Hostels the new way to backpack in India
COMFORT STAY No-frills hostels for young backpackers gain popularity across country as more and more Indians set out to explore
NEW DELHI: It is a hot afternoon and the otherwise bustling Paharganj, the backpackers’ lair in the capital, looks deserted.
But Zostel is buzzing with activity.
Young travelers — mostly backpackers in their 20s from Australia and Europe — are lounging on bean bags, reading books, chatting or browsing the Internet on their iPads.
The atmosphere is convivial and the bonhomie among young drifters infectious. The walls of Zostel boast meaningful murals and wacky slogans, one of which suggests: ‘Ask out a beautiful girl sitting next to you’.
Zostel, which opened in Delhi in September last year, is part of the country’s first backpackers’ hostel chain that is operating in seven cities. And Zostel is not the only one. In the past one year, the country has seen the arrival of a number of European-style hostels, which have given a new fillip to backpacking travel in the country. And the Capital is the hub of these new boho-chic, nofrills hostels — most of which have come up only in the past few months. Apart from Zostel, Delhi has Jugaad, The Madpackers, The Moustache.
Besides these, Stops, currently operating in Varanasi, is set to open in the city later this month.
Interestingly, most of thee hostels are being set up by young entrepreneurs — many of them engineers and management professionals and avid backpackers themselves. “Young Indians are travelling like never before, and what they are looking for is social accommodations - places where they can meet like-minded people and make friends. In fact, when we started two years back, 80 per cent of our clients were foreigners. Now, only 60 per cent of them are foreigners,” says Akhil Malik, an IIM (Calcutta) graduate who founded Zostel, with seven others, most of them IIM (Calcutta) graduates or IITians.
“For decades, the hospitability industry in India did not see any innovation. The only option for budget travellers was dingy guest houses. But young entrepreneurs are trying to change that. What our hostels in all the cities promise is safety, hygiene, affordability and central location,” adds Malik.
Not far from Zostel, Pallavi Agarwal, is busy giving finishing touches to Stops, a modish hostel at Aruna Asaf Ali Road. Delhi-based Agarwal opened Stops in Vanarasi last year. The Stops branch of Delhi, slated to be inaugurated next week, boasts a large common area, a communal kitchen, an events room and open courtyard for barbeque along with a bar. “Unlike our Varanasi hostel, which has more of a local flavour and homely feel, Stops in Delhi will have a cosmopolitan feel. What matters to us is the social vibe of the place. The idea is to create as many common spaces as possible, which is essentially what sets hostels apart from hotels,” says Agarwal.
What is fuelling the trend of new-age hostels in the country, she says, is the fact that the new generation of young Indians are travelling abroad at a young age like their European counterparts. “They understand the difference between travelling and vacationing. Travel is about experiencing a city, while vacation is nothing but a short break from work. Unlike the West, where there is a concept of gap years, we have been a milestone-oriented society, where travel has never been a priority. But a lot of young Indians are now staying in hostels abroad and they are the ones opening new swanky hostels in the country,” she says.
No wonder then that most of these hostels have their own quirky interiors that reflect their young owners’ personal touch. Jugaad in Delhi, for example, has been done up quite trendily with a rustic charm. The Moustache, on the other hand, stands out for its art works and Zostel for its black and white murals and wacky slogans on the walls.
Then there are theme-based hostels in the country such as Jungle hostel and Prison hostel in Goa whose interiors are designed like a prison. Most of these hostels have both mixed and female-only dormitories and a few private rooms to cater to what Agarwal calls ‘flashpackers’those who are looking for communal living with comforts of a boutique hotel.
A dorm bed in these hostels cost anything between `299 to `699, including breakfast. Some hostels, such as Stops, also offer internship - an arrangement where guests can offer their services to the hostel for a few hours and stay for free for a couple of months. “We have had a lot of young foreign interns, mostly writers, bloggers and artists,” says Agarwal.
“Big metros, such as Delhi, are expensive and must offer decent budget accommodation for young people. But unfortunately, until recently Delhi did not have a single hostel. All that the city offered in terms of cheap accommodation was shoddy guest houses in Karol Bagh and Paharganj, which were not doing any good to the image of the city,” says Amber Jalan, who set up The Moustache, perhaps the city’s first backpacker’s hostel, in GK-1.
The walls of Moustache have been painted by local artists. As you enter the hostel, you hear the soft meditative music. The bright common room has a huge painting and large tables for board games.
Akshay Chhugani, 28, the founder of Indian Backpacker, an online platform for backpackers in India, says that the backpacking culture is fast making inroads into India. “A lot of young Indians are taking a break from jobs to travel. In fact, a lot of women are backpacking solo thanks to these new, trendy hostels. When we started our online platform, only 20 per cent of our users were foreigners. Now about 70 per cent of them are Indians,” he says.
“But unlike Indians, most European backpackers write blogs about their experiences, and their duration of travel is much longer; and they steadfastly stick to the budget they have earmarked for their travel,” adds Chhugani.
Jatin Mehta, 26, a Delhi-based avid backpacker, says that the ‘real hostels’ will help attract a lot of young foreign tourists, giving a boost to backpacking tourism in the country. “While, India has had youth hostels, but they operated more like hotels than hostels, as most of them offered private rooms rather than dorms. Hostels have finally come of age in India, and they will encourage more and more Indians to explore their country,” he says.