Originally Posted by
staehpj1
Not knocking this idea, but I suspect that on most coast to coast routes you might manage to find one or two times at most. Managing to find one to stay in on your route and in a place you wanted to stop anyway is pretty atypical. The vast majority of stays on most coast to coast tours I have done, talked to others about, or read about were in rural small town america. Hostel are generally in big towns or cities. They can be a good place to stay for those few times where they are convenient. Again, not knocking them, just pointing out that the opportunities to stay in them are very limited on the typical coast to coast tour.
There is a pretty good chance of using them as a starting point in the city you fly to at the start of a trip. On one trip I stayed in a hostel in Seattle, despite not having been a youth for many decades
I haven't used hostels in the USA. But, they were handy in Europe, especially if one wished to stop for a couple of days in one place.
The biggest problem was that the European hostels were always in the most inconvenient part of town. But, a bike would definitely make that easier.
https://www.hiusa.org/hostels
Ok, so the USA has an odd distribution of hostels. Hitting some of the big cities, but not even all of them.
It still might be handy for a night or two when one hits cities where they are located. Costs appear higher than I would have expected.
I usually do "primitive camping", but some campgrounds have shower facilities. Hiker/Biker camps? That could take some planning ahead.
I'm not sure if it would fit into bike touring, but most truck stops also have clean showers at a reasonable cost. And, the truck stops are often in the smaller towns at freeway interchanges.
Anyway, there are lots of different ways one might do the trip, from full "credit card" in a motel every night, to a motel or hostel or similar every few nights.