I've visited New York City (NYC from now on) for the first time last March. It was crazy for two reasons: First, it was the first big city I visited outside Latin America; and second, it strangely felt like home. Maybe because of the chaos, the dollar pizza, the never-ending nightlife (I know, very cliche from me to mention that), the 🐀, the 24/7 subways, etc.

On President's day weekend, I travelled there again. Everything was really good (should mention again dollar pizza), but I made a huge mistake in my resources selection for the trip: the hostel.

First, I should have started with this: I was on my own. That doesn't sound that hard for just a couple of days, but I went with the expectation to meet some new people, and it turned out the hostel had no common spaces at all. None!So here's my grain of sand for y'all people reading a travel blogpost on a programming and random stuff blog (weird, right?): a hotel feature checklist.

Musts

• Common spaces: If you are traveling alone and assuming you'll meeting some new people, please double check that the hostel has some kind of common space. Be it a dinning room, a kitchen, or a playroom. Also, it might help if the rooms are shared.
• Toilette / Showers: Pay special attention to this two things in the photos. Notice how the shower space is isolated from the rest of the restrooms. Do they have their own space? Are there many? Is there some kind of thing to put all your towel/clean clothes in the meantime?
• Luggage space: If they can take your luggage before check-in and the day you leave, be sure of taking advantage of it (always not leaving anything valuable, the sudaca distrust is never lost 😉).
• Lockers: You might want a place to keep you belongings safe while you are out. Always carry a lock just in case, and check that there's a locker.

Optionals

• Breakfast: Nothing to say about this. It's always good to have a cup of coffee/hot water for mate/glass of orange juice in the morning.