Hostelling International Calgary Travel Tips

Very crowded rooms and a terrible neighborhood. The Hostelling International hostel in Calgary, Alberta is the least expensive place to stay in Calgary as far as I know. I stayed there in July of 2009 and was fairly happy with the place, however some warnings need to be issued. I found the dorms to be total sardine cans and the neighborhood that the hostel was in was somewhat of a nightmare.

Canada, in my opinion, is becoming much more like the United States. In Canada now, there’s a lot more poverty, there’s a lot more suffering, and the cities are becoming more ghetto-like.

The hostel in Calgary is located in the worst part of the city, the east side of downtown, and there are homeless people everywhere. While most of them are pretty harmless for certain, some of them behave in intimidating manners. If you stay at this hostel and go out, you might need to factor in the price of a cab to arrive safely at the hostel on your return.

Otherwise you might nervously walk through this area with whole groups of people watching your footsteps and you might get insulted…..or worse. The police are well represented in this area and on one occasion they drove down the street that the hostel is on with a megaphone, encouraging the transients not to use drugs.

The hostel itself is fine and in a way it feels like an oasis: safety and facilities right in the middle of suffering. While you probably will not like the dorms because of how crowded they are, there is a nice kitchen at this hostel, there is a nice common area in the basement, and the wireless Internet signal worked the whole time I was there.

You had better be street smart however and you will know what I mean as soon as you arrive.

 

Photo Credit : Gorgo