YHAgroup.org.uk

Leaders of the cash-strapped YHA are probably casting envious glances across the channel, where Flanders Today reports a 31 million euro government investment in expanding and upgrading Flemish youth hostels:

The youth hostel in Brussels, for instance, will see its shortage of beds alleviated with 52 additional beds, increasing its capacity to 187. The city of Bruges will receive a new youth hostel boasting 120 beds, which is twice as much as the current offering. The city of Hasselt will receive its first youth hostel ever and Brasschaat near Antwerp will receive a youth residential centre with 120 beds in the vicinity of the sports hotel. The antiquated youth hostel in Kortrijk will be renovated and extended to accommodate 120 overnighters and the Ploate in Ostend will relocate to the current Admiral Hotel and an adjoining warehouse.

The work is scheduled to take place between 2012 and 2015. While they’re at it, they might want to spend a bob or two on the Flemish Hostel Fedration’s rather ancient website too!

The Guardian have published a short list of green places to stay in the UK and Ireland, which includes an entry for Langdon Beck YH:

This is the YHA’s greenest and highest hostel. From the dining room and lounge there are wonderful views over the North Pennines. Evening meals are served in the 31-bed hostel, which has a range of local real ales and organic wines. A wind turbine and solar panels generate more half of the power, and rainwater is harvested from the roof.

Nice to see a hostel other than the usual Whitby, National Forest or London hostel getting some limelight.

It’s now over seven years since the doors closed at Norwich YH. Since then, though the YHA have never ruled out a return to the historic East Anglian city, there’s been nowhere for hostellers to stay if they wish to visit.

That all looks set to change if plans to adapt a derelict pub into an “eco-hostel” go ahead. The Borthwick family, who already operate a backpackers’ hostel and campsite at Deepdale Farm on the north Norfolk coast, have ambitious plans for the former Ferry Boat Inn.

According to the Eastern Daily Press, the site will offer accommodation (in both dorms and private rooms), canoe and cycle hire, and a café. The last pint was pulled there in 2006, but they might be flowing again soon too:

We know groups like Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) are keen to see the pub reopen. We definitely feel a small real ale pub on the site would be an excellent addition

The hostel should open next year, but their website is already running.

Once again it’s time for hostelworld.com to publish their list of the world’s best hostels, gleaned from the ratings entered by their customers.

Top-rated hostel, for the second year running, is the Travellers House in Lisbon. The Portuguese capital seems to be the place to go hostelling – the top three hostels, and half of the top ten, are located in the city.

Closer to home, the best UK hostel (ranked 6th in the world) is the River House Backpackers in Cardiff. Tipped off about the award, The Guardian paid them a visit. It sounds great:

Our quarters are fitted out with a bunk bed (albeit a brand new one), sheet sleeping bags and a stripped wooden floor, which makes us feel less guilty about booking a twin room rather than a dorm.

Elsewhere, there are eight sparkling showers and loos, a spotless kitchen with all mod cons, and a patio out back where you can sit at a table with an endless supply of free tea and coffee. The TV room is packed with DVDs and a Wii, there’s a free internet, WiFi throughout, and the dining room is strewn with bowls piled high with fruit.

All for around the same price as the YHA alternative.

There’s good news for the YHA in the results too, though. London Central YH, which was in 9th place in the UK list last year, has risen to 8th place this year. Not a stellar performance perhaps, but steady progress in the right direction. Let’s hope they can rise further in the year ahead.

One year after the plan to open a hostel in Berwick was announced by the YHA, The Journal reports that the main external construction work has been completed. This appears to have been no mean feat: the eighteenth century granary in which the hostel is to be sited has a bigger lean than the tower of Pisa.

Work can now continue to the next stage:

The organisations that will operate in the granary can now gain access and begin internal work. Interpretive panels are also to be put up to show how the granary operated and explain its significance to Berwick’s history and heritage, including one on a rail line within the site and the part it played in the whole operation.

All work should be completed by the autumn of this year and it is hoped the site will be open to the public early in 2011.

I’m glad to see information panels forming part of the plan: it’s a chance to make the most of a historic site, and I’ve seen them work really well at Whitby and Wooler for example.

Roll on 2011!

Writing in the Lonely Planet blog, Mark Broadhead is musing on what facilities a modern hostel should have. He reckons that…

In an ideal world, every hostel would…

1. Be clean
2. Have no more than 4 beds per dorm
3. Have en suite bathrooms
4. Be safe, with personal lockers
5. Have an outdoor and indoor communal area, preferably containing a ping-pong or foozball table
6. Pick me up from the airport or bus/train station by minivan
7. Have a large communal kitchen
8. Have a small bar at nights serving cheap local beverages
9. Have a laundry room
10. Have private bedrooms (for those tired of dorms)
11. Have a swimming pool (if necessary)
12. Have computers with internet access
13. Have free wi-fi
14. Be run by some friendly local staff
15. Be close to (or in) the city or in an interesting suburb/national park
16. Have someone on reception 24 hours a day

…and, finally, it should charge (at the very most) half the price that a night at a nearby, respectable, budget hotel would cost.

It’s quite a list, and one directed more at the international backpacking hosteller than the domestic hikers that we represent, but it’s food for thought. YHA are currently engaged in a process of “segmentation” – deciding what facilities different types of hostel ought to have, though they don’t appear to have asked the membership what they’d like.

So, now’s your chance, what do you think should be in an ideal hostel? What do you think should be in all of them?

My local group always had a soft spot for the old Hampstead Heath YH. A short jaunt from the end of the M1, you could dump your stuff and then get on the tube to central London. A day spent pounding the streets of the capital could be followed by one strolling around Hampstead Heath to round off the weekend before heading home.

Sadly the hostel closed in 2006, following a (probably correct) YHA decision to concentrate on sites closer to the centre of the city. However, now you have the opportunity to stay there again…

Country Life report that the property is on the market, having been split into six luxury properties (4 in the original building, 2 new ones built in the garden). The place, now called Wellgarth Manor, has been somewhat upgraded from its hostelling days:

All the joinery, fitted desks, dressers, bedside tables and wardrobes have been custom made. Spacious kitchens feature Poggenpohl units, stone work surfaces and Gaggennau appliances. Bathrooms have limestone flooring and walk-in showers. The master bathroom suites have his and her shower areas, Kaldewei baths with whirlpool Jacuzzi and chromatherapy systems. There is an integrated audio system throughout each property and Aquavision monitors can be found in the guest and master bathrooms.

All formal reception areas have hard word flooring. The properties feature cinema rooms with a bar, full High Definition projectors, screens with 17.1 surround sound and blu-ray players.

The price has gone up a bit too – prices range from £3,750,000 to £5,250,000. You could have stayed there for about 500 years for that money at YHA’s old overnight rates, albeit without the benefit of fancy kitchen units or tellys in the bathroom.

If you have that kind of money to spend, or just like to pretend that you have, take a look at this glossy brochure to see what’s on offer.

Hostelling International have announced a list of the world’s best hostels, based on the votes of visitors to their website. The winners are:

• Best Hostel 2009: HI Baan Dinso, Bangkok, Thailand
• Friendliest Hostel 2009: Tønsberg, Norway
• Most Comfortable Hostel 2009: Kyoto – Utano, Japan
• Most Efficient Hostel 2009: Eastham (Mid Cape), USA
• Cleanest Hostel 2009: Grindelwald, Switzerland
• Best Hostel Country 2009 – Luxembourg

The awards are based on the customer ratings in each category, as entered by people who booked hostels through the HI site (you can’t vote if you booked in some other way). Hostels also needed to have had at least 50 votes between 1st November 2008 and 1st October 2009.

Unlike the “HOSCARs”, there’s no continent-by-continent breakdown, so it’s hard to tell how far down the leaderboard the YHA’s hostels are. Maybe, with the benefit of a full year’s votes, could we see one of YHA’s London flagships on this list next year?

Inspired by doings up the road in Wooler and Berwick, a community group is seeking to open a youth hostel in Alnwick. The Alnwick Community Development Trust have their eyes on a Grade II listed former Social Services office for conversion into a 60-bed hostel, according to the Northumberland Gazette.

Country Life once described Alnwick as the best place to live in Britain, noting “its location between some of England’s finest open hill-country to the west, and most impressive coastline to the east”. The town is dominated by Alnwick Castle which featured as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies. If you have other literary tastes, the town’s also home to one of Britain’s biggest second hand bookshops.

All in all a promising place for a youth hostel. Grant applications are being considered over the next few weeks, to be followed by talks with YHA about operating the place. It could be a wizard place to stay!

Anybody who has been watching the news this weekend will be aware of the extraordinary floods that have struck Cumbria this weekend.

Whilst the greatest amount of sympathy must be reserved for those whose homes have fallen victim to the waters, hostellers will be concerned about the fate of the many well-loved hostels located around the region.

Official news from the YHA is slow in appearing, but this note has been published on the Lake District hostels page:

Severe weather and flooding has affected the Lake District. Due to the flooding the services offered at YHA Ambleside, YHA Buttermere, YHA Cockermouth, and YHA Coniston Coppermines have unfortunately been disrupted. Guests with bookings for these Youth Hostels have been contacted.

Police are asking people not to travel to some parts of the Lake District unless absolutely necessary. Please check with the police and local authorities before travelling to affected areas. YHA is really grateful to guests and members for their continuing support.

The situation is changing rapidly and guests with bookings are advised to call 01629 592700 for more information.

Of the four hostels mentioned, Buttermere and Coniston Coppermines both seem high above any likely source of flood damage. Presumably it is approach roads and suspect bridges that are the problem here.

According to a post from a staffer in the YHA forum, Ambleside’s basement has flooded, leading to a loss of power and heating in the hostel. Once the level of the lake has fallen again, it should be possible to re-open the hostel pretty swiftly.

Which just leaves Cockermouth YH. Sitting as it does on the banks of the River Cocker (it’s a converted water mill), it must have been very severely damaged in the record floods which have devastated the town. It may take a fundraising appeal similar to the one for Boscastle to get it going again.

Elsewhere in the district, the BBC have a picture of flood waters just inches from the door of Keswick YH, but the hostel remains open.

More news will be published here as I hear of it.