Best Hostels for Solo Female Travellers in North America (With Reviews)
North America offers some of the most rewarding solo female travel anywhere in the world. From the energy of New York City to the beach culture of Los Angeles to the colour and chaos of Mexico City, the continent has a hostel scene that’s matured considerably, with properties built specifically around safety, community, and the kind of social infrastructure that makes travelling alone feel like the opposite of being alone.
Choosing the right hostel matters more here than almost anywhere else. City scale, neighbourhood variation, and transport logistics in North America are different from Europe, and the right base can be the difference between a trip that feels manageable and one that feels overwhelming. This guide covers the best hostels for solo female travellers across the continent’s most popular destinations, sourced and verified directly from Hostelworld.
🔒 What to Look For Before You Book
A few things matter more for solo female travellers than the average booking decision, and they’re worth checking before anything else.
- Security rating and reviews: lockers with reliable locks, 24-hour reception, keycard or coded access, and CCTV in common areas.
- Neighbourhood context: in large North American cities, the neighbourhood matters as much as the hostel itself. Read reviews specifically for comments about walking alone at night.
- Social infrastructure: organised tours, events, and communal spaces that make meeting people effortless rather than something you have to engineer yourself.
- Female-only dorm availability: not essential, but worth knowing about and filtering for if it matters to your comfort.
- Review volume and recency: a hostel with thousands of recent reviews and a 9.0+ rating is a far more reliable signal than a smaller property with a handful of five-star reviews.
The Hostelworld Hostel Chat and City Chat are particularly valuable in North America’s larger, more spread-out cities. Knowing who else is staying at your hostel, or in your city, before you arrive removes a lot of the uncertainty that comes with navigating an unfamiliar metro system or borough alone for the first time.
🗽 New York City: Best Hostels for Solo Female Travellers
New York rewards solo travellers who pick the right base. The city has 31 hostels listed on Hostelworld with over 75,000 honest reviews, and the right choice depends heavily on whether you want to be in the middle of Manhattan’s energy or in a quieter, more residential part of Brooklyn.
HI New York City Hostel
Book HI New York City Hostel Now
Rated 9.0 from over 11,300 reviews, the most-reviewed hostel on this list and one of the most consistently trusted in the city. Set in a distinctive castle-like building on the Upper West Side, it offers a 36-burner communal kitchen, renovated bathrooms, laundry facilities, lockers, and 24-hour snacks and drinks. 17 organised events keep the social calendar genuinely active. Close to Central Park and well-connected by subway.
International Student Center
Book International Student Center Now
Rated 9.6 from nearly 3,840 reviews, one of the highest-rated hostels in New York. Located on the Upper West Side, a stone’s throw from Central Park, with easy access by train and bus. A smaller, more intimate property that reviews consistently praise for its friendliness and sense of safety, making it a strong pick for first-time solo visitors to the city.
🌴 Los Angeles: Best Hostels for Solo Female Travellers
LA is sprawling, and choosing the right neighbourhood matters enormously for solo female travellers without a car. Santa Monica and Venice Beach offer walkable, beach-adjacent bases. Hollywood puts you closer to the nightlife and tour culture.
HI Los Angeles – Santa Monica
Book HI Los Angeles - Santa Monica Now
Rated 9.4 from over 6,600 reviews and the 2026 Hoscars 1st Place Winner for Most Popular Hostels. Just a block from the beach in Santa Monica, one of LA’s safest and most walkable neighbourhoods for solo travellers. 22 organised events keep the social side genuinely active, and the laid-back beach-town setting makes it one of the most consistently recommended hostels in the city for women travelling alone.
Orange Drive Hostel
Rated 9.6 from nearly 2,880 reviews, the highest-rated hostel on this Los Angeles list. Located in the absolute best position in Hollywood, putting you within walking distance of the major sights without needing a car for everything. A consistently excellent reputation among solo travellers for both location and atmosphere.
Banana Bungalow West Hollywood
Book Banana Bungalow West Hollywood Now
Rated 9.5 from over 3,100 reviews. Free breakfast, free BBQs, and a genuinely social, hip crowd. The Banana Bungalow brand in LA runs an extensive tour programme, meaning you’ll never run out of organised things to do, a particularly useful feature for solo travellers who want structured ways to explore the city and meet people without doing all the planning themselves.
🌮 Mexico City: Best Hostels for Solo Female Travellers
Mexico City has one of the most vibrant hostel scenes in North America, with over 86 hostels listed on Hostelworld and more than 33,000 traveller reviews. Roma, Condesa, and Centro are the neighbourhoods where most solo travellers base themselves, and both are well-served by genuinely excellent, social hostels.
Viajero CDMX Centro Hostel
Book Viajero CDMX Centro Hostel Now
Part of Viajero, recognised by Hostelworld as the best hostel chain in Latin America and a winner of Hoscar awards including Best Large Hostel and Best Social Hostel. Located in the historic centre inside a traditional building, with a central open-air courtyard, a restaurant and bar, and dorm options including female-only rooms with privacy curtains, lockers, and reading lights for every bed.
“The hostel was super sociable and ran loads of great activities that made it really easy to meet people. The rooms and toilets were very clean and comfortable.” — Hostelworld guest
“Staff were helpful and the wifi was good. Solid price also and great breakfast.” — Hostelworld guest
Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral
Book Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral Now
Located directly behind the Metropolitan Cathedral in the historic centre, this is one of the most central and recognisable hostels in the city. Dorms include sturdy bunk beds, personal lockers, and keycard access, and the rooftop terrace with city views is a genuine highlight for evening socialising. The hostel runs guacamole and lottery nights along with free walking tours that introduce solo travellers to the city and to each other simultaneously.
“I highly recommend this place. The rooftop bar was the most fun of all the clubs we went to during our stay. It is in a perfect location looking out onto Zócalo Square. Staff are nice and I felt safe.” — Hostelworld guest
Note from reviews: the rooftop bar runs until 1-2am on weekends, so it’s worth requesting a lower floor room or free earplugs if you’re a light sleeper.
🍁 Toronto: Best Hostel for Solo Female Travellers
Planet Traveler Hostel
Book Planet Traveler Hostel Now
Rated 9.52/10, the highest-rated hostel in Toronto on Hostelworld and consistently described as the friendliest and greenest hostel in the city. Located in Kensington Market/downtown core, within easy reach of the CN Tower, Eaton Centre, and Toronto’s subway network. Hostel-organised events run regularly, and the green building certification (one of the most environmentally sustainable hostels in North America) is a genuine point of pride for the property. A reliable, well-reviewed first choice for solo travellers in Toronto.
🛡️ How Hostelworld Supports Solo Female Travellers in North America
Beyond the individual properties, a few platform features make a genuine difference for women navigating these particular cities alone.
Hostel Chat, joinable 48 hours before check-in, connects you with other guests at your specific hostel. In cities as large and spread out as Los Angeles or Mexico City, knowing who else is checking in on your dates means you can coordinate arrival logistics, share a rideshare from the airport, or simply have a friendly face waiting when you walk through the door.
City Chat connects you with travellers across every hostel in the same city, which is particularly useful in North America’s bigger cities where the hostel you’re staying at might not have the critical mass of guests that a European city-centre hostel does. You can find people exploring the same neighbourhoods, joining the same free walking tour, or heading to the same museum.
13 million+ verified reviews are the most reliable way to assess a specific property’s safety and atmosphere before booking. Reading reviews specifically from solo female travellers, searching for phrases like “felt safe,” “easy to meet people,” or “great for solo travel,” gives a far more accurate picture than the listing description alone.
💡 North America-Specific Tips for Solo Female Travellers
Check the distance from the city centre before booking. Several well-rated hostels in this guide sit a meaningful distance from downtown areas. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but factor in transport logistics, especially for late-night returns.
Read reviews for neighbourhood-specific safety comments. North American cities have far more neighbourhood variation than most European capitals. A hostel two blocks apart in the same city can sit in very different contexts. Reviews are the most honest, current source of this information.
Use rideshare apps confidently after dark. Uber and Lyft are widely used, affordable, and trackable, and most hostel staff will recommend them over walking or public transport late at night in unfamiliar areas.
Book Free Cancellation where available. Long North American trips often involve multiple cities and flexible plans. A Free Cancellation booking through Hostelworld protects your budget if your route changes.
Ask your hostel directly about the neighbourhood. Staff at the hostels in this guide are consistently praised in reviews for being genuinely helpful with local safety advice. Ask before you head out, not after you’re already uncertain.
✅ Final Thoughts: Solo Female Travel in North America is Genuinely Rewarding
The hostels in this guide were selected because they combine strong safety ratings, genuine social infrastructure, and consistent positive feedback specifically from solo female travellers.
New York rewards confidence and curiosity. Los Angeles rewards picking the right neighbourhood. Mexico City rewards an open mind and a good hostel community to navigate it with. Across all three, and the wider continent beyond them, the right hostel transforms a potentially daunting solo trip into one of the best travel experiences available.
Book well, read the reviews, use the chats, and go.
Download the Hostelworld app to start booking now
❓FAQs: Solo Female Travel in North American Hostels
Get the App.