The Best Hostel Food Around the World

Tapas at the Oasis Granada Hostel – Lisbon, Portugal

Our friends at The Daily Meal love to keep us informed on the best of the best when it comes to food around the world. This time, they’ve done a great 20 best hostels around the world for food (since we know hostels can get a bad rap, and most of the time, that reputation isn’t unfounded). If a hostel serves any food at all, the best most backpackers can expect to find is some cheap white bread and bad coffee. For many travelers, this lack of decent food is hardly a point of contention. After all, eating pricey gourmet meals often isn’t an option for those traveling on a budget, and as long as the hostel is well located, safe, and free of bedbug sightings, what more could a backpacker ask for? A lot more, apparently, according to recent research.

Plus Berlin All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

A hostel meal will likely never reach the ranks of Michelin-starred dining or compare to the breakfast buffet at the St. Regis. However, some establishments are offering culinary delights such as barbecue, ceviche, poutine, and a burger that even the locals clamor over, and these are just a sampling of some of the excellent dishes found in hostel dining rooms around the world.  

Ceviche at La Hamaca Hostel – San Pedro Sula, Honduras

For a minimal fee, guests at PLUS Berlin Hostel can enjoy an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and dinner in the hostel restaurant.  The restaurant’s manager, Diego, is Italian and takes pride in the quality of the food. Options range from pizza and pasta dishes to German specialties. The hostel’s well-stocked bar also serves cocktails to get you ready for a night exploring the neighborhood’s nightclubs.

The Green Tortoise – San Francisco, CA

So what makes a hostel’s food stand above the fray? “Food is part of the cultural experience you get when you visit a foreign country,” explains Andres Poveda Solano, co-owner of Hostel Pangea in Costa Rica, while Green Tortoise Hostel in San Francisco provides hearty and healthy free breakfast every day of organic oatmeal and fresh fruit, and free dinner three times per week including dishes like pasta primavera and Thai curry.

The Menaggio Youth Hostel’s Cooking Classes – Lake Como, Italy

Good food at a hostel enhances the backpacker’s experience. One of the charms of staying in a hostel is the opportunity it offers to meet people from all over the world, and for these hostels, the dining room is one place where the magic happens. Whether you’re enjoying a hearty breakfast on a terrace overlooking the scenic French countryside or participating in a free tour with fellow travelers of a Spanish city’s tapas bars, the food at these top 20 hostels will create memories you won’t quickly forget.

The 20 Best Hotels Around the World For Food

What hostels have you stayed in that had great food?

By Michelle Kiefer

Wild Ponies, A Michelin-Starred Chef, and Berlin, Baby!

Das Stue’s Indoor Swimming Pool

Nothing surprises me anymore… until I hear about a hotel in Berlin where it’s not unusual to see ostriches, gazelles, and wild ponies from your hotel room.

Yes, the view from Das Stue offers just that. As you can see from the photos, this is no budget house ‘o beds. You’re looking at a 5-star design savvy property with free WiFi (Thank you, Hospitality Gods!), a solarium, sauna, spa, and, that right there, is an indoor swimming pool. While Axthelm Architekten revitalized the historic building (once home to the Danish Embassy), the interior design and artistic direction of the public spaces were realized by Patricia Urquiola, the acclaimed Spanish architect and designer famous for her sleek comfortable design. Based on Urquiola’s concept, LVG Arquitectura S.L.P. designed the hotel’s 80 rooms and suites.

Chef Paco Perez

Located next to Berlin’s Kurfurstendamm shopping street, you’re also about a mile or two from Zoologischer Garten Train and Subway Station, The Kulturforum Culture Centre (home to the Berlin Philarharmonic and Neue Nationalgalerie Museum), and the Berlin Central Train Station can be reached from the hotel in a 10-minute drive.

With all the usual luxe amenities befitting a sexy Design Hotel, you have iPod/iPhone docking stations, satellite TV, and bathrooms with rain showers. Some rooms also have a balcony or terrace…  and did we mention the hotel’s Michelin-starred Catalan chef’s “5-cinco by Paco Perez” restaurant? Creations include the likes of Morel Mushrooms à la Crème with Foie-Ice Powder, where the bold musky taste of morels are paired with chilled powdered fois gras. Yes, this is real life (it just feels like fantasy).

Here’s to sleek modern design…

Located in the peaceful neighborhood of Tiergarten Park, Das Stue’s rooms and suites offer undisturbed views of Europe’s most visited zoo (where those little animals can be seen doing a variety of fun animal things), along with the tree-lined park and Berlin’s western skyline. This vista, seen from the hotel’s balconies and terraces represents the true Berlin – a coming together of old and new, of modern architecture with timeless monuments such as the golden victory column which shimmers as a beacon in the distance.

The lobby fit for a King

Prices range from around $280 – $500/night, but for a view of wild animals and lapping it up in such award-winning style, we think it’s well worth it.

http://www.das-stue.com/en/

Winter Specials… In Style

You should be able to tell by now that Design Hotels are our jam. What can we say? We like to travel in style. And, even if we’re looking for a steal, it’s the little touches of style that make us feel chic and in-the-know. So, while the gentle breezes of summer change to the bone-chilling winds of winter, this means getting yourself to the mountains faster than one can say Kitzbüheler Horn or flying south or east to warmer climes, Design Hotels™ has both fantastic properties to choose from as well as great deals to make the holidays sweeter. You can choose to extend your stay in the 3-for-2 nights or 7-for-5 nights deals; treat yourself to a complimentary upgrade or get value with discounted rates. Savor the holiday spirit in one of Europe’s grandest capitals with Hotel Sezz Paris, a renovated Art Nouveau building by celebrated French designer Christophe Pillet or enjoy winter’s bounty at The Cambrian with the best slopes just outside the door, a Finnish sauna and spa treatments for recuperation and authentic regional cuisine at the restaurant.

Luna2 Private Hotel – Bali

Skip over to the intimate five-room Luna2 Private Hotel in Bali to experience Asian hospitality at its best, and get that enviable winter tan. The easiest way is to blindfold yourself and pick a point on the map.

The four different options are:

–  3 for 2: one complimentary overnight stay (minimum length of stay three nights)

–  7 for 5: two complimentary overnight stays (minimum length of stay seven nights)

–  Upgrade: free upgrade to the next available room category (minimum length of stay two nights)

–  Value: save up to 14 percent off the best available rate (minimum length of stay two nights)

Design Hotels™ Winter Specials

October 29, 2012 – March 17, 2013

www.designhotels.com/winterspecials