Hostels are Open - Everything you need to know

We are so pleased to be able to share the beautiful locations our hostellers call home with you again. It has been a long, frustrating time for the hostels and they couldn't be more pleased to be welcoming guests again.

Now is the time to escape from your sofa and have an adventure. Our hostels are in beautiful locations, run by locals who'd love to help you get the most out of your stay. We have to follow the government Covid-19 guidelines, hostels will be a slightly different experience than normal, but we can still offer a warm welcome and a comfortable bed for the night.  

The rules and dates in Scotland do vary slightly from the rest of the UK. Below is some information to help you navigate your way to your Scottish hostel adventure with ease!

Who can visit?

Leisure accommodation in Scotland is open to everyone from within the UK.  It's a great time to visit as things will be a bit quieter in some areas. Only essential travel from outside the UK at the moment, so we are missing our guests from abroad. 

What is open?

Accommodation, cafes, restaurants, pubs, shops, distilleries, visitor attractions, national parks, activity centres, the islands, the ferries, the lochs, all 282 munros, 1,000s of miles of cycle paths and footpaths... There is a huge open space out there waiting for you to explore!

Scotland's Levels... What do they mean?

Currently all of Scotland is Level 3 until 17th May.

Outside: 6 people from 6 households (6 in 6) (the exception is if your household / extended household consists of more than 6 people than you can socialise outside with these people, but you can’t meet up with another household as you are already at the limit)

Inside (private): Currently no private indoor socialising allowed.

Pubs/Cafés/Restaurants: Outside – 6 in 6 until place closes, alcohol & food allowed. Inside (public) – 6 in 2 until 8pm, food only, no alcohol allowed.

Hostel Bedrooms - Is sharing allowed?

No, sorry, currently the rules state only one household allowed per bedroom (that’s for the whole of Scotland, across any accommodation provider, not just hostels).  Rules in other parts of the UK vary on this topic, but we have to follow the Scottish Government guidelines. 

BUT, from 17th May for hostels in Level 2 or Level 1 you can take an exclusive use booking for a maximum of 6 people from up to 3 households (under 12s do not count towards the number of people but do count towards the number of households).  As is the case for all tourist accommodation, each household should have a separate bedroom.

Separate households do not need to physically distance from each other elsewhere in the hostel if the hostel has been booked for exclusive use.

Can I use communal areas (kitchen, dining, lounge, drying room)?

This gets a bit more complicated and varies from hostel to hostel.  Different hostel layouts, rooms sizes and staffing affect their ability to open communal area, but we can reassure you, they're doing their best.

Physical distancing between households is still required if the hostel is not being used for exclusive use.  A maximum of 6 people from up to 3 households may socialise in a public place (a communal facility such as a kitchen, dining room, lounge, or reception area) subject to capacity and being able to manage the space safely.

Please check with individual hostels. 

When will things change?

Dates may vary but the current list is as follows:

17th May - hopefully all of Scotland will move to Level 2.  Maximum 6 people from up to 3 households may socialise indoors in a public or private place. Indoor hospitality with alcohol being served until 10.30pm. (at the time of writing, the Moray council area was expected to remain in Level 3).

Early June, all of Scotland will move to Level 1. Maximum 8 people from up to 3 households may socialise indoors in a public place.  Maximum 6 people from up to 3 households may socialise in a private dwelling.

Late June, all of Scotland will move to Level 0.  Maximum 10 people from up to 4 households may socialise indoors in a public place.  Maximum 8 people from up to 4 households may socialise in a private dwelling.

Thanks to Ballater Hostel, in the Cairngorms National Park, for their help putting this blog together. 

Support Our Hostels

Staying in a hostel will be a different experience for a while but there will always be a warm welcome.

Reopening our hostels safely means that many of the communal facilities that make a stay in one of our hostels so great are not always available.  We hope you do choose to stay at one of our hostels.

What makes hostels so great

Those memorable evenings spent chatting with other guests in our hostel lounges, swapping stories about what you’ve been up to that day and where you’re heading next.

The ability to knock up a cordon-bleu meal or simply use the microwave in our kitchens.

Keeping your costs down by buying a bed in one of our dorm rooms.  That feeling of setting off in dry clothes the next morning after using the hostel drying rooms.

Your support is vital 

A recent survey of our hostels revealed that without further financial support a third of our hostels may not survive to Spring 2021.  It just shows you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

We’re lobbying the Scottish Government to raise awareness of the particular challenges our hostels are facing and to ask for consideration in the allocation of any future financial support.

Please support our campaign posts on our Facebook page and share them with your friends.

Support from others

We also had support from, BBC An La

 The Great Outdoors magazine

and Munro Moonwalker's Blog who’ve highlighted the plight for hostels.

WANTED: Hostel-Loving Owner

It is with great sadness that we have come to the decision to sell our beloved hostel here in the beautiful loch-side town of Inveraray, Scotland.

We are looking for a new hostel-loving owner to come and breath a new lease of life into this community project we have started.

Inveraray Hostel is located in the historic loch-side town of Inveraray, Argyll and is just a minute’s walk of the town’s amenities, restaurants & tourist attractions.

The hostel is in a superb location for exploring nearby hills, gardens, lochs, glens, cultural sites & islands on the West Coast of Scotland.

Key Facts:

• Recently decorated & designed gardens
• Solar panel roofs
• Fully-equipped guest kitchen
• Communal dining area
• Shared bathrooms
• Drying room
• Bike shed
• Car parking

Hostel Website: https://www.inverarayhostel.co.uk/

For all enquiries please contact
hostel@campbellwright.co.uk

News from David & Valery Dean, from The Lazy Duck, Cairngorms

Current and former owners of Cairngorms Hostels gathered on Sunday 1st Dec at The Lazy Duck in Nethy Bridge to mark the retirement of David & Valery Dean.  Having built their hostel business and associated camping and eco-accommodation within the now, six acre site, they have decided to hand over the running of the accommodation and associated care of the wildfowl on the Fhuarain Burn, to take life at a steadier pace.

A big part of the hostelling community

Over the last 20 years Valery and David have built up their business to include a variety of accommodation. More importantly, throughout this period, they have devoted their voluntary time to the wider hostelling business with David holding the appointments of Chairperson of Scottish Independent Hostels (formerly Independent Backpackers Hostels Scotland) and Cairngorms Hostels.  Along with Ian Bishop and Rebecca Mackellar, formerly of Slochd Hostel and Ardenbeg Bunkhouse respectively, they worked with the Cairngorms Business Partnership to bring hostels from both sides of the Cairngorms National Park together for marketing and business purposes. Valery, in the meantime continued to support David in the business whilst bringing up their family and grandchildren and well as visiting her mother, who also lived close by. Dealing with the quirky personalities of individual hostel owners has been tricky at times and at the helm, David used his tact and good humour to enable a diverse group of businesses to ‘collaborate to compete’ .

New steward tenants for Lazy Duck

David and Valery are leaving a superb legacy. The Lazy Duck now has new Steward tenants, Sarah Miller and Phil Hodgkiss  who are intending to treasure and maintain the ethos at The Lazy Duck and to retain, in a different way, its hostel status.  Independent Hostelling within the Cairgnorms National Park and beyond in Scotland,  is definitely more successful as a result of these two hard-working, caring and enabling individuals.

Highland Games - Our Top Tips for a Great Day Out

We’re spoilt for entertainment in August.  Visitors from across the globe flock to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world.  But, there’s plenty of entertainment all over Scotland that gets right to the heart of the Scottish culture.  We’re talking about the Highland Games held all over the country in some of the most idyllic settings.

Visiting a Highland Games ensures you’ll join in the true spirit of Scotland. They’ll be sporting spectacles, including the “heavy events”; the caber toss, shot put, tug-o-war and hammer throw.

Tossing the Caber

A full length tree trunk, usually Scots pine, is lifted and thrown into the air so that it flips mid-air and lands on its top end. A straight landing gets more marks!

Tug O’War

A sport where passions run high!  Teams of eight try and pull each other across the line. You’ll know when the Tug o’War is starting from the noise of the crowds! Not to be missed.

Hammer Throw

A large metal ball is whirled round the head and thrown as far as they can.

Then, of course, there are the bagpipes, kilts, dancing and whisky, all of which feature heavily at any self-respecting Highland Games gathering.

Our Top Tips

1. Dress for all weathers
2. Join in the spirit - there’s often the chance to have a go yourself!
3. Don’t miss the food feast! They’re great local food available.
4. Stay with your local friendly SIH hostel. They’ll give you the inside knowledge of how to get the most out of your Highland adventure!

Highland Games dates
Find a hostel

Photos thanks to Visit Scotland

Hostel keepers come in all shapes and sizes

In Fond Memory of Tom Jones, 

By David Dean

Amongst us, Tom Jones who with his wife Allyson created the quirky state of the art Carr Bridge Bunkhouse and who died last month whilst on holiday in Greece, was a true giant.  Tom's bunkhouse and, in particular, the intimate and all-embracing hospitality for which he and Allyson are renowned has, for years, been a model of right minded hostel keeping.

The aroma of fresh brewed coffee and home baked loaves drifting from Allyson's oft visited kitchen, the fun in the garden, their doted upon children and grandchildren, then hens with a mind of their own and invigorating conversation all made for the magic she and Tom exuded in order to be the hosts they have to hundreds.

INDEPENDENT hostel keepers are a breed apart.

So strikingly sure of their values were they that when independent hostels' organisations, in their view, strayed too far into the world of plasticised and homogenised star grading and silly requirements from matching cutlery and carpets onwards, Tom and Allyson stood apart.  " Thanks, but no thanks!" or words to that effect. I remember them so clearly.

Tom, with David & Juan Carlos at an
impromptu jam session at the Lazy Duck

Since those days of near conflict these organisations and the VisitScotland whip which attempted to drive them have stepped away from such folly.  Our hostels surely are a statement of ourselves.  If, as was Tom, we are happily unusual, healthily idiosyncratic even and hanging on to our authenticity in what we offer guests and how we welcome them, we are being true to ourselves.

To Tom, Valery and I owe a debt of real gratitude.  In our setting up the Lazy Duck Hostel in 1998 we were blessed with every encouragement possible together with strong role modelling from Carr Bridge Bunkhouse.  Tom with our other good friend, Ian Bishop of Slochd Mhor Lodge Hostel, ate with us here only weeks ago.

Thanks for everything Tom; hostelling owes you.

For an appreciation, which moved me much, one of far greater depth and some real history on Tom I suggest a read of this blog "Tom Jones RIP- My mate, family man, PTI, Outdoor Man, Prankster and great human being."

Five reasons why we ♡ skiing in Scotland

It's a challenge, it's an adventure and it's a thrill to put skis on real snow in the UK.  Yes, it's unpredictable, but when your luck is in, there's no better feeling.

1. Choose from 5 resorts

From Glencoe and Nevis Range on the west coast, through to Cairngorm Mountain above Aviemore, and Glenshee and The Lecht in the east. 

• Cairngorm Mountain is the most popular, probably because it has the best record for snow sureness. The views are great and the lifts are quick. It boasts Scotland's only funicular railway.
• Glencoe has incredible scenery and there are some steep descents for those who want adventure! And it is home to Scotland's longest ski run. 
• Nevis Range is often quieter than the other resorts and has some challenging terrain. It also has an artificial slope if snow is in short supply. 
• Glenshee has something for all abilities and is one of the larger areas with 36 runs to keep you busy. 
• The Lecht is an attractive small ski area which is great for families and has a fun Penguin Park for younger children. 

2. Great Ski School

The teaching is to a high standard, with friendly BASI-qualified instructors who will take first-timers to the nursery slopes or set a challenge for more experienced skiers and boarders.

3. Your budget

You can buy half-day, full-day or multi-day passes, giving you the flexibility to do other activities on your holiday (whisky tasting anyone?). Lift passes are slightly cheaper than their Alpine rivals, but it’s the in-resort costs that will save you money.  You can have lunch on the slopes without taking out a second mortgage!

4. More than just skiing

There’s a huge choice of activities in Scotland, from mountain biking and hiking to historical attractions and distillery tours. We suggest planning a range of activities with skiing being the icing on the cake.

5. Fabulous hostels nearby

Near Cairngorm Mountain:

Faoch Lodge

Slochd Mhor Lodge

Abernethy Bunkhouses (Groups Only)

Lazy Duck Hostel

Ardenbeg Bunkhouse

Find more...

Near Glencoe and Nevis Range:

Glencoe Independent Hostel

Corran Bunkhouse

Bank Street Lodge

Ben Nevis Inn Bunkhouse

Kings House Bunkhouse

Find more..

Near Glenshee:

Gulabin Lodge Outdoor Centre

Jessie Macs

Prosen Hostel

Braemar Lodge Hostel

The Weem Inn

Find more...

Near The Lecht:

The Smugglers Hostel

Ballater Hostel

Craibstone Estate Hostel

Highlander Bunkhouse

Braemar Lodge Hostel

Find more...

Why not use our App to search for friendly, affordable and convenient accommodation! Search for a hostel near you and check reviews, prices, directions and contact details.

The snow cover can be unpredictable, but if you keep an eye on the websites and social media, the resorts will let you know what’s happening each day.  From beautiful light fluffy snow from top to bottom to patchy snow and heather, you never quite know what you’ll get!  Visit Scotland has a good summary.

[Images courtesy of Visit Scotland]

We ♡ winter hostelling...

Yes, Scotland in the summer is beautiful, you know that, we’re here to tell you all about Scotland’s winter wonderland.

Winter should be cold, and we mean the type of cold that makes your lungs double take, that makes the scenery about you glisten with frost, not a  mild, half-hearted chill that doesn’t require more than two layers.


1 Get cosy 
Why would you want to be anywhere else?  Nothing feels better than being outside on a frosty day and heading back to a cosy hostel for some hot soup and a game of cards.

2 Snow sports
You might even get a bit of snow on the hills in the distance which adds to the already spectacular views.  Or you can take to the hills on your skis, boards and sledges. Choose from Scotland’s five ski centres and enjoy excellent snow sports surrounded by Highland and Aberdeenshire scenery.

GLENSHEE | CAIRNGORM | GLENCOE | NEVIS RANGE | THE LECHT

3 Walking 
Then there’s walking in winter. From a scenic stroll in the rolling hills of the Borders, to the majestic heights of Glen Coe with its challenging mountaineering, there is something for everyone.

4 History
The castle and monuments are a bit quieter in the winter.  You can stroll the battlements and take yourself back in time without worrying about queues.

5 Food and Drink
We can’t forget the food and drink.  All that fresh air is going to make you hungry.  From mouth-watering steaks to fabulous seafood, you’ll get local produce that is hearty, tasty and delicious! And you can shop locally and get creative in your hostel kitchen.

6 Winter Fashion
Your North Face jacket needs a challenge. It’s fed up of keeping you warm at the bus stop, it wants adventure!

Galloway Activity
Centre

Winter Offers

Here are just a few of the winter offers at our hostels, see the hostel pages for more offers.

Corona Bunkhouse, Lochaber, only £24 per person per night in November, December and January.
A spectacular setting on the shores of Loch Linnhe near Glencoe and Fort William, the perfect base for exploring the Nevis Range, Mamores, Glen Coe and Ardnamurchan.

Galloway Activity Centre, Southern Scotland, has a cosy hostel and authentic Mongolian Yurts. Winter retreats in the Yurt include a cosy log fire and free use of the traditional wood fired hot tub. Bathe under the stars!

Ballater Hostel, Cairngorms National Park, enjoy the thrill of the outdoors, the beauty of nature, the serenity of being unplugged.

Ballater Hostel

Book online and receive up to 15% discount.

Ardenbeg Bunkhouse, Cairngorms National Park. They have long weekend offers, with the third night half price and great value off-peak midweek breaks.
It's just 15 minutes from Aviemore, and well situated for all that Britain’s largest national park has to offer.

Achaban House in Fionnphort, Mull. With no light pollution enjoy dark skies and identify the stars and constellations. And sunsets and sunrises are perfectly timed for breakfast and dinner.
20% discount for your winter visit to Mull and Iona when you stay 3 days or more.

Market Bay nr Achaban House, Mull