Lowest Priced US Youth Hostels: Travel Advice

This article focuses mostly on how to find cheap youth hostels in North America, but to develop my point more clearly I need to draw some comparisons between the USA and other major hosteling destinations. Here we go:

The travel infrastructure in South America is actually quite good. Chile has an extremely well developed network of youth hostels and pensions that make it extremely easy to travel all over the country cheaply.

My only experience before this had been Europe, which at that point I had assumed was the easiest, most backpacker-friendly continent on the world. So needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I came to Chile, kicked the tires and found that their hostel system is just as good as Europe's. The youth hostel scene really is international, and you might even go as far as to say that Chile's is better, because it's less crowded and there's much less hype than in Europe.

Anyway, when it came to the USA - my home country - I admit that I had my doubts. To be honest, I've never considered North America to be a backpacker's destination. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because I grew up there. But this Spring my boyfriend and I had the opportunity to backpack in the USA for a month and it blew me away. Like me he loves to travel, and like me he'd never traveled in North America. It was a first for both of us. Now I can see why so many internationals say that North America is just as fascinating a continent as Asia, South America or Australia. In a word: it's incredible.

But I have to say we could not have pulled it off with this guide to finding the lowest prices on youth hostel accommodations in the USA. Hands down, this site was a lifesaver. Because if you think Chile is pricey, then just try the States!