Suggestions needed for hosteling and some camping

Living the hostel life, it’s great to have a warm liner/blanket, ear plugs/ headphones, and a sh$t-ton of money. A handful of people that I personally know recommend using permethrin on their liner, because sleeping in a lot of different beds you can pick up bedbugs.

Gear list would depend largely on where he wants to go. In Europe, I would recommend he look at rec’d gear lists for, say, the Camino in Spain, that are more focused on moving longer distances lightly than drinking and taking instagram pics. Looking as un-touristy as possible can be a help in a lot of places.

I’ll add two general cautions:

Hostels are much much farther apart in the US than in Europe.  It’s better in New England or if you’re on a road bike and able to do more miles in a day, but there’s just not the density of hostels in as in much of Europe.  AirBnB might now fill in some of that gap, and while not as expensive as motels, still not as cheap as a dorm bed in a hostel.

Distances are large in the US.  Each of the four 48-state time zones are the size of Western Europe.   Twice I’ve met Europeans who were still in Southern California having rented a car out of LA with completely unrealistic itineraries: “We thought we see the Grand Canyon this morning and then stay tonight near The Alamo.”  And many Europeans I’ve road-tripped with thought a day of driving was an 8-hour day less 2 or 3 long breaks for coffee and couldn’t grasp that to make time you drive for 16 hours a day with only two 5-minutes pee breaks in there.