Need to know how to transform local businesses’ skepticism or even hostility towards your project into enthusiastic cooperation?

Then join Hostel Hub and the Community Ownership Support Service for this 2-day workshop in Dunkeld where you’ll learn these techniques as well as essential hostel start-up insider knowledge such as:

• what essentials to consider when designing or refurbishing
• how to budget accurate costs for startup
• the best way to manage guests
• engaging the locals in your project

Workshop details

What: Creating Exceptional Community Hostels workshop
When: 24-25 April 2013
Where: Jessie Mac’s, Murthly Terrace, Birnam, Dunkeld
Cost: FREE

These two days will be interspersed with presentations, group exercises, and private clinics.

Download the full itinerary here (pdf):
Creating Exceptional Community Hostels workshop itinerary

What’s included

The Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) will be covering the cost of the workshops, one night B&B accommodation at Jessie Mac’s lunch on both days of the event and dinner on the 24th.

Rooms at Jessie Mac’s will be allocated as shared hostel accommodation (if you attend the workshop but would prefer to stay in the luxury rooms or at another facility, then this element would be at your own expense.)

As we expect high demand for this workshop, we will require a £50.00 deposit to secure a place. Deposits will be returned after the workshop provided the delegate does attend.

Find out more

To secure a place or if you would to discuss this further or require any additional information, please contact Lauren Leeman at lauren@dtascot.org.uk.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

The North East Scotland Preservation Trust and Scottish Traditional Boat Festival charity needed to know whether it would be financially viable to develop an old sail loft into a bunkhouse.

They had done extensive work already with an architect, but were unsure whether the layout was the best option for maximising profits. They also lacked the know-how to assess whether their occupancy estimates were realistic.

Assessing the potential bunkhouse

How we helped

We did a 2-day site visit to meet with the organisations and architect to discuss the site plans. We made a suggested a number of substantial changes which we know from experience can increase revenue, cut costs and please customers.

We also met with local businesses to listen to their concerns and look at how to create business partnerships rather than competition.

Finally, we assessed the area for local tourism potential, scouting out neighbouring bunkhouses and hostels, suitable attractions, and potential tourist concerns and needs to see how Portsoy could attract a much larger tourist market than they are currently.

The final report

Our 28-page report included:

• occupancy figures for Year 1 – Year 5
• operational costs
• estimated profits
• input into architectural plans for best use of bed and public space provision
• overview of key actions needed to achieve figures 
Example: marketing plan, staff training and operational requirements
• strategic plan identifying suggested target market and brand positioning

Result

North East Scotland Preservation Trust are confident their bunkhouse can be financially viable, and have submitted their revised architectural plans. If planning permission is granted, we may further assist with staff training and marketing and we look forward to what is sure to be an exceptional bunkhouse!

—

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

Great news. But in thinking over what we would use the funds for, we realised that our single biggest expenses is travel.

Getting from Orkney to rural communities to consult on setting up bunkhouses and lodges is expensive, so my suggestion to Caber Coffee and Northlink is: as well as making small donations to social enterprises, why not give them free ferry travel? I’m sure we’re not the only social enterprise who finds the high costs of travel prohibitive.

How free ferry travel can make a difference to social enterprises

So much of business is meeting in person.

Even with Skype and Twitter and YouTube, nothing can take the place of getting together with people face to face. This is where deals are made, partnerships are formed, and Orkney social enterprises lose out all too often because it’s too expensive to get down to Inverness just for one meeting.

The ferries certainly have the capacity, so why not? It would be good PR for Northlink and a real win for social enterprises who often don’t have the funds to get off the islands easily. Now to make it happen.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

After months of setting up, getting the word out about what we do, we’re getting stuck in with the fun part: advising communities on how to set up a bunkhouse that’s going to bring in much-needed income and jobs.

Malcolm did a workshop on How to Run Successful Hostels, Bunkhouses and Campsites at the DTAS conference back in August where he got to let loose his passion for the potential of well-managed hostels. We’ve had a number of development trusts who were at the session get in touch since then, so I guess it worked!

So a good week and we’re looking forward to what comes next.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

Modern hostels don’t have to compromise on quality, comfort or community. These photos are from just two of the new generation of high-quality, affordable hostels throughout the world (pictures courtesy of Nomads Hostel Queenstown and Circus Hostel Berlin).

The Hostel Hunt campaign

We’re on a mission to make hostels desirable to run as community-owned businesses and have been challenged to find our first community to prove it.

For people wanting to make their own food — especially families with children — B&B’s and hotels won’t work. For people wanting to stay less than 7 nights or who are on a tight budget, most self-catering houses won’t work.

Quality hostels like this fill the accommodation gap by being flexible, comfortable, friendly and affordable places to stay.

Demand is growing and community-owned hostels are a great opportunity to generate jobs and income for locals.

Could your community be the one for our family?

We know we need to prove ourselves and our vision of how amazing hostels can be. That’s why we’re willing to move our family to a new community to take on the management of a community-owned hostel for 2 years.

We’re going to put in practice what we preach, working hard for one special community to show what’s possible.

We’re working with the Development Trusts Association of Scotland and CEiS to find the right community we can work with. We’re looking for individuals or groups within communities who think this type of social enterprise business will enhance their community and who are passionate to work with us.

How your community could benefit

We will start up and run a hostel in your community for 2 years. This includes setting up all the systems, from business operations to cleaning rotas, from hiring and training staff to partnering with other local businesses. It can even include consulting with an architect, if you’ve yet to build your hostel.

And all the profits will go to your community.

What we can bring to your community

• Experienced hostel manager
• Marketing and business manager
• Catering
• Special courses, activities and events  (especially off season)
• Staff hiring and training
• Outdoor skills and tourism business, Five Senses, that will also bring visitors to your area
• Website design business, Gillywood Design
• Social enterprise and community development experience as co-founders of Touchwood Project

How your community benefits

• Profitable social enterprise
• New jobs
• Reuse of empty building
• Income for maintenance and renovations
• Trained staff
• Raised local profile in media and tourism

It doesn’t stop here. Your community will get a lot of media coverage if it is selected. This will generate knock on opportunities for your area, the people and your environment.

In return, all you have to do is be able to pay 2 years’ salary for one full-time and one part-time position and have at least 3 enthusiastic people in your community to collaborate with on the project.

Intrigued? Find out more

Would you like to see in this opportunity in your community? Then get in touch!

Which gets me to thinking about how hostels used to be when I was growing up. Thankfully they have moved on a lot since those days but I look back with fondness at a few eccentric and questionable features of hostel life:

Top of the list has to be Sheet Sleeping Bags. When pronounced with a certain foreign accent the first word fairly accurately described how most people felt about them.

Then there were the Duties – your daily chore to help clean the place before you checked out. No chore, no membership card. The threat was very real. So we swept floors. Though the Warden at Kingussie got me to clean the toilets, aged 7. I’ll never forget that.

Tea bags for sale, 2p each. Yeah, having to ring the bell at reception, waiting for the Warden to arrive, gruffly open the hatch, all to sell another tea bag. Such a waste of their time. No wonder I got the toilets to clean. I felt so bad that out of guilt I might buy a butter portion and two slices of bread (white), or a sugar sachet. It was like playing shop in kindergarten. The economics was madness.

Check out at 10am. Not allowed back until 5pm. This may not have entirely changed but what amused me was the military like regime that preceded check out, to hurry you along. Lights Out at 10pm, or 10.30. No showers before 7am (considerate) but then a wake up call, to ensure you didn’t sleep in. In one hostel I remember a giant gong, which woke all the guests and later rang to announce breakfast. The Members’ Kitchen would be closed by 9.30, to ensure you had nothing better to do than your Duty and to get out in the fresh air, vacating the hostel for the Warden’s enjoyment. Best of all was being woken by bagpipes! I believe this was Shrewsbury hostel. This was so awful and eccentric I now look back on it with fondness. At the time it was like being at boarding school.

Membership cards. These were precious, like passports. Each being stamped by the hostel Warden to record your visit. One more reason why they seemed to be like librarians, shushing and growling, gently assisting and obsessing, stamping and issuing cards. No membership card, no stay!

There was no alternative in those days, so the quirky ways of hostels and their eccentric Wardens continued well into the 70′s and 80′s, gradually waining as the old guard hung up their boots. Independent hostels began to offer less restrictive ways, often under the banner of “no curfews” or “open all day”. Single sex dorms still persist but Family Rooms are now all the rage. It will not be long before everyone has a private room. This reflects another big competitor that has severely dented YHA’s ability to be different – the travel lodge style hotels. Families flocked to them. The dominance of YHA hostels has gone.

But you know what, I miss a lot of the old ways. I miss everyone mucking in together and helping to clean the place. It seems only right that guests should help out and keep costs down. However nowadays people expect cleaners to sweep up behind them while always demanding budget prices. Few realise how costly the staff wage bill is, and are daft to pay when they could do it themselves.

I miss the ‘lights out’ and silence of the old hostels too. People needed to sleep as they were exhausted. That was before everyone showed up in a car of course. Even snoring was less a problem, I think. Maybe fewer people were overweight, maybe we were all knackered or maybe it was the sheet sleeping bag tangling around our legs with the pillow halfway down the back?

As for tea? I am delighted hostels now provide tea for everyone. The self-catering kitchen is the great untold secret of hostels and the future too. So it makes sense to encourage their use and have guests chatting there. Believe me, the Kitchen is the heart of the hostel – so celebrate the ‘left food’ box, free items that others leave behind. This has grown too in independent hostels, from some pepper, pasta, porridge oats and white rice, to a full array of oils, spices and condiments. No more do I have to buy a butter portion to fry my onion and garlic. Joy!

So, as we get all watery-eyed this weekend and celebrate with the community at a street party, remember the old ways. And remember the humble hostel kitchen for it will always be food and socialising that holds us together. Hostels are, after all, accommodation arranged around a communal eating area!

Never try to sell tea bags to make your money – sell the experience of sharing tea with friends – priceless!XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

I moved around so much as a kid — a new school ever 2-3 years — and then when I came to Scotland from Washington, DC, I met my husband-to-be 3 days into the trip (at a hostel no less, but that’s another story) and simply never went back. So now I live on an island in the far north of Scotland called Orkney and still I search for home.

I get moments of it, of belonging, groundedness, utter contentment and relaxation. I certainly remember feeling it when I arrived in Scotland and stood looking out towards the sea and mist, amongst all that green and crumbling stone.

Newly arrived in Scotland, awed

Simple, cosy things

Feeling home is a form of magic and I’ve found it in humble places: a cup of tea steaming in a handmade mug that nestles perfectly in your palm, sitting in front of a glowing fire while the sky outside is grey and cold, burrowing my toes under my husband’s legs as we settle down for a long talk while our baby sleeps. Still I want to stretch those moments out until it feels that way all the time.

A lot of people searching

Being in Scotland with family and friends in America plus playing host to over 100 people on Couchsurfing has helped me realise that I’m not the only one looking for home.

Just about everyone I meet longs to reach the place where they can rest, totally accepted for what they are, appreciated, valued, trusted. They can stop working, working, working. And maybe they can stop worrying too.

I love creating that space for people here in our house and it’s I’m why I’m part of Hostel Hub and a big part of why our family is on a mission to run a hostel in Scotland for two years — because I want to create a place that feels like home for a lot more people.

It’s how you feel and act, not what you facilities or stuff you give people

It doesn’t take a lot of money. The wonderful thing about hostels is that they’re affordable, democratic. What makes them is the people who run them, the welcome you receive.

A beautiful building helps, so does an inspiring location, but what I’ve seen have the most impact is how I feel and therefore how I treat people.

It takes energy because I need to be relaxed myself in order to help others relax. I need to make them feel at ease in a genuine way, and that means genuinely being at ease myself.

Before someone arrives at our house, I try to take time to read a book, eat something and chill out. Malcolm is the official host so his job is to greet the person, show them around, pick them up at the airport if need be.

You are welcome here

My role is much quieter: it’s to simply show that I welcome a person into my home, that I’m happy to have them here and am looking forward to listening to whatever they have to tell me (because who feels they’ve been listened to enough?).

Drinking tea next to the fire

So we gather around the kitchen table, drink a pot of tea from our Alice in Wonderland pot that makes me smile every time, in handmade mugs that I love, and we all slowly let down the defences we keep in place with people we don’t know.

The best international Get to Know You game I’ve ever seen

The turning point is usually after dinner when we sit down for a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe, which we just call “Trains”. That board game is the single best ice breaker I’ve ever encountered. Something about riding trains, collecting pretty cards and plotting your route across the Europe of old just gets everyone excited, acting like a kid in the best sense of the word.

Then it’s off to bed to the soundtrack of our island life: gusts of wind, muted roar of ocean waves, tweets of birds up in the surprisingly bright summer hours of midnight.

Orkney

The occasional baa of a sheep or moo of a cow and all is quiet. Sleep comes and they sleep and sleep.

I like to think it’s home for a time for these travelers who have come all this way — Orkney is quite a ways from anywhere — and I go to bed feeling happy and contented, glowing with the sense that, by creating home for some weary traveler, I’ve found it for myself.

Our house

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

They may have only planned to stay one night but you are going to make it irresistible to stay more and in fact they should want to never leave.

Have this as an objective: Try to get a person who has checked in for one night to come down 10 minutes later and ask if you have vacancies tomorrow night.

Then you know you are on the right track.

I have had numerous occasions where guests have forfeited the following night at a B&B or hostel to stay longer at my place. Make sure they let these other businesses know asap so those empty beds can be filled.

It helps if you are actively sending bookings the way of these other accommodation. After all, reselling a late cancellation means being paid twice for the one bed.

Of course, if you can get the information to people even before they book beds elsewhere, all the better. So look again at your website and telephone information. Do you have all your advantages and information obvious? Is all this information at your (staff’s) fingertips when answering the phone?

1. Be nice!

This has a huge effect. Obvious though it may seem, I am specifically focusing on dealing with enquiries – and those magic minutes at reception when guests arrive.

Genuinely care enough to take the time to talk with people, listen to them and show an interest in their needs. Striving to help people seems to be rarer than I would like because when I do this, people seem transformed and so grateful. It is almost as if nobody else cares.

There is such a sense of relief from these guests that they frequently stay longer. One night becomes three. Ruthlessly this could be called up-selling but in my experience it has to be genuine and done for the guest’s benefit (and your joy of helping), rather than making more money.

This extends to the whole community, so if necessary help local shopkeepers, crafters and publicans to be cheerful and enthusiastic about all the amazing possibilities in the area.

2. Ensure your guests get a good night’s sleep

Again it seems like people’s expectations when traveling away from home are depressingly low.

For when they actually have a good night’s sleep they seem rejuvenated and euphoric, relaxed and ready to overlook minor faults and decor. I am not only talking about hostels either!

Managing the behaviour of other guests and creating the necessary environment for a good night’s sleep will win you much praise from guests and they will show their appreciation by staying extra nights and/or returning.

3. Help your guests to ‘nest’

Giving guests a room to themselves will be a significant inducement for them to nest and remain with you, so if you have the space do it.

Knowing a room is ‘theirs’ for the next night has a profound impact on a person’s relationship with that space. They might even unpack and catch up on laundry, diary writing.

Some will prefer to be in a nice shared room, rather than isolated in a room, so observe your guests’ needs. It is amusing to see how long stays sometimes personalise their bed space with pictures, curtains, their belongings neat and tidy. Good room design and furnishing can encourage this nesting too.

Upgrading people by offering to move them to a ‘better’ room, one more suited to their needs, is great customer care but requires you to have a good handle on your booking system and room allocations. Don’t let systems limit what you would do naturally. Moving people can free up whole rooms but do it sensitively and sparingly.

4. Provide a great kitchen

A good self-catering kitchen allows guests to eat food they like, when they want and at less expense than eating out.

Providing good storage space and clean refrigeration helps them to settle. It becomes easier to stay longer in a place rather than be continually repacking and only eating pasta. Leftover food can be stored and reused. Access during the day encourages them to stay closer and pop in and out.

The sooner they become familiar with the kitchen and all its facilities the sooner they will feel at home.

5. Make food supplies easily available

Enabling guests to get more food to replenish supplies will take away one big obstacle to their staying, especially if you are in a remote location.

Develop a reciprocal relationship with local shops, farmers, gardeners. This is your chance to direct money right into the local community and reduce food miles. Promote local and grow or encourage provision of essentials, bread, milk, eggs, cheese, vegetables etc. The more local delicacies there are the more there is to explore – and shopping is fun.

6. Help guests make friends

Getting to know other people staying in a hostel, or village will give guests strong reasons to remain (or return).

This can be promoted by providing social events, spaces to hang out, pub visits, music, activities, tours and adventure. You want people to settle in your ‘home from home’ but they want to be meeting people, exploring and experiencing too.

Knowing there is a ceillidh the next night or a party at the weekend – with nice people – will be very special. Encourage the local community to open up and welcome visitors – invite them along to a BBQ, conservation project or charity walk.

7. Provide great information about travel to attractions

Guests will want to use your hostel as their base only if they can reach other attractions further afield.

Make it really clear how to visit places, what time a bus leaves and from where, how much and what options there are. Have suggested itineraries, maps, route cards, time tables (made easy to understand and specific), pictures and sell the benefits of the journey too. Special views and places to stop, cafes and shops.

Make each day different and the ground covered not repetitive. Circular routes help to avoid a sense of wasted time. Get creative.

Give them a reason to be back that night though!

8. Feature local walks, even create your own

Establishing and mapping lots of diverse, lovely walks nearby will not only help with the transport and exploration mentioned above, it will help guests become rooted to a place, slow down and feel a sense of familiarity, belonging.

Remember, they will likely have spent a lot of time traveling, rushing and become disconnected from nature even if passing through it.

Think of awakening their other senses and creating a love of the area. Create places to stop and enjoy the view, being still, relaxed.

Diversity and variety are key, so you may have to develop walks and access yourself. This is good for your exercise and sense of belonging too – and involves close cooperation with the community and landowners.

Create a network linking pubs, cafes and craft shops too!

9. Provide facilities your guests most want

Providing secure storage, drying rooms, laundry, internet, etc takes away reasons for guests to leave the building and thus to move on completely.

Also they are comfortable to leave some of their belongings and travel light during the day.

These facilities encourage activities that take time and encourage people to stay longer. They are also pretty fundamental to a modern hostel business so not having them will dissuade many from booking in the first place.

10. Make the most of any weather

No matter the weather, time of day or season, if a person is comfortable they are inclined to rest.

A wood fire burning throughout the day has encouraged many guests to stay longer. When the weather turns wet or cold it can discourage the planned exploration, but turn this to your advantage and let them put it off until another day.

Make tea, cakes, hang out and share stories or have a mini-library of great books.

I found when guests were allowed to remain in their pyjamas all day they were much more relaxed and happy. Then they had a holiday within the holiday!XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

I hear about these problems at training sessions, local meetings, down at the cafe over tea. It’s everywhere.

I sympathise with wanting to get away from charity funding because I know what a pain it is to do a grant application, wait weeks or months, then spend what seems like most of your time just doing the paperwork and meeting the conditions of the grant. Not to mention all the restrictions placed on you on what you can use the money for. With Touchwood Project, our environmental skills social enterprise, I finally gave up going after any grant funding because it was more hassle than it was worth.

This is where social enterprise comes in to save the day.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the term, social enterprises are “businesses which exist to address social or environmental need. Rather than maximising profit for shareholders or owners, profits are reinvested into the community or back into the business.” (Social Enterprise London/DTI).

One of the best examples of a community-led social enterprise project is a hostel, so I’d like you to consider starting one.

Why run a hostel?

Why? Because hostels, much like a wonderful pub or a very active church, can be a heart of a community. They also fulfill a number of needs that a community, especially a rural one, has all in one place.

An inviting place for locals and visitors

At their best, hostels provide a space for local residents to interact in places like a hostel-run cafe or in a welcoming and spacious lounge. They allow visitors and residents to interact, giving visitors the chance to get to know the “real” place, and residents a chance to hear entertaining stories and connect with like-minded people.

Profits fund community projects

A successful hostel makes an excellent profit which can be used to fund community projects, getting rid of some of the need to apply for uncertain grant funding and helping launch new projects that otherwise couldn’t happen.

Supports other local businesses

A community-minded hostel will make sure its food and furnishings purchases come locally as much as possible, pumping funds into local businesses. Here’s an example of what a typical hostel in a rural community is capable of doing:

How money circulates in a community from a hostel business

In our work with hostels, we even take the surprising step of forming partnerships with local B&Bs and hotels to put hostel guests in their accommodation on a bed-only basis on the off-season, bringing some extra cash for little effort to their doorstep.

Job skills training

Hostels require staff to possess a wide variety of skills, offering the chance to train youth or unemployed in a variety of careers ranging from catering to finance to marketing to customer relations.

Working with people with disabilities is also well within its scope, since there are such a range of jobs needing to be done they can be tailored to the needs of the individual.

Tackling underemployment

Finally, a well-managed hostel provides meaningful, full-time and year-round employment.

“Underemployment”, which refers both to jobs that are part-time which should be full-time and to jobs that fall well below a person’s level of skill or enjoyment, is a huge problem in Scotland’s rural areas, especially the Highlands where 12% of the entire labour market are underemployed, twice the national average.

I can’t count the number of people I know with college degrees and a wealth of skills who work in low-paid, part-time work because it’s all they can find. A quality hostel can provide excellent employment with good pay, great job satisfaction and a host of transferable skills.

And because a hostel pumps money into other local businesses, it can help expand part-time, seasonal jobs into full-time, year-round employment in other businesses that rely on hostel guests (such as cafes, activity providers and gift shops.)

How to get started

The first step is considering whether you have a building already in your community that could work as a hostel. A number of SYHA hostels have closed in recent years or are facing closure, sadly, but their loss can be your opportunity. Empty buildings offer another possibility.

If you don’t have any existing buildings available, building new is a good possibility since a hostel can be very flexible in its design, depending on what kind of place you need it to be.

As always, we’re keen to help anyone considering running a hostel, or improving a hostel so it can benefit their local community further, so I hope you’ll get in touch with us to let us know if you’re thinking about it. Either way, go for it — your community will thank you for it.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.

There was no internet back then. I had a hostel handbook, which came in the post with my YHA membership card. In the back of the handbook were slips of paper which I filled in obediently, ticking boxes to indicate how many beds, when, and how much bread and milk I would like! I loved this service of being able to pre-order a pint of milk, to be there for me on arrival. Cute.

The living room floor was covered in maps and bits of paper as my friend Mark and I tried to figure out a route around North Wales, bearing in mind we were only 12 years old and had never done this before (I was quite unsure of my ability to cycle far and had no idea what was possible of my legs). We were cautious about the distances in this hilly country and as all hostels had to be booked in advance (we had to be sure of a roof over our heads) we had to navigate through the YHA hostel handbook with meticulous attention to detail.

Hostels were closed two nights a week in those days, as well as being closed between 10am and 5pm (no matter the weather). Different hostels were closed different nights but generally between Sunday and Wednesday. One would be closed Sunday and Monday, another Monday and Tuesday. This greatly narrowed our options further. Then we had to apply and hope they had vacancies. By post! Sending off our little slips of paper. It wasn’t made easy but we persevered and got a week long trip booked.

We had our supplies of bread and milk waiting, and the hostel kitchens enabled us to warm up tins of Irish Stew (it had vegetables so had to be a complete meal) and baked beans of course. Two little boys on their bicycles. I look down at my baby boy now and cannot think how I will let him free to do such a journey without me to keep him safe. The roads seem so dangerous nowadays. Also, the network of hostels has dwindled as places have closed and been sold off. I’m not sure it would be possible for a youngster of limited means and modest leg power to manage it, even with the ease of internet booking and almost unlimited amounts of information.

Happy Easter everyone, whatever your religion. It is a time to venture out and explore your neighbourhood, visit family, eat chocolate and relish Spring’s new life. Best wishes Mark, thank you for making it happen. Now we are both parents we perhaps appreciate what our parents went through giving us that freedom. And thank you YHA.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Get in touch

Does your organisation have a similar project that could use our help? Contact us for a free initial consultation.