Hostel offers log cabin, barn, wagons

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. – As snow fell on a recent evening, a high school lacrosse team, staying in a renovated barn with bunk beds and a kitchen, sang along to a Journey tune cranked on the radio and knocked a ball around in a foosball game.

Despite the chilly burst outside, their accommodations at the rural AYH Ranch Hostel were fine – even though they were a ferry ride away from the hubbub of downtown Seattle.

“This feels like you’re staying in someone’s house,” said Annie Bollard, 16, captain of the Redmond, Ore., team.

A year after Hostelling International’s Seattle unit at 84 Union St. and Post Alley closed, officials hope to have a new building for budget travelers in the city’s urban corridor by spring 2009.

“We have one that we’re really considering, and there is another one,” said Mark Vidalin, marketing director for Hostelling International USA.

The group oversees the largest network of hostels in the United States and is the U.S. affiliate of the worldwide organization, which has about 4,000 hostels in 60 countries.

Since the Seattle location closed in March 2007, many travelers have flocked by ferry and bus to the AYH Ranch Hostel on Vashon or walked a few blocks to the Green Tortoise Hostel near Pike Place Market.

Vidalin declined to name the Seattle areas under consideration or the organization’s budget for the new location. Costs, he added, depend on whether the organization buys or leases property, and possible renovation.

Ideally, hostel officials want at least 150 beds and wireless technology at their new Seattle location. At the Post Alley location, the 130 beds rented for $23 to $69 per night, depending on the season. That location was closed after the hostel failed to reach a new lease with the building’s owner.

Officials want to be in a Seattle neighborhood with a good vibe close to nightlife, interesting places and public transportation, said Vidalin, who is based in the organization’s national office in Silver Spring, Md.

“Our core target is 18- to 30-year-olds,” he said. “Seattle is one of our top destinations.”

Last year’s closure prompted some travelers to take the 20-minute ferry ride to Vashon Island’s northern dock, then travel by bus or shuttle van for five miles to reach the hostel. The hostel has its own van to take guests to and from ferries.

Visitors who make the trek find a Western theme and 10 grassy acres surrounded by trees that tower up to 100 feet.

Guests can sleep on mattresses in a log cabin, a barn, tepees or covered wagons. They also can pitch their own tents.

“When people arrive here, they say, ‘Why didn’t I hear about this?’ ” said Judy Mulhair, owner of the AYH Ranch Hostel. “Hostelling used to be for kids to hike and tour an area. We’re that location.”

Because the Seattle location closed, her hostel stayed open through this past winter.

While the Green Tortoise Hostel has seen substantially more business since last year, Mulhair said the number of guests at AYH has risen only slightly. (The Green Tortoise is not affiliated with Hostelling International.)

Each summer, about 5,000 to 8,000 people stay at the Ranch Hostel, which costs from $11 to $75 per night depending on the accommodation. Guests from Germany, Britain, Australia and Japan have stayed at the hostel.

One young German traveler, she said, arrived at night, and, using a hand-held global positioning system, walked from one of the island’s ferry docks.

Back at the hostel’s barn, two dogs owned by the lacrosse team’s coach roamed inside.

Tolga Wynne, a 16-year-old lacrosse player, sat on a chair, wearing a T-shirt. His dark hair poked out from a knit cap.

“We’ve been running in the forest,” he said. “It’s quiet. I like the open space. In the city, everyone is packed together.”