Jun 16th, 2009 at 10:30AM:
Most people go on vacation to avoid work. But, as I discussed yesterday, many young people are going to Australia on Working Holiday visas and participating in Specified Work to extend their time in the country and put extra money in their pockets. One of the most popular forms of Specified Work is fruit picking. In Queensland, the fruit picking opportunities exist year-round because of the ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
hostel posts
Work and play in Queensland, Australia: Fruit Picking
Jun 16th, 2009 at 10:30AM:
Most people go on vacation to avoid work. But, as I discussed yesterday, many young people are going to Australia on Working Holiday visas and participating in Specified Work to extend their time in the country and put extra money in their pockets. One of the most popular forms of Specified Work is fruit picking. In Queensland, the fruit picking opportunities exist year-round because of the ...Work and play in Queensland, Australia
Jun 12th, 2009 at 2:00PM:
The mere mention of Australia typically steers a conversation in a few cliché directions. Most likely, the Sydney Opera House, koalas and kangaroos, the outback and/or Crocodile Dundee will be discussed. Sadly, for many Americans, those few snippets of Aussie culture (and bad American cinema) are all that is known about the land down under. But, for more and more young people from Europe ...Photo of the day 6.1.09
Jun 1st, 2009 at 7:00PM: I love this great shot shared by t3mujin, of a hostel in Estonia. I think the more predictable shot would have been to just take a photograph of the stained glass window; instead, t3mujin shoots down the hallway, showing the play of colour caused by the window -- which, really, when you think about it, is why we love stained glass in the first place. Lovely capture. If you've got some great ...Budget Travel: Why and how to hostel
Feb 18th, 2009 at 11:30AM: Call me crazy, but if I were ever given the option between staying in an expensive hotel, a mediocre one for half the price, or a hostel for one-tenth of the price, unless I were bedding down in a really hot guy, I would take the hostel any night of the week. The reason: hostels are the most affordable option, allowing you to spend more on what really matters - the experience of traveling and ...Hostel Trail: Latin America's hostel network
Jan 30th, 2009 at 12:30PM: I think long and hard about what kind of cool, helpful knowledge I might be able to share with Gadling readers, and sometimes the most obvious material escapes me. But it only took me a few months to realize I've been keeping my best tips to myself because I don't see them as suggestions, but rather as experiences. I stepped foot in the Hostel Trail guesthouse in Popayán, Colombia by ...Budget travel - Amsterdam
Jan 6th, 2009 at 11:30AM: Summary: Amsterdam may not be the first city to pop up on your wish list if you are looking for a budget destination, but the city has several great reasons to visit if you want to keep spending to a minimum. For starters, the city has one of the best public transit systems in the world, and you'll be close to a tram, bus, train or metro stop within walking distance almost anywhere in the city. ...Zero Star Hotel opens in Switzerland fallout shelter
Nov 20th, 2008 at 3:00PM: Oh, Switzerland. In a subterranean fallout shelter in Sevelen, Switzerland, the Null Stern Hotel, biliing itself as "The World's First Zero Star Hotel" is preparing to open its crappy, crappy doors. "Null stern" actually means "zero star," which is a little relieving. They're being clever, not insane. Normally, this is a cultural misunderstanding we have with Norway. Maybe we've misjudged ...A Cheap Place to Stay in NYC
Sep 29th, 2008 at 12:30PM: Unless you know someone in New York City well enough to crash on their sofa, chances are a huge portion of your Big Apple travel budget will go towards a hotel room. That is unless you don't mind sleeping with three strangers. Manhattan's Broadway Hostel offers a bed in a dorm-style room for under $40 per night. Booking before October 1st will earn you a $38 per night bill and a free cocktail. ...Spend the night in a Jumbo without leaving the ground
Sep 4th, 2008 at 5:30PM: In December, Stockholm airport will be home to the first Boeing 747 hostel in the world. This 747-200 was built in 1976 and is currently being converted into a 25 room hostel with 3 beds per room. Each room features a flat panel TV, wireless Internet access and a shared shower/toilet facility. The upper deck of this 747 has several more luxurious rooms with their own bathroom facility. For the ...From the New Europe: About skinning children and feeding the raw flesh to relatives...
Jun 24th, 2008 at 12:00PM: This week, I have had a few people ask me about this: What about the weird child abuse case in the Czech Republic? You know, the one where the mother skinned the children and fed their skin and flesh to relatives?
Um, what? I honestly stopped following this case a while ago. It got way too complicated right after I briefly mentioned the case here, when I told you about a Czech woman in her ...South Beach, as in "a backpacker-friendly destination"
May 14th, 2008 at 11:30AM: What do backpackers and South Beach have in common? Easy. They both love thongs. (Not bad, considering I am only on my first cup of coffee today, eh?)
There many many places that come to mind when a visualize a "backpacker destination." South Beach, Florida would not be on that list. Apparently, I am wrong.
This AP article talks about South Beach becoming increasingly more backpacker-friendly, ...Spain's first eco-friendly hostel to open in Barcelona
Feb 27th, 2008 at 9:20AM: While many of us may want to reduce our footprint while traveling, luxurious eco resorts with hefty price tags aren't always in our budgets. Treehugger helps the more budget conscious of us out with today's post about the new hostel Barcelona Urbany, which is attempting to combine eco-friendly with budget accommodation. The 13 story building, projected to hold 400 beds, is currently under ...Hostelling International Christmas bike trip around San Diego
Nov 5th, 2007 at 1:02PM: Speaking of hostels, the latest Travelbytes newsletter from Hostelling International recently appeared in my inbox, with news of a unique holiday bike trip. It turns out that for over 50 years, HI has been hosting a 400-mile Christmas Bike Trip around the greater San Diego area. So, if you're looking for something different to do this holiday season, consider ringing in the new year after an ...Across Northern Europe: Two to a bed in Bruges
Aug 21st, 2007 at 12:30PM: There are many ways to end up sleeping with someone in a hostel bed but this was a new one for me. Bruges, Belgium is a little city of 117,000 with about five million tourists on every cobblestone street so I was happy to find shelter at a hostel in the north part of town. My friend and I claimed beds in dorm room 10 and headed out for a long day of beer reconnaissance. Our exploration was as ...Chinese Buffet - Part 6: Hutong Hostel & Great Wall Hike
Aug 10th, 2007 at 8:21AM: Chinese Buffet is a month-long series that chronicles the travels of an American woman who visited China for the first time in July 2007.
For the last four nights of my stay in Beijing, I stayed at the Downtown Backpackers Accommodation, located smack dab in the middle of the Nanluogu Xiang hutong in the Dong Cheng district. As I walked down the alley towards the hostel, sweaty from lugging ...New Poets Hostel in Oporto, Portugal
Jun 29th, 2007 at 8:17AM:
The folks behind the very sleek and cozy Lisbon Poets Hostel have opened a new location in Oporto. It doesn't look like their website is up yet, but according to the email I received, they officially opened on June 15. (Good reviews are beginning to appear.) From the photos I've seen (click below to see more), the new Oporto location has been designed in the same artsy relaxed fashion as their ...Do people really die in hostels?
Jun 9th, 2007 at 1:13PM: With the release of Hostel II, I was wondering: do people really die in hostels? I'm sure there are isolated cases, but is it common enough to actually make this movie series somewhat believable? After all, the director, Eli Roth, and friend Quinton Tarantino claimed the idea for the original movie was "inspired by true events." They say the plot was born out of a Thai website they found which ...Do People Really Die in Hostels?
May 25th, 2007 at 5:12PM: With the release of Hostel II, I was wondering: do people really die in hostels? I'm sure there are isolated cases, but is it common enough to actually make this movie series somewhat believable? After all, the director, Eli Roth, and friend Quinton Tarantino claimed the idea for the original movie was "inspired by true events." They say the plot was born out of a Thai website they found which ...A Comprehensive, Research-free List of Hostel Etiquette
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:06AM: Leif Pettersen is a freelance writer, currently finishing up researching Tuscany for some guidebook series that he refers to only as "rhyming with 'Homely Janet'." If you're interested, he's provided numerous useful tips about Tuscany on his blog. Most notably, he found out (the hard way) that Italian men don't get much respect when they wear shorts. Recently, Leif wrote what he claims is a ...
