From The Sunday Times
November 16, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/where_to_stay/article5157071.ece

If you’ve ever stayed in a hostel, you know what they’re like.

Blank, concrete corridors, sheets like nylon sandpaper, dormitories full of other people’s underwear, a smell of student cooking and old socks, and a pervading sense of depression. There’s always a drunken Australian student called Lee and a grumpy Swedish backpacker called Lars.

Still, it’s only £10 a night, so, as long as you can sleep (which you can’t, because the guy in the upper bunk has a hacking cough), shower in the morning (which you can’t, because the hot water’s run out) and make breakfast (which you can’t, because the communal kitchen looks like an explosion in a bacon factory), you’ve got your money’s worth.

Well, forget what you know. Over the past few years, a new breed of accommodation has sprung up: the boutique hostel.

They’re still on the basic side, otherwise they wouldn’t be cheap (which we like) - but they do the simple stuff well, with lashings of style and attitude (which we like too).

You’ll still find some dorms and lavatories down the hall, and we can’t guarantee that there’ll be nobody there called Lars - but you’ll also find private double rooms (some ensuite), designer interiors, fluffy duvets, flatscreen televisions, elegant lounge areas and a sense of youthful flair. They’re a million miles from the grim hostel stereotype and a welcome contrast to the bland utilitarianism of the budget hotel chains.

In short, if you’re looking for a cheap city break with a twist, they’re manna from heaven. Here’s the lowdown on eight of the best examples across Europe.

FLORENCE
Plus Florence You don’t get many hostels with a swimming pool. Mind you, they don’t usually come with flatscreen TVs in every room and panoramic terrace bars overlooking the Duomo, either.

Plus is flashpacker central: hotel-standard facilities, backpacker attitude and low prices, all an easy 10-minute walk from the Uffizi. It’s big (450 beds) and mainly dorms, but the double rooms are cosy, with crisp sheets and ensuites; after your terrace sundowner and a dip, head to the designer basement bar, with good cocktails and a house DJ.

Don’t expect anything too sedate - the occasional drinking competition has been known - but if you don’t mind a bit of high spirits, it’s simply unbeatable value in a pricey city. www.plusflorence.com ; doubles from £48, dorm beds from £18

CRACOW
Greg & Tom 2 Greg & Tom has rapidly become a Cracow institution - clean, cheap, centrally located, smartly designed and packed with features. (The huge home-cinema screen is a winner.) It’s great if you want a smart-studenty atmosphere, but for something a notch up-market, go for Greg & Tom 2, a five-minute walk away.

It has just seven spacious doubles, furnished sparingly but well, with sofas, subtle murals, CD players and smart bath-rooms: they’re grouped around a pretty lounge area and a modern kitchen. It’s all restrained, unfussy, bordering on elegant: more like sharing a smart city apartment with friends than staying in a hostel.

You do have to stroll over to the main base for breakfast, but it’s worth it - the huge spread of meats, eggs, cereals, fruit and salads would make many hotel guests green with envy. 00 48 12 422 4100, www.gregtomhostel.com ; doubles from £29, including breakfast

LISBON
Living Lounge Three years ago, four local artists opened the Lisbon Lounge, which is still one of the best hostels in town. This is their new baby, and it’s a beauty. Every room and dorm has been individually designed, with fun furniture and cool murals. Some are more practical than others - we’ll have to see how the artificial grass wears in the garden room - but all have been done with panache.

The kitchen has exposed beams, the lounges have elegant chaises longues and quirky barber’s chairs, and it’s all sparkling new and clean. (It opened in July.) An excellent dinner with wine costs just £6.50; there’s free WiFi, too. In a great spot between historic Baixa and upscale Chiado, with the bars of Bairro Alto a stagger away, this is the boutique hostel at its best - and that includes the more than reasonable prices. 00 351 213 461078, www.livingloungehostel.com ; twin rooms from £40, dorms from £15pp, including breakfast

MARRAKESH
Equity Point Finding it’s the hard bit. In theory, Equity Point is a three-minute walk from the Djemaa el Fna, Marrakesh’s main square, but miss your way in the twisting warren of the medina and it could take you rather a lot longer: we won’t go into chapter and verse, but remember to take the tiny covered alleyway past the electrical shop.

When (or if) you make it, you’ll find something special: a classic old riad townhouse, meticulously restored, with tadelakt plaster on the walls, warm, glowing colours, ornately fretworked wooden furniture, a tinkling fountain in the cool courtyard and a gorgeous roof terrace looking over the mosaic of the medina to the snowcapped Atlas Mountains.

At most hotels in town, you’d pay through the nose for this level of authenticity — and the double rooms here cost a packet in hostelling terms — but for families or groups of friends, taking over a four- or six-bed dorm means you’ll be staying somewhere with real charm and craftsmanship at a staggeringly low price.

One problem: rooms have ensuite bathrooms that are so gorgeous — beaten metal sinks, intricate tilework — that people tend to hog them. You’ll have to set a time limit.

00 212 24 44 07 93, www.equity-point.com ; doubles from £81, four-bed rooms from £78, six-bedders from £88, all including breakfast

LJUBLJANA
Hostel Celica Okay, it might seem to be tempting fate to book a hostel room in a converted prison. Trust us, though. Celica housed military prisoners during the days of the Austro-Hungarian empire: now the 20 first-floor cells (don’t bother with the dormitories downstairs) have been made over by local artists, sometimes with remarkable results.

They’re tiny, with bars on the windows and doors (it’s not a place for the claustrophobic), but the cutting-edge designs make the most of the space, with raised beds, stepladders and a bewildering range of features, from cobblestones, scored wood and brick ovens to murals and friezes. In fact, they’ve become a tourist attraction in their own right, with guided afternoon tours of vacant cells.

The beds are comfortable, the location’s are groovy (you’re in edgy Metelkova, just a few minutes’ walk from Preseren Square), and there are three decent cafes downstairs if you’re peckish. Light sleepers note: things can get a bit lively at weekends.

www.souhostel.com ; double cells from £37, including breakfast

PRAGUE Miss Sophie’s The Czech capital has a glut of cheap-and-chic places to stay, with new arrivals popping up all the time, but for sheer class, Miss Sophie’s is still the one to beat. It’s a veteran, relatively speaking (a whole four years old), and housed in a lovely 19th-century building in Nove Mesto.

Inside, it’s a paean to minimalism — it has been heaped with praise by Czech design magazines. Standards are high: big, fluffy duvets, monsoon showers, smart modern fittings, logo-etched glass screens and the sort of helpful service that’s becoming a rarity in the city’s tourist hotels.

If you find all the clean lines and natural light a bit much, repair to the dark, moody cellar lounge, with its bare-brick walls and squashy sofas. You’re a few tram stops away from Wenceslas Square, within reach of the sights, but out of the tourist mayhem.

00 420 296 303530, www.miss-sophies.com ; ensuite doubles from £48, four-bed rooms (with bunks) from £13pp

STOCKHOLM Langholmen Another former prison? This is becoming something of a theme. The 19th-century cells here are small, and there’s an ominous clang as you close the heavy metal door, but these days they’re spanking clean and smart enough, in that efficient Swedish way. The gantried halls are straight out of an episode of Porridge; though, as we recall it, Slade prison didn’t have the shiny glass, designer lighting and oversized pot plants.

If you want to learn more about the previous occupants of your room, there’s an intriguing little museum: they probably didn’t get to enjoy the cute little beach (the water’s clean enough for bathing), but you can.

Perhaps appropriately, Langholmen can feel a little, well, institutional — in a hangover from the bad old days of youth hostelling, bed linen and room cleaning are extra, for instance — but the staff are friendly and the sheer character of the place shines through.

00 46 8 720 8500, www.langholmen.com ; bunk-bedded twin rooms from £52, or £62 with ensuite bathroom and TV; four-bed rooms from £88; £4pp reduction for IYHF members

VALENCIA
Rooms Deluxe Hostel Is it a hostel or is it art? Local creative types have individually designed each of the 28 rooms here, and they’ve gone a bit wild. The Swimming Pool is our favourite, though it won’t suit all tastes: most of us could cope with the cool aquamarine light and pool-style tiles, but having the lower half of one betrunked mannequin’s body descending from the ceiling, and the top half of another diving in through the wall, is more than likely to give some people nightmares.

Otherwise, you can go from the comparatively restrained Music Box (staves on the wall) to the gaudy Funky Room (with a mad photomontage) to the bafflingly pretentious (No Place and 11-A17-S, which defy description).

The twins, doubles and triples — no dormitories here — are all a decent size, with air-con, and there’s a comfy lounge with a DVD player. You’re just a few steps from Santiago Calatrava’s tremendous City of Arts and Sciences, with its museums, exhibitions and aquarium; the old city is a £5 cab ride away.

00 34 963 356793, www.roomsdeluxe.com ; doubles from £57, triples from £81, both including breakfast

For more good hostel options worldwide, try central booking sites such as www.hostelbookers.com , www.hostels.com and www.hostelworld.com . All offer handy warts-and-all user reviews

For England and Wales, go to the Youth Hostel Association’s website, www.yha.org.uk — the YHA has invested heavily in upgrading its properties in recent years. For Scotland, try www.syha.org.uk