So if you know the Neon Cactus on a Thursday or Mickey Rats Beach Club on a hot summer night in Buffalo circa 1980, add multiple activities like a booze cruise that starts with the offer of three free drinks for woman who do the cliff diving naked (only two free drinks if a guy does it), then you'll understand the place where I'm staying right now.

I'm at The Pink Palace,  on Corfu, an island off the west coast of Greece, and it's not the country home in Italy where I spent my previous three weeks. But the price is amazing- 25 euros pp, which includes a semi-private room (sharing with travel buddy Katherine) with a private bathroom, an ample breakfast and a large dinner. And truly the beach is beautiful; the Ionian Sea is the perfect swimming temperature. The night club is soundproof so it's not a big bother.  And if I do decide to dance tonight at the Toga party, weeell, okay, the music's not too bad or if I want to keep my own clothes on I can always go down the street to one of the 'grown up' clubs.

I had actually booked a place into the sister business to this one- a hostel with similar promises but without the Spring Break-ness but when they picked us up at the airport (a whole mini bus of us)  they corralled us here to the Pink Palace instead. There wasn't  much of an explanation about why we weren't at the  other place other than "this is where we check you in for both places" but the kept shepherding us through their process with a Disney-ride-straight-into-the-giftshop efficiency, which included giving us a big sandwich and a shot of ouzo (pink, because you know- it is the Pink Palace.) Umm, okay. And since it was already 11pm and we were hungry it seemed nice enough for the next few days.

In the meantime, I deal with the occasional feeling of being inside a super large bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

But I want to give a thumbs-up to hostel travel in general. It's something I never did before last year and   I recommend it for budget travel in general but  especially for woman traveling solo in particular. I like that there's almost always a "common room" which is similar to a hotel lobby but people are much more likely to chat you up and share travel trips or their life story. There may be dorm-style rooms, with maybe five people sharing (men only, women only, or mixed) which keeps your stay super cheap, but I opt for private rooms (except in this case where I already know the person I'm traveling with.) They can be quite nice. Here's my room in Madrid:

Decent, right? It was $35 a night. The doors went out to a balcony over a pretty city square.  There was a sink in the room with a mirror, but the full bathroom was very modern, with a great shower and was out in the hallway and shared by a few rooms ( I never had to wait to use it tho.) Why is it that awful green color? I don't know. At least it isn't crazy bright pink.

You can find ratings and booking on sites like Hostelworld.com or Hostelbook.com.

What about you? Have you stayed in a hostel? How was it?

PS  I'll write a different post about my most often used travel accommodations: airbnb rooms or apartments. (And if you plan to sign up for that service let me know! We'll both get a $25 credit off a room. )