Tips For Surviving As A Couple In Hostels
Staying in private hotel rooms is always preferable when travelling as a couple. When going on a 2-week holiday, this can be managed with ease. But what about when you’re travelling long-term?
If you’re planning a six-month backpacking adventure in Southeast Asia, it will be difficult to budget for 180 nights worth of private hotel rooms.
Instead, you’ll have to opt for quite a few nights in shared hostel accommodation.
How do you best navigate hostel dorms as a couple? What are the best tips and tricks for surviving in shared rooms with your partner?
Well, in this guide, we are going to walk you through some of the things we have learned to make the experience of sharing a hostel room as a couple as easy and as stress-free as possible.
Disclaimer - This blog post contains affiliate links where we earn a commission if you make a purchase through them (at no extra cost to you).
Useful Travel Resources For Planning Your Trip As A Couple
- 🏠 Book your perfect stay with HostelWorld
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- 🚘 Hire a car for more comfort via Rentalcars
- ✈️ Buy cheap flight tickets and earn cashback with every purchase on WayAway
- 🎲 Buy some of the Best Travel Games For Couples to take with you on your trip
Can couples stay in hostels?
Firstly, we will answer a question that we get asked all of the time - can you stay in a hostel as a couple? Of course, you can!
People think there is some unwritten rule that if you are a couple, you should automatically book a private room, but this really isn’t the case. Staying in a shared hostel room as a couple can be great for meeting new people while on the road and helps to reduce those pricey hotel costs, too.
Hostels aren’t always suitable for couples, but we promise they can be great if you follow these handy tips for staying in hostels. Whether you want to stay in a hostel for a weekend getaway or whether it’s the best option for you during an around-the-world backpacking adventure during your couples gap year, these tips are going to go a long way.
Can couples stay in the same hostel bed?
Generally, we don’t recommend sharing a hostel bed as a couple. If you book a private room, of course, this is fine, but two people in the same bed in a hostel dorm room put other hostellers in an awkward position.
While some hostels will allow two people to share a bed as a cost-saving measure, we generally recommend booking 2 separate beds as a couple in hostel dorm rooms.
Our number one tip - always book with Hostelworld for the cheapest rates
We have stayed in a lot of different hostels on 6 different continents around the world, and we can assure you that for the best and cheapest rates, you should always use Hostelworld - you can compare hundreds of different hostels for wherever you are planning to visit and read reviews from other like-minded travellers to guarantee peace of mind before you choose where you want to lay your head for the night.
Use a Towel for privacy
This is a well-known and popular tip for seasoned hostel dwellers, but it can definitely come in handy when you’re staying as a couple.
Placing a towel underneath the top mattress of a bunk bed and letting it hang down to the side creates a sense of privacy that is hard to replicate in a 16-bed hostel dorm.
The towel essentially creates a wall between you and the rest of the room so you can lie on your bed in peace. The great thing about hostel rooms is the chance to mix and socialise with new people, but for those times when you just need a bit of quiet, the towel becomes your best friend.
It’s particularly great for couples when you want a moment to yourselves to catch up or watch a movie together. The towel acts as an informal version of a ‘do not disturb’ sign.
A brand new set of microfibre towels is one of those great gifts for couples that travel not only because they dry easily and quickly but also because they can be used in situations like this in hostels.
Colourful hostel in the centre of Bogota, Colombia
Are you a budget-conscious travel couple? Then you will find our tips for saving money on flights as a couple very useful!
Always ask for the top and bottom bunk of the same hostel bed
Asking to stay in the same bunk bed can alleviate some of the annoyances people are all too familiar with in hostel rooms.
There’s nothing worse than having a really annoying hostel stayer sleeping in the bunk above you. Constantly getting up and down throughout the night, vigorously shaking the bed as they clamber down the steps to go to the bathroom.
If the person above is your partner, you’ll be able to rest a lot easier and get a much better night's sleep.
Another added benefit of always asking for 2 beds in the same bunk is that when one of you invariably drops something from the top bunk, or leaves something on the floor by the bed, the one on the bottom can easily grab it without disturbing anyone else in the room.
Hostel Room, Rotterdam
One of you can stand guard at the hostel room door while the other gets changed
If you’ve ever stayed in a hostel room before, you’ll know how tricky it is to get changed discreetly.
The awkward ‘trying to get changed under the sheets without making too much noise so I don’t draw any attention to myself’ tactic is undoubtedly a hard task to master.
Let alone the dreaded ‘walking across the room with only a towel wrapped around me because I stupidly left my clean clothes on my bed’ conundrum.
Another common situation in shared hostel rooms is the ‘quickly trying to change while everybody is out of the room, only to hear the latch of the door turning just as you are down to your underwear’ scenario.
Book hostel rooms that have curtains
Honestly, this tip for surviving as a couple in hostels is not too well-known but can change the way you view staying in hostels together as a couple.
Lots of hostels nowadays feature curtains on their beds, which, when closed, create the sense of having your own private mini room. This is such a welcome relief when you are travelling long-term as a couple. It gives you the chance to close the curtain for privacy, whether it’s for a quick chat before bed or to watch a movie together in peace.
Don’t be expecting all your hostels to look like this…
None of these situations are pretty for you or the other people staying in the hostel room.
Thankfully, when you stay in a hostel room as a couple, you can sometimes avoid such embarrassing situations. Provided there is no one else in the room, of course, while one of you is getting changed, the other can stand by the door and make sure nobody else can walk in unexpectedly.
One can even wait in the hostel room, looking after all the valuables you’ve travelled with, while the other goes down the hall to find a bathroom to get changed in.
Staying in a hostel room as a couple can sometimes be challenging, but there are times when it certainly comes in handy.
Download plenty of movies on Netflix
If you’re going to be spending quite a few nights in a row in shared accommodation rooms, then you are invariably going to want some nights to relax. For this, it’s important to download some movies from Netflix.
Watching a movie on the bed is a harmless way to hang out and relax together while in a hostel room. You can both put your headphones in and for a brief period, it will feel as though you have the room just to yourselves.
Incidentally, Netflix is one of our 27 best apps to use when travelling.
Most nights when you’re staying in a hostel room, after a busy day of sightseeing, you’ll be perfectly happy to say goodnight to each other and climb into your separate beds. For those nights where you want to hang out for a little bit longer, though, Netflix will be your best option.
Netflix is essential for surviving hostels as a couple
Invest in Headphone Splitters
Headphone splitters are definitely going to come in handy when you’re sharing a dorm room as a couple.
Instead of fumbling around over one pair of headphones, headphone splitters allow you both to use a separate pair of headphones while listening to the same thing.
When you’re staying in a hostel room with 12 other people, it can sometimes get quite loud. Only having one headphone in means you will be constantly distracted by everybody else in the room.
With headphone splitters, you can happily drown out the noise of the room and watch your movie together in peace.
Transfer all your valuables into one backpack
When staying in a hostel room by yourself, it is common to take all your valuables with you when you’re out exploring for the day. Obviously, you want to take good care of them and don’t want them to get lost or stolen.
When you’re staying in a shared hostel room as a couple, taking your valuables with you will be the same. The difference is that there are two of you to share the load.
You have the luxury, as a couple, to transfer all your valuables that you don’t want to leave behind into one backpack and then throughout the day, you can swap who carries it around.
Handy, little tips like this make it much simpler when you’re trying to survive your next trip as a couple.
All of our things in one backpack
Bring some games with you
Hostels are a brilliant place to meet new people and fellow travellers from all around the world. The only trouble when you’re travelling as a couple is sometimes you forget to make the effort to meet new people.
On the one hand, it’s great to travel as a couple because you already have somebody to hang out with and share your memories with. On the other hand, it’s easy to get into a routine of hanging out together and missing out on the many great experiences that come with meeting new people on the road.
An easy way to get around this is to bring some great travel games for couples while you travel. It can be quite intimidating to wander up to somebody in a hostel and start a conversation, but inviting them over to play a game of cards can be an easy ice-breaker.
Playing a game with people in the hostel room that you are sharing is an easy way for everybody to get to know each other and makes the whole experience of shared hostel rooms much more manageable.
Travel Games act as great ice-breakers
What about intimacy?
Just don’t do it.
It seems every traveller from around the world has a horror story involving two people getting far too confident in a hostel room while everybody else was trying to sleep. Please don’t be the two people in such a story.
If you can’t hack a couple of nights without being in each other’s grasp, then perhaps you should choose the private hotel room option after all.
If you can’t hack the lack of intimacy, then maybe you should get a private room
There we have it, folks, our best tips for surviving in shared hostel rooms as a couple. We can’t all have the luxury of a private double room for every night while we’re on the road, but we hope these tips and tricks help you out for your next hostel stay.
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