Llangollen YH
Tyndwr Hall, Tyndwr Road
Llangollen, Denbighshire
LL20 8AR
Wales (UK)
Phone: (0044) (01978) 860330
Fax: (0044) (01978) 861709
This place is almost more like a summer camp than a youth hostel, and they have the big groups of children to prove it. The building is massive and beautiful, about a mile out of town. This is one of the few full-service "activity centers" in Wales, which means they have everything from kayaking to archery, with instructors available to lead groups through just about anything they might want to do. They also provide a large "drying room" for wet clothes, which is quite handy.
The hostel provides reasonably priced meals (£4.40 for a large dinner, and I believe breakfast was around £2.60), but the self-catering facilities are a bit understocked. They have only a couple pans, a few plates, a couple mugs, and a few pieces of silverware, and that's about it. No microwave, no oven, just a couple of gas stoves.
The staff here are quite friendly and accomodating, which is a saving grace of the place, since it "officially" seems to have so many ridiculous rules. The "member's kitchen" (self-catering) is supposedly closed from 10am-5pm, but I thought that was so stupid that I went ahead and used it to cook my lunch anyway, and nobody said anything. Check-out time here is an absurdly early 9:30am, the earliest of any youth hostel I've ever seen. I honestly doubt that they're terribly good about enforcing that, though. I certainly don't intend to leave that early tomorrow morning.
The price here is a bit steep at £8.80, but you get a £1 discount with a student card. (You have to ask, they won't tell you!)