Many hostels closing in Britain

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Following the foot-and-mouth epidemic, and the government's disastrous policy of totally banning access to the countryside for several months, tourism in Britain was hit hard. As a result, the YHA, which runs 230 hostels in England and Wales, is planning to sell over 20 of them to recoup their losses.

The city hostels will be untouched; it is hostels in the country and smaller towns that are affected. So this move will not greatly affect international backpackers. Or will it? Have you visited Britain and travelled outside the main cities? Did you stay in any hostels in country areas, and did you like them?

I would be most interested to know what visitors to Britain think. Please reply to this thread, or send me an email to [e-mail] .

I fear there is no way of making the YHA change their mind, since they are run as a business, even though this policy is destroying the main purpose of YHA -- to provide a NETWORK of budget accommodation for young people exploring the British countryside.  I wish there was some way of 'rescuing' some of these hostels.

(This message submitted to several hostel forums.)

Peter.

[nitsansh]

I surely stayed at hostels in some of the smaller places - where else would I go?
I especially liked the small shops they had at hostels, so I never worried about food supply. There's no such thing anywhere else!
I stayed at YHA hostels at Bath, Brecon, Ffestiniog, Llanberis, Chester, Grasmere, and SYHA at Glasgow, Loch Lomond, Broadford, Inverness. In Edinburgh and York I opted for non-affiliated hostels.