AIBU to be surprised a youth hostel has no road access?

[Chocolateapot]

My friend has arranged a yearly tradition birthday weekend in a youth hostel in England. All good fun, we usually all pile in (some with babies/young kids) and catch up, drink and play board games. All very wholesome and I look forward to it.
This year I’ve found out that the hostel has no access by road for 3 miles so I won’t be able to go. I feel like a bad friend bailing on it but they have been understanding of it. AIBU to think that a hostel should be accessible by road and be surprised it isn’t?

You’re asking the wrong question.

Should all Youth Hostels be accessible by road? No. Should your friend have booked somewhere different? Yes.

Youth Hostels are great for walkers, and you used not to be allowed to drive to them. There are some brilliant mountainside ones and such. A great one, for example, in the Pyrenees, up a mountain, accessible along cliff ridge walks and over rope bridges. There’s a slightly easier but longer way up and they use a donkey to take up supplies. No running water or electricity. You wash in a river.

Glorious. But not for everyone. And it would be terribly boring if everything became identical.

So the answer to the question you’ve put - i.e. it’s the venues fault for not accommodating your needs - is YABU.

If you asked if your friend should have booked somewhere more easily accessible for the holiday you are all planning, then YANBU.

Oh fond, fond memories of Blacksail and its wine list 30 years ago! We approached in fog and were so grateful when we found it.