My Love-Hate Relationship With Hostels

Fellow Bristolian and lovely editor of Bristolian Backpacker, Mitchell Labiak, shares his love-hate relationship with hostels.  Hostels are the bread and butter of backpacking. Staying in a hostel as opposed to a hotel is the difference between telling people you are “going travelling” and telling people you are “going on holiday”. At the best of times, they are cheap, friendly, and helpful places where you can meet other travellers, feel somewhat at home, and save money on your trip. And at the worst of times? To paraphrase Tolstoy, “All good hostels are alike; each shit hostel is shit in its own way.” …

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My Love-Hate Relationship With Starbucks

A Starbucks in Guangzhou, China

Following on from my Love-Hate Relationship with Lonely Planet, the lovely Mitch (AKA The Ambling Bristolian) has written about another thing we have a love-hate relationship with while travelling… Starbucks. The first time I went to Starbucks, I was 17 years old (it was one of those dates that wasn’t actually a date but I really wished it was a date) and I was told to order a chocolate coffee milkshake sort of thing. You know the one I mean. Anyway, I loved it (because I was 17 and my taste buds were about as sensitive as Donald Trump’s sense …

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