British Hostel Specials Help Visitors Save Their Pence

Now that a bed in a shared room at a youth hostel in London runs $35 to $40 per night, any price break is welcome. This winter the Youth Hostel Assn. of England and Wales is offering a special deal for all of its city hostels: Pay for four nights and you get a fifth night free.

The offer, valid until March 31, is available to members of Hostelling International who print out a special coupon from the YHA England and Wales Internet site at https://www.yha.org.uk. You have the coupon stamped when you spend your first four nights at participating hostels, and the fifth night then is on the house.

Descriptive details, including directions, for all of the 230 YHA hostels in England and Wales are on the YHA Internet site. The coupon can be used at any of the YHA city hostels, including those in Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cardiff, Liverpool, Oxford, Penzance, Plymouth, Stratford-on-Avon, Windsor and York.

Several individual hostels are also offering their own special winter price breaks. At London’s Hampstead Heath Youth Hostel, until Feb. 29, if you pay for four nights of half-board accommodations ($158) you get the fifth night free plus a packed lunch every day.

For those who make their own pilgrimage to Canterbury, the local YHA Hostel is offering a second-night special. When you stay for a night for $17, your next night is $10. This is for shared rooms. The offer is valid until April 1. For details, contact Canterbury Youth Hostel, telephone 011-44-1227-462-911.

You can book a bed at any of the participating hostels. Here are some of the key contacts: London, tel. 011-44-20-7236-4965; Earls Court, tel. 011-44-20-7373-7083; Holland House, tel. 011-44-20-7937-0748; Rotherhithe, tel. 011-44-20-7232-2114; Oxford Street, tel. 011-44-20-7734-1618; and the St. Pancras Youth Hostel, tel. 011-44-20-7388-9998.

If your destination is Wales, you can get a free tour of Cardiff Castle when you pay for three nights’ bed and breakfast at the Cardiff YHA. This is valid until March 31. The new National Assembly for Wales government building is also based in the Cardiff Bay area, and visitors are welcome to a free tour and to sit in the visitors’ gallery.

If you’re geared up for cycling or hiking and your trip will be in the warmer months, here are some new budget opportunities.

For those who enjoy hiking, a new 60-mile circular route with hostel accommodations takes you around the Lake District. With the $142 deal, called Super Little Lakes Hostels, you get overnight accommodations with breakfast in seven hostels for seven nights. For your other meals you can visit pubs or take advantage of the packed lunches and evening meals available at most hostels.

This is one of seven long-distance scenic walks in northern England and north Wales featured in a YHA booklet called “Making Tracks,” which offers booked bed-and-breakfast accommodations at youth hostels. The shortest (but most challenging) walk is the 44-mile Snowdonia Round, a six-day walk through the mountains of north Wales. The longest is the 190-mile coast-to-coast trail through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

Copies of “Making Tracks” are available from Youth Hostels Assn. (England & Wales), Trevelyan House, 8 St. Stephen’s Hill, St. Albans, Herts. AL1 2DY; tel. 011-44-1727-855-215. Long-distance walkers can reserve accommodations and meals through the YHA booking bureau, tel. 011-44-1629-581-061, Internet https://www.yha.org.uk.

For avid cyclists, there’s a one-week, nationwide cycling festival in England, from June 17 to 25. On June 21 Britain’s 5,000-mile National Cycle Network officially opens.

Two organizations that provide more cycling information on the Internet are Sustrans (https://www.sustrans.org.uk), a charity that coordinates the National Cycle Network (a Millennium Commission Project of 5,000 miles of continuous light-traffic or traffic-free routes), and the CTC, tel. 011-44-1483-417-217, Internet https://www.ctc.org.uk, which is coordinating the Millennium Festival of Cycling. York, known as the UK’s most cycle-friendly city, will host the Grand Finale of the national festival June 23 to 25.

Lucy Izon is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Internet https://www.izon.com.