Regional Travel Chapter
Fewer hostels, bigger distances and city routes worth flying between.
Manhattan streets in New York City, United States - photo: King of Hearts (Wikimedia Commons)
North America has a thinner hostel network than Europe, so routes work better as city hops with a few national park detours. New York, Montreal, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco all have hostels that have been running for decades.
Distances mean flying is often the sensible choice. A Chicago to Seattle Amtrak leg is a beautiful two nights, but a two hour flight from ORD to SEA leaves you three extra days in the mountains. Mexico is the value story: Mexico City and Oaxaca are the cheapest good hostels on the continent.
A car-free route through the handful of North American cities where hostels are genuinely good and intercity trains or buses make sense.
Tom Reyes7 min readUpdated March 2, 2026
