Top Five Backpacker Sleeps - Europe

Today I start a series of tips on backpacking accommodation across the world. I will look at different regions of the world and talk a little about the best places I have stayed - mind you they will all be budget options! They certainly won't be four or five star hotels, but instead hostels and budget digs I have personally stayed at in my travels. Where possible,  I will give a link to the place, and talk about why I liked it so much.
Hostels and backpacking accommodation is a real adventure, you never quite know what you're going to get (a little like a box of chocolates). You can be surprised by how brilliant a place is, or dismayed that you paid twenty pounds for a bed-bug riddled bed in a massive dorm that smelt exclusively of feet. So perhaps there will be a follow-up worst of at the end of the best ofs! We will see.
Please remember that I am only comparing places to other places, in the same region, that I stayed in.

Regions I am going to cover:
Europe
Africa
North America
Japan
South-East Asia
Indian subcontinent & Iran
Central Asia & China

Today I start with Europe, because it seemed the easiest to get my head around. For my tips on getting started backpacking, plus tips on hostels and hostel stories, please check out my ebook : Backpacking Basics.

Honourable Mention: Vienna City Hostel, Vienna, Austria. Great bar, good rooms! 

5. Pretty much all hostels in Iceland

The Hostelling International chain have many hostels through Iceland and they are all, at least the few I stayed in and I have every reason to believe that most are the same, superb. They are spotlessly clean, generally the rooms don't have 100 dorm beds but more like four, and they usually have a great kitchen to use for self-catering. If you are headed to Iceland there is no reason to fork out for a hotel, the hostels have all you need!


4. Hostel Mostel, Sofia, Bulgaria

When approaching Sofia from Plovdiv, I had someone recommend this hostel to me. The name put me off straight away, it sounded... well ridiculous. But it was the only recommendation I had, it was a new hostel at the time and the price was right at less than 10 Euro a night.
Well, it was a great place with a friendly and chatty owner. It was clean and the breakfast was excellent with a wide selection of meats, breads and cheeses. Full of information about Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria as well. When I was there a Russianb Aerobics team was also staying there. So it was a memorable stay.
Hostel Mostel does seem to have moved location, however I am seeing that reviews are still extremely positive for this one and the new building looks better than the original!


3. Ace York Backpackers, York, England

In the north of England, York is a brilliant town with amazing architecture and streets, and the quaintest and fondest museum to Richard the Third. Ace York Backpackers is housed in a big building, the dorm rooms are big but airy thankfully, the kitchen could be a little bigger but there is a great bar and on the basement floor there are several excellent rooms for recreation including a great TV room. They have movie nights as well. The bar is the perfect place to meet people as well and is very well appointed. It's relaxed there and there's plenty of room over the various floors. The building itself, I think, is of historical importance and is very regal with real character. A great place to stay.


2. The Riverhouse, Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff is an incredibly underrated city to visit as a traveller. This hostel was well positioned near the river, spotlessly clean, relaxed, great common areas and an excellent kitchen too. Friendly people around every night, TV and dining room, outdoor area to chill and relax, small dorm rooms (I stayed in one with four beds) that were kept clean. It looked modern, very comfortable. Highly recommend this place. Lots of books to look through as well. They also do a mean breakfast.

My e-writings on Bulgaria - Dhaka to Dakar Chapter Seven: Bulgaria

1. Retro Hostel, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

This hostel was without a doubt the friendliest I have been to. I met great people here that I am still in touch with and Cluj itself is actually a really nice city, well positioned for day-trips and jumping off points to nearby areas and such.
The breakfast was the BEST hostel breakfast I have ever had (just beating out Hostel Mostel), the same sort of deal but also cereal as well, and you eat it in the cellar! Yes the building has a cellar! Very atmospheric. Any info needed the staff bent over backwards to help. Exemplary stuff. I was in a 10 or 12 bed dorm on the top floor yet had good nights' sleeps there. I will always remember my stay from ten years ago now at 'Retro Hostel'.

My e-writings on Romania: Dhaka to Dakar Chapter 8: Romania

Also, including Romania and Bulgaria (the chapters linked above) and more, the second book:

Dhaka to Dakar Book 2: Europe

Top Ten Countries - Number 7: The United Kingdom

So I lied. I changed the order just a little silly me! Had a rethink during the week about which was next, and I am returning to Europe – but not the mainland! The country I am talking about is not really a country – it’s three! England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, it’s the United Kingdom. Or Great Britain. Or just Britain. Or the United Kingdom OF Great Britain if you like. Nevertheless, I’ve been there three times now. Or is it four?

Sylvester McCoy and I.

When I was young, I really wanted to visited the UK, and I had a very very good reason for that – it was the home of the most awesomest television programme in the entire world – Doctor Who. In 2011 I managed to actually meet a whole host of stars when I visited from the show, including Sylvester McCoy, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Richard Franklin, the amazing Colin Baker, the lovely Sophie Aldred and the charming and incredibly friendly Sarah Sutton, who I met twice!

with Sophie Aldred

For the Doctor Who fan London has it all. Locations of so many episodes obviously, ‘The Who Shop’ for absolutely every piece of Who-merchandise you could dream of, and if you go to Earl’s Court you’ll even find a police box. But the UK has so much more as well.

Big Ben

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

London gives you the recreated but just as brilliant (well, I didn’t time travel so I’m guessing) Globe Theatre, home to Shakespeare’s plays – oh and where they shot the episode ‘The Shakespeare Code’ of the aforementioned show J. The Tower Bridge is a stunning piece of architecture, St Paul’s Cathedral is grand and big and everything you want in a cathedral, there’s Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the experience of taking the tube (where the 1967 episode ‘The Web of Fear’ was… ok sorry!). There’s Oxford street for all

your shopping, there’s Buckingham Palace for a glimpse of her majesty the Queen, Hyde Park and lots of others, impressive stations such as King’s Cross, London is really the complete city in my book. It’s one of my favourite cities on the planet.

Inside York Minster

I loved York. The town is so atmospheric, there’s city walls to walk around, the stunning York Minster, and for train buff’s a brilliant train museum. The cobbled streets are brilliant too as is the town’s love for Richard the Third, there’s even a rather eccentric little museum.

Gorgeous York building.

Oxford is just as brilliant with its Universities and its buzz. Visit the universities, the churches, feel the student vibe, it’s great. Bristol on the other side of the country I equally loved.

Inside a University in Oxford.

But around the place there are surprises and so much more to see. The countryside is beautiful, and you find surprises like Cardiff – a really lovely city (DW Experience anyone… ooops sorry again). But Cardiff was a real highlight of my 2011 trip. Buzzing, wonderful place. Day trips to castles. Well, it has its own, quite impressive castle too.

Cardiff Bay

Head north to Scotland, I visited Glasgow (scene of the tragic helicopter crash this weekend). Actually a great city with nice pubs and a young vibe. But then you have Edinburgh. With an amazing castle overlooking the place, is there a better place for arts and drama and comedy in Europe? These two places typify why the UK is so awesome – the vibe of the place. The pubs, the streets, wherever you go in the UK something is on. Something is happening. And there are still a list of things I haven’t seen there that I want to, starting with Stone Henge. In that rough area of the island, I visited the Glastonbury festival in 1999. Yes I was much younger, but that was a blast too. Maybe I am too old for it these days.

So. Today’s blog was a bit of a mish mash of 100 thoughts. Sorry about that. I also have no kindle writings concerning the UK. The closest is my Dhaka to Dakar on Europe, but again, NO UK in there. Closest I get is Germany.

Dhaka to Dakar: Book Two – Europe

So we have –

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

What will be number six?