The Outermost Hostel

The Outermost Hostel is great. They took one of those little cabin rental places and just loaded a bunch of old bunk beds into the cabins. If you go with a few friends you can get a whole cabin to yourself -- none of the cabins has more than seven or so beds, and some have as few as four. Each cabin has its own bathroom, which are very clean, with good hot showers. Sheets, blankets, and pillows are provided.

Its location is ideal, sitting up on a hill just two blocks from the center of Provincetown's main drag, Commercial Street -- literally in the shadow of the Provincetown monument. And it's only three blocks from the water's edge. It's very easy to get to off Route Six, the local highway, and there's plenty of parking. It's also about a seven minute's walk from the ferry and bus station, and is about a mile from the beginning of the Cape bike trail. The management is local, friendly, helpful, and gay-friendly.

It's quite inexpensive for an American hostel. There's a cabin with common space, with a kitchen, living room space, and extra restrooms. While there is no internet access at the hostel, there is an internet café a few blocks away on the second floor of the Whaler's Wharf.

There are only a few drawbacks to this hostel. The first and most notable is that the beds are rather old and lumpy. New mattresses, and in a few cases new bed frames, would be a huge improvement. I got a blissful night's sleep regardless, thanks to the lovely sea breezes and comfy blankets, but one of my traveling companions had a restless night thanks to the lumps. The other is that there is no place to secure personal belongings within the cabin. People sharing their cabins with strangers have to trust their cabinmates not to take their stuff. Many guests got around this by locking their valuables in their car's trunks.

Also, the cabin setup doesn't lend to socialization. It would be hard to start any conversations here. However, P-town is such a social town that you could more than make up for a lack of new friends just by walking down the street and smiling.

P-town note: If you don't already know, be warned that Provincetown is just about the gayest town in the world. If drag queens and bare-chested leather men and dykes on motorcycles and sex toy stores aren't your thing, you won't like it here. But if you're tolerant of such things, could at least crash here for the night and then book it out to the bike path and dunes.

-- Exclusive Hostelz.com Review