AYH Trips Available for All Ages

You don’t have to be young to stay in American Youth Hostels accommodations and participate in travel programs, which include a host of new budget trips this year.

AYH operates about 230 travel hostels in the United States. Although the word “youth” appears in the name, there are no age restrictions. Each hostel provides dormitory-style accommodations in separate men’s and women’s rooms, at an average rate of $5 to $15 per night.

Locations range from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. There is even a hostel in a renovated lighthouse 50 miles south of San Francisco.

In addition, AYH is a member of the International Youth Hostels Federation, an association that links similar facilities in more than 50 countries around the world.

This year, various AYH cycling tours will wander through Atlantic Canada, Quebec, the Cape Cod seashore, Washington, D.C., the Finger Lakes in New York, the Colorado Rockies, Seattle, the San Juan Islands, Mt. St. Helens, the American Pacific coastline and Yosemite National Park.

All AYH tours use economical hostel or camping accommodations. Tour prices include accommodations, group-prepared meals and any transportation needed from the tour starting point. Cycling tour participants must provide their own touring bikes, and tours are rated by levels of difficulty.

The hiking tour programs take place in the Canadian Rockies, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, the Grand Canyon and Alaska. They are designed so participants are based in one spot and can leave their heavy gear behind when they take day-hikes.

The backpacking programs will operate on the Appalachian Trail and in the eastern Sierra’s John Muir Wilderness Area.

Copies of the 24-page booklet called “1991 AYH Discovery Tours,” which also includes details on European and British programs, is available for free by writing American Youth Hostels, Dept. 860, P.O. Box 37613, Washington, D.C. 20013-7613, or by calling (202) 783-6161.