Accommodation

How We Chose Where to Stay: Hostels, Dorms and Private Rooms

Accommodation was one of the biggest daily decisions of the whole trip, and also one of the areas where travelling as a couple changed things the most. Here's how we actually made the call each time, and what we learned along the way.

Private Rooms Were Almost Always the Same Price as a Dorm

This is the single biggest thing that shaped our approach. As a couple, a private double room was, more often than not, roughly the same price as two dorm beds. Once we clocked that, it changed how we booked almost everywhere for the rest of the trip.

If you're travelling as two, it's worth checking the private room price before defaulting to dorms. In a lot of places, you're not actually paying a premium for privacy, you're just choosing it.

So Why Did We Ever Choose Dorms?

Given the price was often similar, dorms became a deliberate choice rather than a budget one. We picked them specifically when we wanted to socialise more, meet other travellers, or feel a bit more plugged into whatever was going on at that particular hostel.

Dorms are genuinely hit and miss. Some were brilliant, full of people doing the same route as us, easy conversations, good energy. Others were smelly, loud, or came with the low-level stress of having to keep an eye on your stuff. We got better over time at reading a hostel before committing to a dorm there, but it's always a bit of a gamble.

What we noticed is that the best way to meet people wasn't really the dorm itself, it was doing activities and excursions through the hostel or the local area. Group tours, day trips, and organised excursions were where we actually made most of our travel friendships, far more than just sharing a room with strangers.

The Booking Platforms We Actually Used

We used a mix of three platforms throughout the year: Booking.com, Hostelworld and Airbnb, each for slightly different reasons.

Booking.com was our weapon of choice for most of the trip. Their Genius loyalty programme rewards you with better discounts the more you book through them, so it's worth deciding early on which one of you is going to use their account for bookings, and sticking with it consistently to build up the discount level rather than splitting bookings across two accounts.

Hostelworld was useful specifically for hostels, particularly in destinations where it had better listings or reviews than Booking.com.

Airbnb became our go-to when we wanted a proper break from shared spaces. Having our own kitchen and bathroom for a few days, without the hostel routine of shared facilities, gave us a bit of home comfort in the middle of a long trip. We stayed in some genuinely lovely Airbnbs along the way, and mixing it in every few weeks made a real difference to how sustainable the whole year felt.

Budget vs Treat Yourself: Finding the Balance

Our accommodation choices fluctuated a fair bit, partly by design and partly dictated by what was actually available in a given place. But there was a pattern: after a stretch of a few weeks in more budget hostels, we'd often treat ourselves to a nicer stay somewhere, a proper hotel, a well-reviewed guesthouse, something with a bit more comfort than we'd had in a while.

It wasn't about spending more overall, it was about pacing. A nicer stay every few weeks made the budget stretches feel more sustainable, rather than trying to keep everything at the same low-cost level for a full year and burning out on it.

If there's one thing we'd tell other couples planning long-term travel, it's this: don't assume dorms are the default just because you're on a budget. Check the private room price first. More often than not, it's closer than you'd think, and the choice between socialising in a dorm or having your own space becomes a much more interesting one than a purely financial decision.