ORANGE COUNTY LIFE : O.C. Hostels Offer No-Frill Simplicity

A constant parade of shuttle vans and buses from Los Angeles International Airport deposit weary travelers daily to the cut-rate motels that surround Orange County’s tourist hot spots.

But some smart travelers have found an even cheaper way to stay. The accommodations aren’t within walking distance of famous attractions like Disneyland, but they’re more bucolic.

For about $10 a night, tourists can sleep in a former dairy farmhouse perched upon a grassy hill overlooking Fullerton, a converted county library in San Clemente that now shelves travelers, or a Victorian-style hotel that once served tourists arriving in Huntington Beach on Pacific Electric red cars but now lets out its rooms to backpackers who come by bus.

Guests bring their own sheets and sleep on bunk beds in dormitories that echo with an occasional snore. There are kitchen privileges to prepare a meal, and every day, boarders vacate the building from mid-morning until late afternoon to explore the area.

To check in, all you need is an open mind toward youth hostels.

Hostels offer simple accommodations to travelers of all ages, despite the “youth” in their name. Although best known to those who have traveled Europe on $25 a day, three exist in the shadow of Orange County’s posh hotels and ubiquitous motels.

“People go, ‘Wow, I didn’t know we had any of those in the States,’ ” said Caryl Teplitzky, manager of the Fullerton Hacienda International American Youth Hostel, which serves more than 5,000 world travelers a year. “Americans just don’t know. It’s incredible. People think that we’re shelters, that we’re here for the homeless.”

You don’t need a passport to stay, but there is a limit on the length of your visit. Guests generally can stay up to seven days and must be away about three weeks before checking in again. This keeps the hostels from becoming transient hotels, rather than their original goal, which is to promote an appreciation of travel.

Tourists on a shoestring budget aren’t attracted to cheap rooms, but a cheaper place to sleep. Mostly, they’re looking to meet other travelers and learn how to see the sights--inexpensively.

The lure of the hostel “is everything from just meeting friends to knowing they can depend on us to give them the information they need,” Teplitzky said.

Each of the three local hostels provides relief from the biggest negative cited by Southern California visitors: the appearance that we live in an endless megalopolis of suburbs, concrete and traffic. The impression is made almost indelible by the bus journey from Los Angeles that can take up to four hours and as many transfers.

San Clemente is “a quiet place off the beaten track,” said Kevin Smith, a 29-year-old Londoner, as he relaxed on a lower bunk in the hostel’s male dormitory.

At the Huntington Beach hostel, the beaten track’s not far away but in a “cozy” Victorian-style house, you don’t feel it so much, said Urs Walter, a 24-year-old Swiss, in between making a dinner of ravioli and salad. And in Fullerton, “you don’t feel like you’re in the city,” said another Swiss traveler, 23-year-old Tom Geyer. “It’s a relaxed area.”

Fullerton is the most secluded of the Orange County hostels. The white, two-story building sits within the Brea Dam park and is surrounded by trees. Little remains of the former dairy farm; its barn is a pile of wood. But the hostel does have a history--it was once a farmhouse and later home for the dam keeper.

The Los Angeles Council of American Youth Hostel Inc. leases the building from the Army Corps of Engineers for $1 a year. A nonprofit community service organization, AYH operates hostels in the United States in affiliation with the International Youth Hostel Federation, a worldwide chain of more than 5,600 hostels in 67 countries.

The 5-year-old hostel has been popular, given that it’s only 20 minutes from Disneyland by bus. All of its 15 beds are occupied most of the time during the summer months, but the staff will usually find a place for a weary traveler. One of the couches grouped around a fireplace in the hostel’s snug living room sometimes fills this purpose. “We don’t like to turn people away, especially if they are on foot,” Teplitzky said.

A glance at the walls shows travelers’ main concern: finding inexpensive transportation to take them to affordable places. It’s hard to find a spot on the wall that is not covered by a map or a train or bus schedule amid the advertisements for amusement parks or other hostels.

“Everything seems to be more organized but more comfortable as well,” said Amanda Tutt, a 23-year-old from Sydney, Australia. “And the staff is really friendly.” Almost half the county’s hostel guests come from the land down under.

The Los Angeles council, a subdivision of AYH that extends south to the Santa Ana River, will be improving and expanding the Fullerton facility now that a new 200-bed hostel in Santa Monica has been completed, Teplitzky said. New carpeting will be laid, and heating and air conditioning installed. More restrooms are also a priority. Down south, the San Clemente hostel has 45 beds in two dormitories and small rooms for couples or families. Without a Disneyland nearby, it is rarely full and serves mainly as a resting place for those traveling between Los Angeles and San Diego.

“If you’ve had enough of big cities, San Diego and Los Angeles, it’s great,” said Mick Houlder, a 30-year-old Brit. “That’s what happened to me and most people I’ve met. They come here for a day and want to stay on.”

During his stay, Houlder saw the San Juan Capistrano Mission, which didn’t seem so old to him, given the centuries-old buildings in Britain. The real draw was exploring the beach, where he took at shot at boogie-boarding.

“It was really good. It took the first day just to get used to staying on the thing, but I had a good time,” Houlder said.

The San Diego council, which runs the hostel along with two others, wants to see the 4-year-old facility better utilized, said John Lindsay, hostel operations manager.

The council is trying to interest more groups--such as the Girl Scouts--to schedule a visit along with their educational programs, rather than relying on people who happen upon it. Elderhostel programs, which bring seniors to different hostels for educational and recreational seminars, might be expanded. One program brings groups in for a whale-watching course during the winter migration season.

The Colonial Inn Youth Hostel in Huntington Beach used to be affiliated with AYH’s Los Angeles council, but owners Jim and Mary Parkinson decided to go it alone in 1987. They prefer to run their own shop rather than pay 25% of overnight fees to the association.

They still enforce AYH rules, such as a daytime lockout and a drug and alcohol ban.

Not being listed in the IYHF guide hasn’t hurt business. The popular budget guidebook, “Let’s Go,” lists the Colonial Inn as “the nicest hostel in the L.A. area.”

Parkinson said most of her guests heard of the hostel by word of mouth. “Kids vote with their feet. If they had an unpleasant stay, they’ll say,” she said in her small office that’s plastered with post cards from all over the world.

The Huntington Beach hostel is housed in the former Hotel Evangeline, an 86-year-old, Victorian-style building. It looks no different from black-and-white pictures of it that hang in the hostel’s lobby, except that the neighborhood around the building didn’t exist in those days. Palm trees arch over the entrance and a barn remains in the back, though it shelters bicycles and surfboards now.

Parkinson said she was reading a newspaper article in 1982 about youth hostels, and the thought of owning one interested her. Within months, the Parkinsons and another partner, whom they later bought out, bought the hotel--which Mary said served mostly transients--and renovated it into its present state.

Penny Owen and Melinda Bevan, both 23 and from Australia, said friends recommended the hostel. It served as a great base from which to see all the sites: Disneyland, the swap meet, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach, and nightclubs in Hollywood.

“We love it here,” Owen said. “It’s a beautiful place.”

Parkinson said she enjoys providing an inexpensive place for travelers to call home while visiting this imposing area. “No other city in the world is lights for miles and miles and miles,” she said, describing the local view. “Where do you find your niche?

“We decided it would be a fun thing to do,” she said. “You’re helping these young kids who can’t afford the Sheraton.”