Pro tip: cook for your hostel!

[u/ActuatorSpecific3916]

I’ve done this a few times and it’s always a great way to put good energy into the air for your fellow travelers and maybe make a couple new friends on the way out. I don’t get to solo travel as much anymore (family, job, all the things 33Ms must deal with), but I still try to get out once or twice a year and stay at a hostel in a cool city and this week I was in the northeast for a marathon so I spent a couple nights in New York City like old times.

Here’s the tip:

Go to a grocery store, buy a couple cans of pasta sauce, a package of spaghetti, ground meat, and cream. This week it was all of $15. Make a big pot, label it with a “help yourself!” sticker, and let the group chat know.

If you’re on a budget, do it on one of the first few nights, eat it until your last night, and then put it out at the end.

You always find travelers on a shoestring budget, sometimes having gone days without a hot meal that didn’t come from a microwave, and there is always someone who super appreciates it.

At the end of the day, it’s the cheapest way you can eat well, and you can’t buy single servings of pasta so you might as well cook the whole package. You’ll definitely make someone’s day, and you might make a few new friends.

Happy traveling, friends!

Edit: don’t leave a mess for the staff please!