Hotel Hit Squad: Inside YHA Bath Hostel, where families and rugby fans make the unlikeliest of bedfellows
A reader named Penny contacted me via Twitter to ask if I could “Please review some hotels for families with three children, which won’t break the bank! Thanks.”
To which my first reaction was: Penny, honey, everything breaks the bank when you have three children, unless you are the Duchess of Cambridge. I only have two and if it weren’t for this job, we would never travel further than the post box.
Then I remembered my professional obligations to you, the reader, and set to work. The YHA’s Bath hostel has just opened a new annex. I know what you’re thinking, but bear with me. They have poured ￡2.5 million into these 14 bedrooms and aimed them squarely at families. So all are en suite. Three have a double bed plus bunks (starting at ￡69). Six have a double with two sets of bunks (from ￡89) and five more have three sets of bunk beds, meaning a family of six can stay from ￡99 a night.
The main building, too, has been refurbished – and what a building! A honey-coloured Victorian villa to rival any glossy boutique hotel, it is set in its own grounds halfway up Bathwick Hill, one of the city’s grandest addresses. It’s a 20-minute stroll into the city centre, across the National Trust’s bucolic Bathwick Fields, over the canal and through streets heavy with blossom and Bath stone, the city’s spires looming ever closer. The U1 bus stops right at the end of the drive, but is more prosaic.
Inside, the main Italianate building has decorative Victorian tiles, parquet floors and ornate ceiling roses that are only slightly marred by the YHA’s ubiquitous bright-green branding. Chartreuse signs direct you to the café bar, to the simple but satisfactory restaurant where (Penny, take note) child guests eat free, and to the vast and well-stocked self-catering kitchen.
The new annex is just across a stretch of lawn and, while modern, has been tastefully decorated in a gentle shade of duck egg blue, making the blindingly green duvet covers and pillow cases all the more jarring. “It’s how I imagine an enlightened, Scandinavian prison,” said my husband as we dropped our bags in our room. “And I mean that in the most positive way possible.”
We had three sets of bunks, decked out with Ikea-esque bedding. There were USB ports and personal reading lamps on each level. No telly, but restful views over the wooded hillside through vast Velux windows. The en suite had a shower, loo and sink – all gleaming white and functional.
The rooms could be made a little more welcoming by the addition of a framed poster or two, but it was spotlessly clean, respectable, roomy and – crucially – affordable.
My husband and I took a top bunk each, keen to assert our position in the cell hierarchy. The children didn’t notice the lack of TV and happily watched Netflix on our laptop instead, via the free Wi-Fi.
In the morning, they failed to discern any differences at all between the buffet breakfast here and those at the five-star hotels they’ve visited. In fairness, it was pretty good – a full English with top-quality sausages and bacon, cereals in Tupperware dispensers, toast in different shades, warm croissants and plentiful coffee. Afterwards, we took the blissfully beautiful walk down to the city centre and – since the eight-year-old is “doing the Romans” at school – spent a morning at the Roman Baths, where the audio tour for children is world-class and the ruins extraordinary enough to snap even the most insouciant student into a state of awe.
By the evening, the UK’s only Unesco world heritage city was starting to feel a little less classical and a little more carousing. There was a big rugby game on, and hen parties, too. The hostel felt like a haven when we returned to see the city’s lights sparkling below and families chatting happily in the bar and kitchen.
Then, at 2.30am, the rugby fans joined us. We woke to the sound of stomping and singing in the corridor, making up in stamina what they lacked in tunefulness. I was grateful for my green pillow, which I wrapped around my head like monstrous ear muffs. This, I realised, is the only drawback about an annex perfectly kitted out for families. It is also ideal for large groups of lads on the lash.
They were nice boys, though, because the Bath YHA attracts those who are after good clean fun. I can’t help thinking the Duchess, should she be reading, would approve.
A family of four can stay from ￡89 per night; breakfast costs an extra ￡6.25 per adult and ￡3.30 per child. One of the five-bed rooms in the new annex is wheelchair accessible. Its en suite wet room is equipped with grab rails and drop-down rails; pull-cord alarms are fitted here and in the bedroom.