Smart Travel Edit

Can you enjoy a family break in the Lake District for under £400? Here’s how we stayed at YHA Ambleside, hiked with three children and discovered why hostelling is one of the UK’s best-kept family travel secrets.

When most people hear the word hostel, they picture backpackers in shared dorms, late-night parties and twenty-somethings travelling the world on a shoestring budget.

I certainly experienced this side of hosteling, until I started using them as a parent.

I’d love to inspire you to challenge your budget as a family and stay somewhere you may not have considered before.  

NB: If your idea of a holiday is a five-star all-inclusive with room service and daily housekeeping, this probably isn’t the blog post for you…

But if your family loves camping, hiking, self-catering and spending more time outdoors than in your hotel room, then keep reading. You might just discover one of the best value family holidays in the UK.

I’ve spent plenty of nights in hostels over the years, from mixed dormitories in my late teens to mountain lodges in my twenties. I have enough stories to write a book! But I’d never considered staying in one with my children.

We spent February half term in the Lake District with our 11, 8, 5 year old children for under £400. Here’s how it went…

At a Glance

📍 Destination	Ambleside, Lake District
🏨 Stayed	YHA Ambleside
🛏️ Accommodation	Private family room with en-suite
📅 Length of stay	3 nights
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family	2 adults & 3 children (11, 8 & 5)
🥾 Best for	Active families who love hiking and the outdoors
💷 Total Cost	Under £400
⭐ Would we stay again?	Absolutely

💷 Cost Breakdown

* We brought food from home out of our  normal family weekly shop

Why We Chose a Hostel in the Lake District with Kids

The Lake District has always been a special place for us. My husband proposed there, and we’ve returned time and time again, with and without children.

We wanted a short family adventure without spending in the region of £800 on accommodation. That’s when I started looking at Youth Hostels in the Lake District.

After a bit of research, we settled on YHA Ambleside, and honestly, it felt like we’d stumbled across one of the Lake District’s best-kept secrets.

Perched right on the shores of Lake Windermere, the location is incredible. Comparably located hotels for a family of 5 were well over £2,000 for the week we wanted to travel, making the decision unsurprisingly very easy.

Ambleside also gave us the best of both worlds. There are fantastic family-friendly walks straight from the front door, while Windermere is just a short drive away, so I knew if we needed cafés, shops or rainy-day entertainment we would have options.

The Weather Had Other Plans

I’d imagined crisp winter walks and cosy cafés.

Instead, heavy rainfall had other ideas. Luckily for us, we didn’t go to the Lakes for the weather, so we found ourselves at times battling relentless rain, flooded fields and winds strong enough to make us question our life choices more than once.

Did it ruin the holiday?

Not even close.

In fact, it gave us some of our favourite family memories.

There’s something very humbling about a terrible weather hiking holiday. At one point, after a three-hour hike, my husband carried all three children across a completely waterlogged field because the only way back to the parked car was 3 hours in reverse!

We still laugh about this moment now.

(If you’re looking for walks that little legs can manage, I’ll be sharing our favourite family-friendly hikes in the Lake District in another post soon.)

What Was the Family Room Like at YHA Ambleside?

We booked a private family room with an en-suite bathroom that slept five.

The room overlooked Lake Windermere through a huge bay window, and honestly, waking up to that view each morning was a huge privilege.

Inside, everything was simple but comfortable: two sets of bunk beds, one with a double bed underneath, fresh bedding to make ourselves, and a compact en-suite with a toilet and shower.

Hostels aren’t luxury hotels, so it’s worth arriving with the right expectations. The rooms are practical rather than stylish, but after a day hiking, all we wanted was a hot shower, a warm bed and somewhere to dry our boots.

Speaking of drying boots…

The drying room was one of the hostel’s most underrated features. Instead of filling our bedroom with five sets of soaking waterproofs and muddy walking shoes, we left everything there overnight and started each day with warm, dry kit.

It’s a small detail that made a huge difference to our winter break in the Lake District.

Why We Love Hostelling with Kids

The biggest surprise wasn’t the accommodation.

It was the atmosphere.

We took enough food with us for breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals. It took a little organisation before we left home, but it saved us well over £300 and cooking in the hostel became one of the highlights of the trip.

The communal kitchen was busy every evening, but never chaotic.

My children quickly got stuck in preparing dinner while chatting to other guests from all over the world. At one point, my daughter was happily sharing cooking utensils with a retired French traveller while asking him about the places he’d visited. My son somehow recruited a group of British teenagers to help him with the washing up.

There were families, solo travellers, walking groups, retired couples and friends catching up over dinner. Friends old and new around the communal tables sharing stories, and wine!  

Speaking to strangers is becoming increasingly rare, and this was such a lovely reminder of how nice it can be to share stories and experiences with absolute strangers.

For my children, it was an education that no hotel could have offered.

Our Meal Plan

Keeping food simple made the whole trip easier.

Night One: Homemade chilli (cooked before we left), rice and nachos.

Night Two: Salmon & quinoa with roasted vegetables

Night Three: Pasta, tomato sauce and garlic bread.

Nothing fancy.

Just easy meals after long days outdoors, leaving more money to spend on adventures rather than restaurants.

Would we stay in a Youth Hostel again?

Without a second thought.

No, it wasn’t luxury. We made our own beds, cooked our own dinners and shared a kitchen with complete strangers. But somewhere between muddy hiking boots, drying rooms and conversations over pasta, we were reminded what travelling is really about.

For us, hostelling isn’t about travelling as cheaply as possible. It’s about spending less on where we sleep so we can spend more on the experiences that we’ll remember long after we’ve unpacked our bags.

If you’re a family who loves the outdoors and doesn’t mind swapping luxury for adventure, I’d encourage you to give it a try.

You might be surprised by just how much you get for your money—and how quickly your children fall in love with hostel life.