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Everyone has to go to London to be taken seriously as a traveler, and the city’s hotel prices seem designed to take advantage of that fact. Fortunately there are quite a few London hostels that ease the pain a bit, and add some fun to the equation at the same time. If you search for regular hotels in the city you’ll find they range from expensive to outrageously expensive. The extra bad news is the ones that are merely expensive tend to be small and dumpy compared to nearly every other major city on the planet.

London is always a bit of a tricky city to visit. The famous attractions are clumped together in various groups all over town, and the semi-reasonable hotels are also clumped together in different mini-neighborhoods throughout town. The trouble is there is almost no overlap between the two.

This makes choosing a neighborhood for your London hostel a bit of a puzzle with no correct answer. There are clusters of places near Victoria Station, and near Russell Square, and in the Bayswater district north of the eastern half of Hyde Park, but none of those neighborhoods are good for anything other than cheap stays.

The fun neighborhoods that are near the famous sights and also have good nightlife tend to be short on cheap beds, but there are a few London hostels that offer the best of both worlds. The YHA London Oxford Street is directly in Soho, which is the city’s most notorious nightlife district. Soho used to be a bit seedy at night, but now it’s plenty safe and the only thing to worry about is the noise if you hope to get to sleep at an early hour.

Beds at the YHA are in 3 or 4-bunk rooms, and start at around £19 per night for members and £3 more per night for non-members. Considering the excellent location this is quite a bargain since the cost of a mini-cab to get to a cheaper place late at night would wipe out your savings anyway.

Camden in north London has its famous (and endangered) Camden Market, and although it’s not terribly close to other sights, at least it’s a pleasant neighborhood with good pubs and clubs. St. Christopher’s Camden is right on the high street with a good location for this area. They have beds in their 10-bunk dorms starting around £10 per night, but the slightly smaller rooms go way up from there. They have twin private en-suite rooms starting around £24 per night per person, which is quite a good deal for this favorable location.

If you are more interested in famous cathedrals than in famous nightclubs there is the YHA London St. Paul’s, just 100 meters from St. Paul’s Cathedral. They advertise that they are in a quiet neighborhood, so if that’s your thing you can book a bed in one of their 11-bunk rooms starting at around £15 a night. Breakfast is included so if you are an early riser you get an even better deal by staying there.

Hostels in England (London)