I'll be going to London from March 19 to March 24 and I'm having a hard time choosing a hostel because I have a very small budget and London is very expensive. There are a few hostels that are pretty cheap but when I read the reviews they sound horrible and I'm afraid staying in a place like that would ruin my stay. Location is also really important to me because I want to walk to all the sights most of he time. I've been thinking of staying at Palmers Lodge Hillspring because it's decently priced and looks very nice but I'm not sure about the location. What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

1. What's your budget
2. Have you looked at AirBnB?

A better approach might be to look at sites specifically for hostels that have ratings & reviews. Here's Hostel World with places available for your dates:

http://www.hostelworld.com/search?se..._to=2014-03-24

Also, better to understand the excellent transport system and use it than assume you can walk everywhere. London is huge. That also means you might find one with better reviews not quite in the center that would suit you better than what you've looked at already.

I'm trying to stay under 17 GBP a night but I've realized that it's a little unrealistic in London so I'm willing to budget more and yes I've used Airbnb before but I really want to stay in a hostel.

Thanks for the tip MmePerdu I'll check it out.

I think your budget is just too low unfortunately.

You are going to London, not Peoria - wanting to stay under £17 simply isn't realistic. Heck, I'd like to stay at the Ritz for $100 a night, but it ain't going to happen.

I'd also be very suspicious of an airbnb listing in that price range.

How much higher can you afford?

I looked at your other thread and note you are coming to Europe for three months. I hope you have a very large slush fund to cover your costs. £17 a night is really unrealistic. Have you researched and funded other costs like sites you want to see? Transit in towns? As an example here is the cost of transit in London http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/fares-2014/29089.aspx. What about food? A glass of wine or coke every now and then?

For example sharing a 4 bed dorm in St Christopher's for your dates at London bridge inn ranges from £20-28 a night. That goes up to £35 - 43 a night for a 2 bed room. I would not expect to pay less than this for safe clean shared accommodation in any major European city.

Any chance you can shorten the length of you trip so you can afford more per night?

First, you cannot be in walking distance of all the sites in London. Won't happen. London is the largest city in Western Europe, the contest isn't close - it's twice the size of Berlin and more than 2x the size of Paris, Rome and Madrid. Won't happen in Paris, Munich, Vienna, Rome, etc. either.

If you can only afford 17 quid per night in London, how in the h*ll are you going to afford Switzerland (the most expensive non-Scandinavian country in Western Europe) for nearly three weeks?

Is your budget similar (25E) for the rest of your destinations? If so, you need to reconfigure the trip because that price level in large cities will get you a flophouse.

These are legitimate issues - many of the cities you're contemplating are either larger than Toronto (Rome, Paris, London) or somewhat akin to Montreal (Munich, Vienna, Dublin) and I'm sure you wouldn't want to stay anywhere you could pay just $30/night in either of Canada's largest cities.

All that you guys are asking is irrelevent to my question, all I wanted was recommendations on a cheap hostel in a good location.

Have you thought of trying Couch Surfing or Hospitality Club? On occasion, usually because I'm looking for some good company, I've found free places to stay on Hospitality Club and have made some very good friends. I've never had a bad experience. It takes a bit of time to get verified so you can contact members so I suggest you join both and you'll have a large pool of free places to stay wherever you go.

http://www.hospitalityclub.org/
https://www.couchsurfing.org/

If you stay free with members part of the time you money will go further, you can up your budget on other occasions and stay in nicer paid accommodations.

Wow, rude much? Nice way to thank people for trying to help you out. Ah, I looked at your other post, your 18 - now it all makes sense. Well, I hope you have a Mommy or Daddy you can call to bail you out when you run out of money.

Check out St. Christopher's Village. My son and friends liked it.
I believe there are others in the St.Christopher group.

Correction- They stayed at St. Christopher's Inn in that group.

I planned on doing some couchsurfing MmePerdu but I've never heard of hospitality club thanks for the tip I'll check it out!

Hez I was not trying to be rude I just find it really irritating that half the people on this forum seem to sit in front of their computers waiting to put people down and make unfair assumptions. You assume that I'm ignorant and immature because I'm 18 but I would never talk to someone the way you just did to me. I don't want to argue with you sorry to offend.

Thank you Goldens I will check it out.

>>All that you guys are asking is irrelevent to my question, all I wanted was recommendations on a cheap hostel in a good location.<<

Not one person was rude to you. We are trying to explain your budget is not reasonable. The only rude person was you BTW. You may be irritated but you aren't willing to dialog - just complain that we aren't recommending all these wonderful 17quid hostels, in great locations no less . . . Because they don't exist

Honestly, if your budget is that low you are in for some serious problems. I (nicely) asked how much you CAN afford to pay, because then I figured we could recommend something at least close. But you get snippy - so good luck princess.

Alex, I'm sorry to see you go but I understand why you did. Made a getaway once myself here for the same reason.

I actually suggested st Christopher's above - they are above your £17 budget.

Enjoy your trip