Pridds add to that list on site child care facilities. Wed be back in a heart beat.
Slight hijack Ton, if that's OK.
I work for YHA ( I run YHA Grasmere) and i am currently doing a project on getting more people who ride bikes to stay with us, so can i ask what would make you want to stay in a YHA or return if you've not been since you were a teenager?
Cheers
Ian
Slight tangent on your tangent - I'd say the best thing the YHA could do would be to loose the 'Y' from the name. The Youth bit still puts people off - lots of folk I've spoken to about YHA had no idea they were open to old farts too.
As for attracting bikers - its all about security. A little cycle logo list of facilities doesn't cut it - what does that mean in that specific hostel (a bike rack outside, a shed with some space in, individual locked mini spaces, bike wash facilities). For info easily found.
Glen Affric SYHA for me. Fantastically remote and very, very basic. You'd better take everything you want cos they have **** all to give you. Try it.
A close friend of mine works in YHA hostels all over the place, she was up in the Lakes just after Christmas, in Troutbeck, Borrowdale and Keswick, she's back home here in Wiltshire for six weeks, then she's off up to Conwy for most of the year, where she was last year. That looks good on the map, right below Snowdonia.
I'll show her this thread tonight, I'm out for a drink with her.
I've stayed in many, many hostels - but too many of my favourites have been closed.
I nominate Craig.
This is the approach:
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Highly commended are Minigaff ( a real cyclists hostel) and Achininver.
Pridds - hostels need to be a decent distance apart so stop closing the them please. Some of the best evenings of my life have been spent in the hostel kitchens, so stop people buggering off in their cars to a restaurant. Descending with a group of recent-strangers / newly-met friends to the pub is OK.
When we went to Glen Affric the warden had made cake for everybody. When we were there we swapped food for wine with a couple of blokes that had taken several boxes of wine with them. We also gave directions to an Eastern European barmaid who was heading back to Fort William, in hot pants. Don't forget your midgie net though, you'll need that or Napalm.
I've stayed at Craig too - http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/torridon-overhyped-long-pic-heavy 🙂
Incredible spot - sort of like the fact it's a bothy not a YH now though. The trail there is fun to ride although I had to get off quite a bit.
Fishermans Wharf Hostel San Francisco
The view from our room
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Free parking too, which is amazing in San Francisco
And more of a 'hut' than a hostel but this place in Norway, we had it all to ourselves.
[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4144/4960260653_29fc0f0312.jp g" target="_blank">
"Ilam Hall in the Peak District is pretty amazing!"
This is right.
Another vote for Minehead here...
Scenic location on the slopes of Exmoor, very clean, good food and badger watching...
What's not to like?
(Haven't stayed there for a few years, so might be different now...)
Bogglehole is nice .The trouble with hostels is that they seem to have lost their way if you want a private room often a Premier inn is cheaper .If they went really cheap and cheerful and went back to the days of doing chores it would be better
Many of the 'simple' Youth Hostels from my, erm, youth are now long gone. Gidleigh is a good example - the YH was basically a half-converted cow shed (with the cows still in the other half...).
The chores were all part of the experience and helped to generate a sense of community (in a "we're all in this together" sort of way). I understand that the YHA had to go up market to survive, but something was lost in the process.
Lake Louise and Banff in the Canadian Rockies are both outstanding!
Edric's got a point tho', I took the kids to kielder a couple of years ago and it cost a bloody fortune!
Not a YHA hostel any more, but the one in Coris near Machynlleth is my favourite. Weird, but lovely.
What would make bikers stay?
Bike security.
Good showers.
Washing/drying facility.
A bit of segregation if the bikers want to have a few drinky poos. Some folk in youth hostels can be a bit serious.
Oh, and comfier beds. Worst youth hostel I've been in ... Ullapool, simply on the basis of ridiculously bad beds.
I've nothing helpful to add other than, great thread and one I've earmarked for future use. Thanks.
Hi Pridds
Look at the map of east anglia and tell me why your having trouble attracting tourers ?.
http://www.yha.org.uk/places-to-stay/east-of-england
About 40-50 miles apart would be perfect or do you give up there is Travelodge in town.
Still luv you guys though and dream of opening one in Ston, Croatia
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ @42.83794,17.696246,3a,90y,349.53h,97.14t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s5To4DbjQSv4Z-A6MUCD86A!2e0!3e5
i just find them welcoming and pretty cosy.
comfier beds would be my only beef.
Just talking to my friend Fi, and she suggests Tintagel, nice little hostel with fantastic view.
Ohhh and with tents being so light these days . Allowing tourers to pitch a few tents in the garden, with access to the facilities is a good move.
For reasons I won't go into, YHA Ambleside in 1986. She was gorgeous.
For possibly similar reasons to above, Malham. She was gorgeous. 🙂
Rachel
A German one on the Rhine- one of the old castles.
That lesbian couple was gorgeous 😎
Pridds,
Stayed at your place last spring with my 12 year old on a mountain biking trip to the Lakes - i'd say you do a good job:
Lock up - tick
Good showers - tick
Comfy beds - tick
Friendly staff - tick
As for the best - in recent years, Ninebanks and the worst - Helvellyn (we walked away............).
Fifteen years ago me and my partner were summer wardens at Tongue - the best six months of my life. The youth hostel movement in the UK is part of our cultural heritage, and its great that it has survived the competition from cheap hotels, independent hostels and its own efforts to shoot itself in the foot.
Blaxhall
She was a bloody good laugh, when all the street lights went out, and we had to walk/stagger back from the pub and climb in through the window when we couldn't remember the code
Ironbridge Coalport is nice. And Holmbury on the North Downs for the genuine 1930's outdoorsy decoration. I'm going there in a few weeks with my son and his club, Herne Hill Youth CC. Looking forward to it 🙂
Bridges, on the West side of the Long Mynd.
It's in between some fantastic riding, and a great pub.
I think sadly my favourites might well have closed now. There was two down in the brecons somewhere that slept about 12 people and had no electricity. Ruddy wonderful places. Also Corris near Cadair Idris for sheer bonkersness.
The SYHA in Leadhills for the warden who persuaded the pub to reopen the kitchen for some wet cold starving end to enders.
Not by any means objectively "the best", but I went through a happy phase a few years ago of staying at Hindhead and at Tanners Hatch.
Both tiny hostels, less than an hour from central London but secluded enough, and with lousy enough mobile reception, that you could be much, much further away. I used to start my weekend in central London at 7pm on Friday, get down there and bed down, then wake up in what felt like the middle of nowhere early on Saturday morning. You could have what felt like an entire weekend in the bag by supper time on Saturday.
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[url= http://www.yha.org.uk/events/be-last-to-stay-yha-hindhead ]Hindhead is closing [/url] after years of being available for exclusive hire only.
That is a huge pity, and the YHA's view that if they keep Tanners Hatch (which they are) they don't need another small hostel in a different part of the Surrey Hills strikes me as pretty odd. Nevermind. I am increasingly at 36 one of those old men who don't like the modern world. 🙂
It seems one of my favourites is actually still open! Tyncornel YHA, bit remote and really rather lovely.
Price wise you can get twin b and b for the price of a private room in a hostel with breakfast .I wish they went back to the old days and were cheap with chores .I love staying in different hostels but fear lots of the nice ones are going as they are not viable .I cant see why Chester shut though it was always busy and a LEJOG stop over for many .Cheapest places to stay now that I find are caving huts £72 for me and the missus for 6 nights in one in the dales
Once you have stayed in the habitat@ballater your expectations of what a hostel can be change...
Glen Affric SYHA for me. Fantastically remote and very, very basic.
Cycling up at top of loch Affric last year and met a back packer looking for the hostel, he had been walking 12hrs already and looked done in. Poor bloke looked ready to top himself when i said just another 3-4 hrs walk to the hostel! 😯
It's a shame that hostels seem to be shifting towards the Travelodge market. Some of the pricing just seems way off (£70 for a room in Brighton). I know they have to change to keep profitable but I wish they'd stay with the basic approach.
"Ninebanks"
Correct me if I'm wrong but this is privately-owned after the YHA wanted to close it. Delighted to see it's still going strong. I was last there 8 years ago, and can feel a route forming for this summer's cycle tour!
Lands End night before LEJOG, sunset looking out to see what fabulous.
And in Europe, the Glungezer Hutte, Innsbruck
