Hostels Serve Young, Young at Heart

In a corner of the lounge, a middle-aged pianist played Schubert while a teenage music lover turned the pages of her sheet music. At a chessboard nearby, two college students stared at their rooks and knights while a white-haired senior offered occasional advice. And at an overstuffed couch under a notice-filled bulletin board, several eager young people sought travel advice from a couple in their 40s.

This jumbling of the generations--young with old, newly retired with newlywed--often occurs in youth hostels. They are no longer limited to youths and haven’t been for some time, but many people don’t know this and thus pass up lodging opportunities. What are these structures that now accept “young people of all ages,” to use a newly coined slogan?

They range from ancient castles to modern farmhouses, from Buddhist temples to converted water mills, from rambling Victorian mansions to four-masted sailing ships to glass-walled high-rises in the center of great cities--about 5,000 hostels in all (in 74 countries), of which 160 are in the United States.

Although the beds are often double-decker cots in dormitories (usually segregated by sex), their facilities are otherwise comfortable and clean, closely supervised by “hostel parents,” social, cheery, priced for peanuts--and now multigener- ational in clientele.

They’re an exciting resource for America’s mature travelers. Using a $12-per-person hostel instead of a $60-per-person hotel enables older citizens--even those on Social Security--to enjoy the same stays abroad that younger Americans experience.

What brought about this revolution in the hostels? Some hostelers point to the laws against age discrimination in numerous countries. Some mention the growing realization by youth hostel organizations of the need for income and patronage in non-summer months, when young people are in school. Others suggest that the lowering of age bars came about when hostel-loving baby boomers approached their middle years and insisted on the right to continue using hostel accommodations.

“The reason we use hostels is because hosteling is an attitude, not simply a source of cheap accommodations for penniless young people,” says Jane Holden, formerly a college lecturer. “That attitude never changes. To me, the finest moments of life are in meeting people from different countries and backgrounds, and extending friendship to them, even if it means trading off a bit of comfort and privacy.”

Mature hostelers, like Edwin and Jean Erlanger, say it’s not difficult to mix with people who are much younger. Once people work together in the kitchen or begin discussing the day’s news, the barriers fade, say the Erlangers, hostelers since the mid-1950s.

The U.S. headquarters for Hostelling International is 733 15th St., N.W., Suite 840, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 783-6161, www.hiayh.org, but there are local branches in 35 cities throughout the country. Visit the Web site to look up locations; scan the phone book for “Hostelling International” or “American Youth Hostels”; or look in the Yellow Pages under “hostels.” More than 200 youth hostels can be found in the United States and Canada, several thousand in Europe, several hundred scattered across the rest of the globe.

Membership is free if you are 17 or younger, $25 annually if you are 18 to 55, $15 annually if you are 55 or older. You’ll receive a membership card and a book listing youth hostel facilities in the United States and Canada.