The youth hostel at Pen y Pass is to be refurbished
A popular Snowdonia youth hostel has closed for a six-month modernisation costing £1.3m.
The Pen y Pass hostel is due to reopen in March next year with accommodation for 111 people.
Its refurbishment follows owners YHA’s blueprint for modern facilities, with en suite accommodation, private family rooms, licensed restaurant and education facilities.
The work will double the accommodation offered to visitors and school groups. Pen y Pass is the starting point for three major ascent routes up Wales’s highest mountain Snowdon, via the Pyg Track, Miners’ Track and Crib Goch.
The refurbishment will provide public toilets and showers for day walkers, along with a disabled-access bedroom, 14 additional bedrooms, 11 of which will be en suite. A disused barn at the site will be converted for some of the accommodation.
A cafe and bar, self-catering kitchen and classroom are also included in the plans.
Caroline White: 'Pen y Pass is superb location'. Photo: Ian R Taylor
Caroline White, chief executive of YHA (England and Wales) said: “YHA Pen y Pass welcomes thousands of young people every year giving everyone, whatever their backgrounds, the chance to enjoy educational and outdoor activities in this superb location.
“Our investment will help the youth hostel become even more financially sustainable, securing its future for many more generations of guests.
“We’re continuing to invest in our hostels to make sure they continue to offer the great welcome and friendly stay of which we are rightly proud.
“We want to make sure that we continue to have world-class hostels in fantastic locations and to make sure that as many people as possible know about what a great time they can have when they stay with us.”
The charity has recently invested £10m in six youth hostels and created a new one in the South Downs.
YHA said it has worked hard to shed its former reputation of rickety bunk beds, sleeping bags, compulsory membership, chores and 1960s dormitories as part of a £20m modernisation project.
The Pen y Pass hostel work has attracted funding from the Welsh Government’s tourism investment support scheme and Snowdonia National Park Authority.
