Has anyone used Youth Hostels for holidays

[glitterbiscuits]

DH has some happy times growing up with his hippy mum using YHA for cheap holidays.

I ruled it out based on my image of dormitories with strangers. Although I under now there are family rooms with ensuites!

What are they like these days? Are they comparable to a Travel Lodge or Premier Inn or a bed and breakfast?

I'd love to hear about peoples experiences.

We have used a family room - basically you get your own dorm. We had shared facilities.

Best thing was the kitchen - very handy. Also a communal lounge which is great for meeting other people.

Can be expensive - YHA have changed their cheap and cheerful pricing a while ago.

We use them all the time. They vary from the really basic - dormitories and communal kitchen - to those comparable to hotels.
The good thing is you can always rely on them being clean, comfortable and up to a high standard.
Those that provide meals usually have a high standard, often sourcing ingredients from local suppliers.
You can keep costs down by using the member's kitchen to make your own meals.
We've found the places are very friendly and the staff are excellent.

We’ve used them for city breaks: there is one next to St Paul’s and one right next to Liberty.

It’s a nice, safe environment for kids and teens to hang out, play a board game or something and just chill. That can be difficult on a family city break because once you’ve had dinner, you can’t exactly go to a bar.

We go to YHA Edale in the Peaks a couple of times a year.

Last time we paid £400 which included:
Pick up/drop off from train station (if you needed it)
Dinner on Friday night
Orienteering on Friday night around the grounds
All accommodation (private en suite family room - sheets provided but bring towels)
Breakfast (hot) lunch (packed) and dinner on Saturday - incl excellent vegan and GF options. Nothing fancy more Wetherspoons kind of standard but good enough
Canoeing and “weaselling” on Saturday
Abseiling on Saturday night
Breakfast and lunch on Sunday
Sunday activities were crate stack, high ropes and archery I think

It is fabulous we’ve been three times now. Also been without DD and done their adult walking courses - about £250 for both all weekend - accom, food, guided walks

You can of course stay cheaper and self cater in kitchens/eat out and make your own fun. And there is a fab living room with board games/books, a game room and lush outside space.

Big fans of YHA here!

Should’ve said the £400 was 2 adults one child. It’s no more expensive in school holidays but may hook up faster. They do week long hols in hols too. And it’s non profit so some of proceeds go to free holidays for less fortunate families.

We are interrailing with the DC’s at the moment and have stayed in all sorts of places, including a YH in Lugano, Switzerland (where everything is £££). We had an apartment, which was basic but had its own loo and shower and mini kitchen area. It was fantastic, about £170 a night (v cheap for Switzerland) for 5 of us (could sleep 6).

It was this one

More expensive than they used to be so difficult to see the benefits now. Like your dh I also used to stay in them with hippy parents and they were genuinely affordable in return for doing chores in the communal kitchen. Now you can get b&bs or travelodges etc cheaper and although youth hostels have shared lounge/kitchen spaces those aren't exactly relaxing to be in so I'm not sure what they offer any more really.

England YHA experience only - Can be expensive for private rooms - flip side is you get accommodation in great places you may not otherwise be able to get, especially if you want single nights at weekend. Often still shared bathrooms although some do have ensuite. I used them a lot til a couple of years ago when prices rocketed and food quality plummeted (see below).

One word of warning for the more rural hostels, if you're doing an 'activity' holiday, the evening meals were changed a couple of years ago to standard menus and portion control rather than letting hostels do their own menus. Result was less interesting meals and not enough for anyone who had been out all day. Once watched a party of 12 Scandinavian long-distance walkers (adults and strapping teenage boys) begging for more food which couldn't be provided, while I (having learned the hard way) tucked into my massive plate of store cupboard curry and rice, costing me about £3. (They may have changed the policy again since then, so food may be better again now..)

We used to do them DC were younger. We stopped as I was starting to find them too noisy at night and there were too many groups during the day. As in groups of adults taking over the lounge area, not Scouts groups.

I found that they usually did an offer for Feb half term that was around £35-40 a night for a 4-bed en-suite room which was good value. DC loved the bunk beds (they slept on the top and DH & I on the bottom bunks) but I missed having somewhere to make a cup of tea in the room and the cosiness of a hotel room with thicker carpets and a fluffy duvet.

Make sure you get a family room rather than splitting between dorms - YHA dorms are now mixed sex.

I have to ask - what is weaselling?

We had some great nights in family rooms though always bunk beds for us. Edale was the nicest room, Ambleside accommodation all a bit tired but the location is UNBELIEVABLE, we had a gorgeous view over Windermere. Stow on the wold gorgeous building in the centre of walkibg country but have to say our bedroom needed a new carpet. I feel the locations give them a massive edge on Travelodge etc.

Yes we used one in Berwick , it was fab

The advantage over a hotel is that there is a kitchen available so you can cook for yourself if you want, plus a lounge for the evenings. With dc over 4ish, being all holed up together in one room in a premier inn gets very claustrophobic.

We’ve stayed in family rooms in various places and they’re always basic but comfortable. Some of the buildings are amazing. We stayed in an old manor house in Shropshire very cheaply.

We sometimes eat in the evenings and found the portions generous. It’s pub grub type food but very nice.

For city breaks there great often central like basic hotels but with kitchen, social areas. Recommend York Manchester Liverpool.
Some have not been done up as much and so check first. Costal ones I'd recommend are Whitby Danby dale. Scarborough and boggle hole are in great locations but check as last time I used needed a little TLC. Quite a few of the Derbyshire ones are in great locations near tourist attractions. I find them very different to 30-40 years ago but with a young family easier than hotel - can get breakfast when they're hungry (not when hotel says), when you want to you can self cater, fancy being waited on you can book that, or go out or order in.

Did quite a lot when younger and enjoyed.

Wouldn’t be keen now, as dorms are all now de facto mixed sex.

Stayed at one in London a few years back. It was basic but tolerable. Was a bit loud, as there were many students having a grand old time there.

York YHA was fantastic. Worked a treat with DS and a wheelchair.

Getting somewhere with an adapted bathroom but full height kitchen can be a challenge. The shared kitchen covered it. We breakfasted in the Youth hostel but were able to cook our own dinner or go out as we wanted. The walk into york was very manageable, but being on the outskirts it was easy to get out of town as well. One of the best holidays.

We stayed in Earls Court in a family room. Great central location and we got a bargain on the room (outside the school holidays).

Dorm beds have got expensive though,

Wouldn't go now, purely based on their deceptive policy on the single/mixed sex dorms.
They are mixed sex, btw.

Mixed sex dorms and having to declare if you've been sexually abused to ensure you get single sex accommodation? No thanks.

I stayed in some very impressed YHA hostels in New Zealand and Australia and met a single mum with two teens who did several holidays a year with her girls, rather than one expensive holiday. They often had pools!

That was before the whole mixed sex nonsense, though. But wouldn’t be an issue in a family room.

So ok if you get a family room! I’d avoid a do at the best of times but knowing that any man - no question - could be in there! And the fact a woman can ask to be - well basically quarantined - by explaining that they’d been sexually abused (what they want the lurid details then decide if you’ve been traumatised enough?) would finish me off.

In London there’s Baden Powell house in south ken - next to the natural history museum - and they have rooms up to 6 occupants and no sharing/dorms.