Whether you class ‘flashpackers’ as tech-savvy backpackers, high-flyers on a career break, or independent travelers wishing to see the world in style, they have all led to the same thing – the unstoppable rise of the ‘boutique hostel’, where private rooms, stylish interiors and cool bars come as standard.

These hostels are the last word in cutting-edge chic, springing up in the hippest cities and along the well-trodden backpacker trail. Sleep in style with this selection of hostels for flashpackers that boast top-rated guest reviews alongside the designer furniture.

Stay Hostel, Los Angeles, USA

This 81-year-old hotel has been renovated into Stay, a hostel for ‘the hip and spendthrifty traveler’ that offers a dose of California cool in glitzy LA. The pop-art palette, in-house art gallery and common room with 42-inch TV mean the private rooms are snapped up weeks in advance. Luckily the inexpensive shared quarters are equally chic, with hand-shaped chairs and abstract art on the walls.

Located on up-and-coming Main Street (when Johnny Depp moves in next door, you know you’re hip and happening), the hostel is close to the Museum of Contemporary Art and Little Toyko for some late night sushi. Next along is Tuck, a comfort-food restaurant and room service for mac-and-cheese and milkshakes.

Pfefferbett Hostel, Berlin, Germany

If you want to take ‘having a pint’ to a whole new level, you can actually stay in this 19th century brewery on the Pfefferbett complex; a ‘cultural centre’ with cutting-edge art galleries, beer garden and concert venue on your doorstep.

Inside, the private and shared rooms are spacious and modern, with vaulted ceilings, wooden floors and silver steel furniture adding an industrial edge to the historic architecture. Right in the heart of Berlin’s coolest district, the hippest nightspots are just streets away, but there’s also a lively outdoor terrace at the hostel for flashpackers looking to just sit back with a beer and check out the scene.

Albergue Juvenil Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Repeatedly named one of the best hostels in Europe, the Albergue is an ultra-modern hostel with hotel facilities – how many hostels do you know with a room full of exercise bikes and Audrey Hepburn prints on the wall?

The shared rooms are a minimalist mix of black bunk beds and bright red lockers, and there’s an artsy common room with pool table and wall murals, and a line of high-tech computers for your ‘e-postcard’ home. With a central location close to all the main sights (and the odd lively Tapas bar), this is a spot of urban cool tucked away in Madrid’s historic streets.

YHA London Central, London, England

London isn’t known as the cheapest of cities, so flashpackers all over the world rejoiced when the YHA chain gave their original outpost a slick makeover. With an enviable West End location, the hostel is on the doorstep of cosmopolitan Soho, the buzz of Oxford Street and one of London’s most popular nightlife hubs, crowded with pubs, bars and clubs.

Stay here for the ultimate in ‘flash’ packing, with private ensuite rooms, a cool café with giant street signs plastered over the walls, and a minimalist bar which serves coffee in the day.

Base St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia

Backpackers flock to Melbourne for its beautiful beaches, lively bars, and laid-back Aussie lifestyle. But the Base puts all other hostels to shame with its state-of-the-art design, minimalist-chic interiors and own ‘Red Eye’ Bar – a super-cool drinking den with a futuristic bar and bright red walls.

Located in the cosmopolitan suburb of St Kilda’s, it’s close to the beach and the lively bars and clubs of Melbourne’s newest hip spot. The private rooms are like a trendy New York loft apartment, and the shared rooms offer comfortable bunk beds with huge under-bed drawers. The icing on the cake is the ‘Girls Sanctuary Rooms’, a pampering paradise for female travelers with free towel hire, hair products and champagne every night between 6 and 7pm.

This blog post was written by Lauren Smith. When she’s not flitting around the world, Lauren Smith is one of the authors of the new Hostel Bookers blog – the insiders’ guide to hostels and budget travel.

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The auld days the common area of hostels offered as “entertainment” a telly, some board games, a couple of deck of cards and some old crappy book left by backpackers who wanted to travel a pound or two lighter. Things are changing lately as technology and Flashpackers change the concept of entertainment and that feeling of “being home” while travelling.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my books and deck of cards while travelling, but if there’s something that make an old Flashpacker like me feel at home it’s an hour or two in front of a video game. As long as that doesn’t mean spending your time playing rather than exploring the place of course. It just reminds me of the times where after a day at the office (or any work place) you go home and while playing you have that comfy feeling of figuratively “taking your shoes off”.

Well a few hostels were ready to re-create that feeling offering free Xbox or Playstation for their guests. You might argue that the hardcore Flashpacker doesn’t need that as she/he will bring along a PSP (and with a GPS receiver too!), but we’re talking average Flashpackers here.

The trend apparently started with some funky minded hotels but now, thanks to the younger and more tech savvy customers, is spreading through hostels as well. Or at least Flashpackers Hostels.

Wherever you’re travelling you might be able to find one, from Medellin to Sydney, from Boston to Krakow.

And here’s just a few to get you started (more details available in brackets if not on official site).

Tiger Paw Hostel, Medellin, Colombia (Xbox)

Hostel 70s, Krakow, Poland (Playstation 2)

H.I. Boston Downtown, Boston, USA (Xbox)

Hostel Bekuo, San Jose, Costa Rica (Xbox)

Jacobs Inn Hostel, Dublin, Ireland

Jolly Swagman Backpackers, Sydney, Australia (Xbox)

Let us know your thoughts in the Comments Section below and kill that Level 3 monster!!

You read often definitions of Flashpackers as backpackers who travel on a bigger budget or with some tech accessories. Somehow a general idea is emerging, that some accessories are the one that makes the Flashpacker. Well I’d like to state something different; bringing some accessories (especially on their own) with you while travelling don’t necessarily means you’re a Flashpacker.

Let’s have a look at the most common ones.

Digital camera
Ahem, who doesn’t bring one on a trip nowadays? My parents are in their late sixties, they do have a digital camera, but trust me, they’re not Flashpackers. It would be even more “Flashpacker” to have a non-digital camera nowadays; that could mean you’re into good old professional pictures.

Mobile phone
As above. I don’t think 86% of travellers (according to a Hostelworld study in 2006 that’s the number then of people travelling with a mobile phone) are Flashpackers.

Laptop
On a very long train journey I took lately I noticed how a good 3 quarters of people on the train were watching something on their laptop. But they were not Flashpackers of course, they were commuters, business people, etc. Who normally bring a laptop with them, especially if you have 6 hours of train ahead of you.

Netbook
Until a while ago carrying a netbook on your trips it was a good sign of being a Flashpacker. Not many would know how cheap, portable and powerful these toys can be. But again, the word spread fast and the cheap price helped, so now they’re extremely popular.

Ipod
Having some mp3 player doesn’t mean necessarily you’re a travelling geek crazy about technology, or a Flashpacker either. Mp3 players are getting more and more affordable and popular, like a Walkman in the old days.

Iphone
Another classic Flashpacker accessory, but having one one your trip doesn’t necessarily means you’re a Flashpacker. Iphones are very popular with anyone who wants or needs to be online almost anytime.

External hard-drive
Having one of these should actually means you’re not a Flashpacker. Flashpackers live online and love to travel light; as a consequence they back up everything on the Internet cloud. Pics go on Flickr, docs on Google docs, the rest on virtual hard drives. That also explains why netbooks with hard drive as small as 4GB were so popular with Flashpackers.

Don’t get me wrong, I use many of the above accessories, love a good few of them and think they’re quite indispensable. I just don’t believe gadgets makes you a Flashpacker. Flashpacking is all about the style; being able to travel with some kind of luxury without spending a fortune, and knowing how to do it (and internet comes handy here, that’s why being online can make the difference) in order to afford to do it for long periods of time.

What are your thoughts? Any obvious gadgets that doesn’t make you a Flashpacker missing from the list? Or you have a different opinion? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.. Happy Flashpacking!

Gadgets and accessories are indeed vital for a Flashpacker. It’s not surprising then to see many articles on the web about what are the must-have Flashpacking accessories.

Flashpacking though is not simply travelling with a huge amount of tech gadgets. I believe a Flashpacker is defined by the travelling style; even if accessories are a big help, the ideal Flashpacker is not the one with the most gadgets in the backpack. At the contrary, Flashpacking is also travelling in a comfortable (read: light) way.

The gadgets you need depends mainly on what is your “basic package” of accessories following you on your travels. For example if you have a big laptop with lot of memory you don’t necessarily need an external hard drive, or if you have an iPod you don’t necessarily need an iPhone too.

Here’s a list of gadgets that, depending on what you bring with you, you might not necessarily need.

LAPTOP
What? A Flashpacker without a laptop?
Well, if you only need to check your emails, update your Facebook and do some minimal blogging even a good phone with a browser could simply do. The most known (and expensive) of all is of course the iPhone. With a toy like that you can do even quite advanced blogging tasks. Check out these 13 Apps to Turn Your iPhone into a Blogging Machine.

PORTABLE HARD DRIVE
As mentioned, if you are already carrying with you a decent laptop with plenty of memory, and thanks to all online virtual back-ups you don’t necessarily need to bring with you a portable hard drive. If instead you have a netbook with little memory and an old 160GB iPod, how about bringing the iPod to listen to your 20GB of music and use the rest of the space as an hard drive?

INTERNATIONAL SIM CARD
No matter how cheap they are getting nowadays, there are still better options. If you have anything with you that connects to internet (even a PSP would do) Skype or similar VoIP services are still cheaper. If you don’t mind having few SIM cards with you and you are not visiting 20 countries in a month then a cheap option is buying a local SIM card. Prices to same-country phones calls are unbeatable and in most cases calling abroad is cheaper then with an international SIM card.

IPHONE
If you already have a netbook or a laptop, and your old mobile phone is still working, do you need an iPhone too? Especially if you already possess a camera and maybe an iPod to listen to your music. Definitely fashionable, but with only 16GB of memory is it the wisest choice?

CARD READER
Many laptops and netbooks nowadays come with a built-in card reader. Again it depends on what is your “basic package” of accessories.

WIFI FINDER
Pretty handy to find out if there’s some Wireless connection available in the area. It will save you the time to drop your bags, take out and turn on your big laptop. But what if you’re using a tiny netbook or an iPhone instead? Another down side is that many of those little “keychain” wifi finder don’t distinguish between free networks and protected ones, although this one does.

GPS
Let’s be honest here. If you’re not going in the very middle of an inextricable jungle, or going to drive through the desert for a week, do you really need one? Is it not part of the trip getting lost in a city and in this way discover an off-the-beaten track jewel? Consider also that most mobile phones nowadays come with a GPS or at least Google Maps.

Well, I guess the bottom line is: be wise in choosing your gadgets, there’s a lot there you might not need.. It all depends on how and why you travel. After all Flashpacking is about the style, and that do means travelling comfortably as well.

But I’d like to hear from you: any useless gadgets you’ve been carrying around lately? What you think for example of water purifiers or universal adapters?

A laptop is indeed one of the most important accessories for the Flashpacker.

First of all a good travel laptop allows the Flashpacker to keep in touch with friends and family, to stay up to date with news, and to maintain travel blogs, websites and social networking profiles updated. But most importantly a good laptop allows the Flashpacker to be a Flashpacker, finding online great deals on accommodations and transportation, and tips on off the beaten track destinations.

There are many laptops that are perfect for travelling due to their small size and light weight. Lately actually there’s a real explosion on the market of what are called netbooks or subnotebooks.

Some examples are Acer Inspire One, ASUS EeePc, Samsung NC10, MSI Wind PC and the latest arrival, Dell Inspiron Mini 9. Many rumors about an Apple netbook but so far the closest to an Apple truly portable laptop are the 13” Macbook or the Macbook Air.

Of such a vital importance is a good travel laptop to the Flashpacker that I couldn’t simply tell you (like many articles about accessories and gadgets seems to do lately) what is the one that you need to bring with you on your travels, but rather ask the experienced Flashpackers out there:

What’s your ultimate travel laptop? And why?

Do you prefer a netbook with almost no memory or a classic laptop with plenty of functionality? A mobile phone maybe? Looking forward to hear your point of view in the Comments section below..