Hostel acts as a hub for international visitors ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER
DOWNTOWN — In planning their travels around the world amid a six-month sabbatical, Dawn Stephens and Marc Docherty from Jolly Ol’ England needed to find an affordable place to stay for their stop in Santa Monica.
Easier said than done in an internationally famous city packed with beautiful, bourgeois hotels.
The pair came across Hostelling International [HI], a hostel offering travelers, many who are between the ages of 18-26, an inexpensive place to stay in one of the most desirable places in Santa Monica — on Second Street, two blocks from the beach.
“This is a great location,”Stephens said,while playing Scrabble with her friend in the game area of the downtown hostel.
Since 1990, the Los Angeles Council of Hostelling International, a non-profit organization that operates about 100 hostels in the United States, has offered travelers, young and old, a cheap place to stay and even more incentive to visit Santa Monica.
The hostel is the lodging of choice for young adults and college students who visit during school breaks in the winter and summer. Though the majority of visitors are young adults, a good number of guests also include families, school groups, scout troops and senior citizens.
HI is an international hub in Santa Monica. On any given day, conversations in Japanese, English and German can be heard in the communal kitchen where guests prepare their own meals, in the game room where guests battle it out with arcade games, and in the small theatre room where the travelers watch a free movie every night.
Most rooms have anywhere between six to eight bunk beds averaging about $26 a night for guests who have a membership with Hostelling International. The membership is free for guests under the age of 18, costs $28 for adults between the ages of 18-54, and is $18 for seniors over 55 years old.
Almost every room has its own bathroom, but each floor is equipped with separate men’s and women’s central bathrooms, reminiscent of a college dormitory. The hostel includes several common areas, such as a laundry room, television room, library and meeting room for travel seminars. Volunteers also hold Los Angeles and Santa Monica tours for guests.
Part of the first level of HI includes a full-size travel information store containing literature with the 411 on California and beyond.
Santa Monica was an attractive location for an HI because of its proximity to LAX, and access to many different bus lines, said John Estrada, executive director of the LA Council of Hostelling International.
“Most guests use the public transportation because they come from countries where they do have good public transportation,” Estrada said, explaining that its college dorm-like feel makes the hostel ideal for a person traveling by themselves.
Estrada spent much of his youth traveling across the world, staying in hostels where he created lifelong friends.
“When you’re traveling and staying in a hostel, you’re not alone,” Estrada said on Tuesday.“When you stay in a hotel or motel, you’re immediately isolated.
“These people become your friends.” That is part of the reason why Stephens and Docherty chose to stay in a hostel in Santa Monica. During their nine-week travels in the United States, which has included stops in Washington D.C., New York, Miami, St. Louis and Philadelphia, the two Brits have stayed with friends and family, and in hotels and motels.
“We do it for the social life; to interact with people,” Stephens said.
Travelers aren’t the only guests at Hostelling International. The hostel serves as a cheap place to stay for people in transition between homes.
Jennifer Rogers, 36, left New York about two weeks ago to relocate to the left coast. The former banquet server wanted out of the shivering cold east coast and felt California would be a perfect place to start a new life. She’s now thinking of becoming a secretary.
Staying in Santa Monica has allowed Rogers to explore West LA, Hollywood and, of course, Santa Monica Beach.
“I thought the hostel was a good starting place to try and find a job and find a place to live,” Rogers said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.