Apart from camping or couchsurfing, cheapest generally will still be hostel beds (not hostel room). Shop around; some are cheaper than others in the same city.

Booking ahead depends on a lot of factors, such as: Is there a festival or conference or other big event going on at the time; is it a small town on a weekend; how likely are you to stick to your scheduled reservations; etc.

I like to have the first night booked for each place, and add more as needed.

Sometimes rooms in private homes can be better value than higher-priced hostels.

In France getting a 20 euro hostel is actually a pretty good deal. And I’ve learned this the hard way many times, book ASAP. I’ve stayed in some really crappy hostels on my current trip because I tried to book a day before. As long as I don’t have a train reservation to make I try to book as soon as possible. It’s not my preferred way to travel, but unless you are ok with staying in a hostel with a 60% rating in the middle of nowhere, then book at least a week in advance.

Hey, I am from the capital city of Ukraine -Kyiv, hostels are cheap but they are usually pretty booked . If youare about to come here I would suggest you Apartmentrental, cause its cheap and you will have a lot of space which will be all yours, private.

Here …. a hostel with rooms for small money in the middle of germany, in berlin..
Three little pigs Hostel
Its on a good place. from there you has a good origin. and you can beginning you day with a tasty breakfast!

When I was in Avila ( spain) I nearly had a nervou8s breakdown to find a place to stay. At last I found a nice and clean Hostel Don Diego in Avila, it was an incredible pleasure to stay there as people who work there helped me nearly with everything. They even helped me to find the ticket back home, which I thought was lost forever. One more thing about hostel is that you can stay in a bar almost all night and there is always somebody to talk to)

To piggy back this, what all is included in a typical hostel? Bed and shower obviously, is there free breakfast? DO most hostel have washer rooms for clothes? Did someone mention there are bars in hostels?

Thanks

For starters: check this Travel tip: http://www.eurotrip…. Read the description of the specific hostels you’re looking at carefully. On the hostel booking service on this site, there’s a check-list of what services are provided. That’s where you can find out about breakfast, laundry, if there’s a fee for bed linens, etc. Also read the description of the specific hostel carefully — when can you check in? 24 hour front desk? Lock-out hours? Is there a self-catering kitchen? Bar? Cafe? Breakfast available for a charge? Free breakfast? Plus any extras — tour arrangements, pub crawls, bicycle rentals, transportation (usually there’s a fee) to train station, airport, nearby sights.

Book direct. If you book direct — rather than going through a middleman, such as a hotel-booking website or the tourist information office’s room-finding service — the hotel doesn’t have to pay a cut to that intermediary. This might make the hotelier more open to giving you a deal. Great tips~!