YHA Brighton

The hostel is in a building that was formerly the Royal York Hotel, one of Brighton’s grand Regency-era hotels. When YHA renovated the old hotel, they bought it up to the standards of their newer flagship hostels while highlighting details of the old building such as the ornate portico, pressed tin ceilings with magnificent chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling bay windows. While it sports YHA’s trademark bright green colour scheme, it is not as prominent as in some other hostels and many rooms have wallpaper that fits with the style of the old building as opposed to bright green walls.

The hostel has 180 beds spread over 51 rooms that include both dormitories and private rooms. Dorm rooms range from three- to eight-bedded rooms and a six-bed dormitory is the most common option. Private rooms consist of single, twin and double rooms.

There is a wheelchair-accessible room on the first floor and all floors are accessible by lift.

Communal facilities include a ground floor cafe bar and lounge with a games room with table tennis and table football and a large guest kitchen. The bar is open till 2am on Friday and Saturday nights and the communal kitchen is open 24 hours every day. Although the bar isn’t cheap, it is good value for Brighton.

Like many hotels in old buildings in this country, it is not air-conditioned.

Free Wi-Fi wireless internet access is available throughout the hostel.

Because the hostel was only opened a few years ago, everything here is nice and new and very well maintained even though the actual building is rather old, dating from the Regency era.

It is much better than Brighton’s old YHA hostel, way north of the city centre past Preston Park, which it replaced.

The location is great. It is on Old Steine, directly across the road from Brighton Pier and the beach and The Lanes is just a few minutes’ walk away. It is particularly handy if you’re travelling to Brighton by coach as it is virtually next door to Pool Valley Coach Station (where National Express coaches to London arrive at and depart from).

One drawback about the central location is that outside noise (from the coach station, nearby nightclubs and from people on their way home from the pub) can be an issue if you are a light sleeper.