I have a penchant for staying on friends’ couches and consider myself a 3-star hotel kinda gal, but my recent trip to New Orleans was all about traveling on a budget. The best way to do that is by staying in a hostel. With 23 countries under my belt, you’d think I’d be a hostel pro, but this was my first time ever! I stayed at a lovely, off the beaten path place called Auberge near the St. Charles streetcar. It was given really high ratings on all of the blogs I read, and at $26 a night, I jumped on it. (For comparison, some hotels rooms I found were $200/night).
The room I stayed in was an 8-person mixed dorm room, meaning both men and women shared the room. The room was never full but the inhabitants were certainly characters – a Brazilian man with a tan, 6-pack, and a nipple ring; a man in his 20s who slept often, always with his jeans on; and a female Floridian who smoked pot and claimed to be in NOLA to sightsee, but never made it past Bourbon Street. I met a girl from Japan, a few from Germany, and a couple from the UK, all of whom stayed in other rooms. Besides my room, there was a 6-person mixed dorm and all-female rooms, costing $30 and $33 a night respectively.
The only reason I chose the 8-person mixed was because I’m cheap (really, I just wanted to spend the extra $21 I was saving on yummy treats).
New City Life Adventure 