*or, how not to be “that person”
there have been a lot of posts out there lately about hostel etiquette and hostel safety, but i think that those two can be lumped together under general travel etiquette. after dealing with some rather rude/obnoxious/loud hostelmates over the years, and after talking with a few fellow travelers – girls and guys – i put together this list of fourteen ways you can be a considerate traveler – to both your fellow travelers and the environment.
on the go:
be prepared in lines. nothing irks me more than being stuck behind a traveler who waits until they are at the front of the line to rummage around and pull out their id and boarding pass. you’re wasting precious time! have your passport and boarding out. i’m already stressed at the airport, and i am always impatient. security lines in the states and around europe are the worst, honestly. and here’s another tip: put your liquids bag at the top of your bag, have your computer in an accessible pocket, wear slip on shoes, don’t put crap in your pockets until after security. basically, be organised and be prepared. everyone in line behind you will thank you. families with small children can be forgiven – sort of – for being slower than the rest of us but a 45 year old man should not take five bloody minutes to get ready to walk through the scanners.
don’t recline all the way back. this is a huge argument – people have been kicked off flights for arguing with the person in front of them. with the little space we are given on airplanes, it’s rude to recline all the way back. i recline just a little and i always sit back up when meals/snacks are served. airplane seats are notoriously jumpy so if you recline while i have a drink on my tray, it’s likely going to spill that drink into my lap (i have seen this happen) and i will not be a happy camper. be considerate and just tip back a little.
use headphones! and keep the volume to a reasonable level, please. i’m glad you really like that action movie/musician, but i don’t care for it. if you’re wearing headphones, i should not be able to hear your music! this applies to buses, planes, people in the backseat on road trips, etc.
don’t be an asshole. by this, i mean… respect the culture of the country you are in. don’t go around proclaiming – loudly – that everything is “wrong,” or “backwards,” or “people here just don’t get it,” or whatever else you want to whine about. hello, how rude. if you’re going to ignore the customs, as michener said, then go home and stay there. applies also to legal things. i once had dinner with a crowd from new york, who thought they were so entitled. they were horribly rude and snobbish to the server when she informed them that they could not “make it strong” because of the measuring filters on the liquor bottles. when one asked for a shot to pour into his drink, she said they couldn’t do that either. he treated her like it was her fault and complained about her, norwegian law, etc to the table while she was standing there. i could not believe it. i wanted to tell him off so badly… but the head of my company was at that dinner too. lesson: don’t be a rich/snobby/entitled jackass and then no one will write about you on her blog.
in hostels:
introduce yourself. hostels are fantastic places to make friends! but if you sit in a corner frowning at everyone that walks in, you will quickly be labelled. and not in a good way. also, names are a good way to avoid yelling out “hey you” at everyone in the room.
if you snore, request a private room. i’m sorry, but seriously. i got three hours of sleep before my seven hour tongariro crossing hike – one where i had to be awake at 5:30am in order to eat breakfast and catch the bus – because my roommate sounded like a freight train and even my headphones + pillow over my head did not drown him out. i understand that snoring is a medical condition and that private rooms are expensive, so maybe hostels can have “snoring rooms” where everyone is a snorer?
don’t leave your shit everywhere. the same person who shook the room with his snoring is also the one who chucked his 80 litre backpack on the floor just inside the door of the room when he arrived, so that when i walked in five minutes later, a) the door barely opened and b) when it did, i tripped over his bag while he lay on his bed like a fat sack of crap lazy ass uncaring soul. my first words to him were “your bag is in the way.”
also, take advantage of the lockers (and seriously – don’t stay in a hostel that doesn’t HAVE lockers) and keep your stuff organised. some hostels are finally putting chargers in the bunks and inside lockers so you can charge your phone or ipad while in bed or while it’s safely locked away.
respect other people – and their space. don’t hang your laundry to dry draped across every square inch of space in the room, don’t sit on the lower bunk if it isn’t yours, don’t keep a pile of dirty laundry in the corner (or the middle of the room,) don’t eat in bed (it will attract bugs and your roommates will hate you,) just … don’t. be nice. and respect your own space too.
don’t steal! i cannot stress enough this one. and it doesn’t just apply to nicking peoples stuff in the rooms, it applies to the kitchen too. backpackers are territorial with their food and sometimes that little bit of pasta is going to be their only meal for the next two days. it’s not yours, so don’t touch it. applies to food in fridges, food in cabinets, food with names on it, beer/wine (someone drank my *full* bottle of wine in a hostel in iceland… and it had my name on it,) shampoos/toiletries, phones, computers, ipads, books, and anything that is not yours.
observe quiet hours. many people in hostels are going to have early mornings. it’s a fact of travel: early buses, early hikes, early planes. yes, hostels are typically party places. but the party should not be in the bedroom (also see the next two tips.) hostels generally have quiet hours: they can vary from 10 or 11pm to 6 or 7am, and you would be a highly considerate traveler if you respected these guidelines.
in that same vein, if you have to leave the hostel at some ungodly hour (anywhere between 4 and 7am), please make sure your stuff is all packed up and ready to go the night before so you’re not making an awful racket or turning on all of the lights (that is not cool, not cool at all.) alternately, if you arrive late at night and people are asleep, do not turn the lights on and begin to unpack. use a little flashlight (pro tip: your iphone has one on it!) to pull out your necessary toiletries/clothes and tiptoe to the bathroom to get ready for bed. because, certainly, after a long day of travel you will go to bed right away, right?!
get a room. a private room, if you get my drift. if exhibitionism is your thing, then leave the curtains open, but for gods sake do not get it on in the same room with ten other people. just, gross. i do not want to see your white ass bumping and grinding, and i certainly don’t want to be rocked to sleep by you and your latest paramour in the bunk below me.
outdoors:
pack in, pack out. it’s the first rule of nature hiking: do not take in what you cannot take out with you. this applies to food stuff, trash, gear, and, yes, bathroom supplies. eco-friendly toilet paper would be a good thing to put on your packing list.
don’t play loud music. i might have mentioned the guys with the music on the tongariro trail? i was actually rather annoyed, and they were not the only people hiking to loud music. nature is nature, and if i’m out in the woods, i don’t want to be serenaded by one direction’s latest album or taylor swift’s new single (and i do love me some t-swizzle.) (<oh god, did i just say that?!)
don’t feed the animals. this one should go without saying, but don’t entice the animals to your campsite by feeding them. they are wild. by giving a wild animal access to human food, you are increasing their dependence on humans, which means they will begin to frequent other campsites (because, hey, “that one two legged thing gave me food, maybe this two legged thing will too,”) and over time this will upset the balance of the forest (or something like that.) this goes hand in hand with outdoor rule number one: pack *all* your foodstuff out so as to not leave anything for a wild animal to access.
thoughts? have you ever done any of these? have any more tips for travelers? share in the comments below!
you might also like:
travel tips: what to do before leaving for an international trip
how not to travel
what i’ve learned while traveling solo