Hostels in Los Angeles - a Cheap Way to Enjoy an Expensive City

I travel all over the world and spend a lot of time in hotels. A few years ago, I decided I was spending too much money on hotel bills and looked at hostels instead. Most major cities have hostels and a lot of the smaller ones too. I've stayed at hostels all over the world and, for the most part, had very good experiences with them. Lately, I've been spending time in Los Angeles and have stayed at several hostels there. LA is incredibly expensive for a hotel room, so a hostel was a great option for me. These are the hostels I've stayed at in the Los Angeles area, most of which were great.

Hostelling International Hostel (HI), Santa Monica - 1436 Second Street, Santa Monica, CA - (310) 393-9913. This is the first hostel I stayed at in the LA area. The things I loved about it was the location. It's right on 2^nd Street only 2 blocks from the beach and very near all the good restaurants, cafes, bookstores and movie theatres. Third Street Promenade is one block away and it has everything you could possibly need in the way of eating, drinking and entertainment. Hostelling International Hostel is also very clean and quiet. I slept very well both times I stayed there, although I could have done with slightly warmer blankets as California gets quite cold at night. I stayed in a dorm room, but only had one other person in there with me, a woman from France and she, like me, went to bed pretty early so it worked out well. The rooms here are big, the staff is nice and the common areas are a fun place to meet people. But for location alone, you can't beat this hostel.