A discussion.
Hi Brimster,
I thought your blog was interesting.
I have a few months off work very shortly and would love to travel to SA. But I am in my early forties and you mentioned that you managed on approx £35 per day - which in my inexperienced travel mind is brilliant.
You stated that you stayed in hotels and I imagine that these are full of young people. My question is would I feel out of place in hostels (being in my forties)?
Reply to this Hi Andrea,
Thanks for your information, that has made me feel alot more optimistic.
I hope I'm not going off topic too much here (and get deleted), but if/when you get a chance, if you could mention a few hostels that in your opinion were reasonably sedate, that would be much appreciated.
I'm not 100% sure which countries let alone cities I should go to within SA just yet, but Rio and Beunos Aires and Puerto Iguazu are places I will definately visit and so if you know of any good hostels around these areas then that would be really good.
Reply to this Hi Mark
I stayed in the following hostels:
Rio - Mellow Yellow - this isn't my first choice of hostel and wouldn't think it was for you. If I was to return I would recommend that you stay in Ipanema as it is a lot nicer area but afraid I can' recommend a hostel
Foz do Iguassu - Hostel Natura - this is a hostel that is slightly out of the way and but just for the location and food it is more than worth a stay!!!
Puerto Iguazu - Puerto Canoas Hostel - this is a fantastic small place where you get individual rooms off a courtyard. The staff speak little English but are friendly enough and it is easy to access from the bus station.
Buenos Aires - Augur Hostel - this is slightly north of the centre but it is less than a 5 minute walk to the subway station and that accesses most areas of the city and costs $1.10pesos each journey regardless of the length of journey and if you change lines. When we were at the hostel it was quiet so ended up in a three bed dorm to ourselves for 6 nights.
One thing I would say is that if you are visiting the Iguassu falls and you have the time then do both the Brazilian and Argentinian side of the falls as you get different perspectives from each side however if you only have a day then the Argentinian side is definitely the side to visit.
Hope this helps.
Reply to this Hello Mark 😊
You stated that you stayed in hotels and I imagine that these are full of young people. My question is would I feel out of place in hostels (being in my forties)?
I am going to be 40 next month. I certainly have no problem staying in hostels. For sure there are lots of young people in them, but there are also older people. It is more a question of how much privacy and comfort you feel you need than how old you are. I have met people who are in their 70s in hostels.
Reply to this My friend and I often get our recommendations for hostels through a well known hostel booking site (can't put the link up as it will get snipped) and you can often tell so much about a hostel about peoples own comments about their stay.
If it is one of well known and fairly reputable ones used by many backpackers, such as HostelWorld you can put the link here. We are twitchy about SPAM because there is so much of it, but we try to differentiate between SPAM and reputable and useful recommendations.
Reply to this im 30..and i dont think early forties is old..i met loads of people in early forties late thirties in hostels and everyone normally mixes together and has a good time.. people are not that fussy about who they hang around with because everyone is in the same boat and everyone needs to meet people.
probably better off being in yoru forties as then you have that much more conversation to offer :-)
and for travel, i dont think there are any limits. i once met a guy in a hostel who was 67
Reply to this I think hostels are what you make of them. As I have said before there are good ones and bad ones and it is just a matter of hunting out the good ones by recommendation or other means..... I usually read the reviews with Hostelworld and more often HostelBookers.
So far this trip we haven't come across a bad one.
As Matt says most people are in the same boat and as you are often doing and visiting the same things you are always able to have some form of conversation with people.
Reply to this I think I will book a cheap hotel for the first 2 nights and then see what happens after that.
However, I do understand from what you are all saying, in as much as not only are hostels a very economical way to travel, but they are also an invaluable source of information and of course a way of meeting other similar travellers.
Reply to this ....invaluable source of information....
Indeed! And the people who run the hostels often know which are the honest and reliable tour guides and taxi drivers. It is safer to use the services advertised and offered by hostels than to try to figure out which of the others are reliable.
Reply to this I think the worst hostels are the filthy ones(This is very rare. They are usually at least clean enough) and the ones with lockouts and curfews. Thankfully lockouts and curfews are also becoming a lot more infrequent.
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