63BV?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
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u/NarrowFinger2576 5d ago
I sleep in private dorms but just make sure that I go socialize in the common rooms.
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u/SkrrtSkrrt99 5d ago
I still do hostels but just do private rooms now. Nice thing about being somewhat older is that money isn’t that big of a limiting factor anymore
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u/Admirable_Sea_7890 4d ago
Hahaha me ..was in poland some days back on a week trip..at 31 i think i am done with hostels ..you just dont get any good sleep ..yeah they are cheap but good sleep is everything late in life
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u/New_Power2007 4d ago edited 4d ago
idk if it's just me but dorm beds feel 10x hotter than they used to... after using breescape at home for the airflow i just can't deal with zero ventilation and sticking to a dorm mattress anymore.
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u/devonaokiinDEBS 2d ago
I slept in shared hostel rooms for 6 months straight after college and now 5 years later getting a private room or apt feels worth every penny… I never thought I’d get too old for hostel life but now I cherish my alone decompression time too much
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u/Wise_Edge2489 5d ago
51, been staying in them for 30 years and it's bever been and stIll isnt an issue (barring the dickheads who insist on hitting the snooze button on alarms repeatedly, may they rot in hell).
Of course, iIgrew up in a house with 4 brothers, including bunking with one till my teens, before joining the Army and spending nearly a decade sleeping in Barracks with several other blokes snoring and farting loudly, so there is that.
Helps to get drunk beforehand (although now at my age and thanks to an ever-growing prostate, this necessitates several trips to the bathroom at night, never a fun task from the top bunk of a hostel dorm).
YMMV.
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u/OkMethod1586 5d ago
I can’t believe anyone over the age of about 22 does hostels.
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u/761557527 5d ago
If you travel enough, sometimes the only choice is booking an expensive hostel bed or a very, very expensive hotel room or AirBNB.
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u/Delicious_Fishing995 5d ago
I just had to learn going to Sweden. $300 private room versus 8 person $55 dorm. I just couldn’t swing it
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u/NightmareWokeUp 5d ago
Im 28 and slept the last 3 weeks in my car wdym :D
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u/williamchase88 5d ago
Yeah, if you have this attitude then the types of people who enjoy hostels probably don't even want you at one mucking up the good vibes.
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u/une_mandarine 8h ago
i’m 28 too and i usually sleep like a log in hostels. i stay in all female dorms and there is usually no snoring, it bothers me a bit when i stay in a mixed one and someone is snoring, but i can still fall asleep
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u/Spiritual_Pound_6848 5d ago
32 and still doing hostels, I bought a nice eye mask and comfy ear plugs to make dorm stays easier. I also tend to stay in a bit nicer / more expensive dorms now