YHA membership for a fiver. Normally £16

MSE_Jenny

What’s the deal?

The Youth Hostel Association has substantially reduced its membership costs for those joining until the end of July. It costs £5 a year, but gets you £3 off a night in most UK and many worldwide hostels.

Plus right now anyone getting a new Young Persons or Family & Friends recards (which cost £24) online you get it for free.

Reduced Cost Membership

The Youth Hostel Association (YHA) is offering annual membership for for £5 per person or £10 for a family. It normally costs £16 (individual), £23 (family), or £10 (under 26).

Membership saves you paying the non-member supplement of £3 per person per night all at YHA hostels across the UK, as well as those run by its international umbrella organisation, Hostelling International.

As hostels can offer massive savings over hotel prices in the first place, this represents a brill saving.

But aren’t all hostels really grim?

No! These days it’s not all chores and cold showers, hostels are most usually clean and friendly, often with free internet access and breakfast.

Plus don’t think you’re automatically staying in a dorm bunk; many offer single, twin and double rooms. The YHA also has some rather glam new properties including converted castles and churches.

How to grab the cheap membership

Simply call 01629 592700 and quote ‘SUMMER BLITZ 08’. The offer’s valid for new members only, and expires 31 July 2008.

Where is this code from?

When we spotted a code, we checked with the YHA about the deal. It asked us not to use other codes and links, but wanted to use this one so it could track how many people used the deal. Whilst it's a special code, there is no commercial relationship between MSE and the YHA.

Get free membership with a railcard

The YHA is running another offer to get free annual family membership, when you by a Family & Friends railcard or youth membership with the Young Person's railcard provided you get them online.

Both railcards cost £24 and entitles you to a third off all tickets. These are a good buy anyway if you spend over £72 a year on train travel (for a full guide and details of when and where they're valid, read the Cheap Train Tickets article).

To get your membership, sign up for a card online before 31 October 2008. Full details on how to claim your membership, including a telephone number and special code will appear online after you make your purchase. Read full terms and conditions for the Family & Friends card & Young Person's card.

More hostel, hotel & flight savings…

For more on finding super-cheap hostels and hotels, read the Cheap Hotel Prices guide and if you want to try and find super cheap flights to get there use the FlightChecker.


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merit_mark_2

Don't forget YHA membership and hostel accommodation can also be bought with Tesco deals - So you might be able to get membership for an effective £1.25 and stay in a hostel for as little as about £4!!!!

Cheaper than camping - that can't be bad!!

TWR88

Whilst I actively encourage the use of YHA hostels in the UK, dont even consider staying in YHA Hostels abroad, there are loads of private hostels that offer much better accommodation at a much lower price. The best place I have ever stayed in was a private hostel in Prague for £6 a night. Give hostelworld.com and hostelbookers.com a try.

skylight

And there are threads about for the RailCard being only £12 at the moment (via Daily Mail promotion)

kingboyk

TWR88, that's a pretty big generalisation you've given there I've stayed at many different hostels around the world; Hostelling International places might not be the cheapest but I've never felt they gave anything other than value for money. The YHAs in Australia are especially good. Amsterdam's Stayokays are clean and efficient and good value too, although I personally prefer to stay somewhere a bit rowdier in that fine city

The timing of this offer is a bit of a pain for me as I've just got a £10 Tesco YHA voucher so I can join up! Does anyone know if Tesco vouchers can be used in conjunction with this summer blitz offer, and could I use my £10 to buy *2* years membership? Also, is there a special rate in this offer for lifetime membership or is it for annual deals only?

m1ket

Just signed up for £5 i will be staying at one in kyoto (japan) then onto australia so it will cost me nothing

Skoorb

I'd just like to point out that the Scottish Youth Hostel Association offer free membership for students. To top it all they'll issue membership for any student with an address in the EU, not just Scotland. They are a full Hostelling International member, so you can use it to get your YHA discount in the UK!

The details are at http://www.syha.org.uk/SYHA/Web/Site/JoinUs/students.asp.

You need to ring them and answer some eligibility questions to apply.

Also, you don't get any of the benefits of being a YHA member, apart from the discount for being a HI member from a different country, so if you are a heavy English hostel user, or can get free membership through the railcard scheme anyway, you're probably better off there.

Finally, if you're in Northern Ireland, don't forget about HINNI: http://www.hini.org.uk.

Alex

Barneysmom

Are dogs allowed in there?

richthepieman

:j i started using hostels two years ago and wished i'd started 15 years ago. They are brilliant, better than most hotels i've stayed in. Always welcoming and a lot of english hostels do excellent food and some include breakfast in the price.

Lychee

merit_mark wrote: »

Don't forget YHA membership and hostel accommodation can also be bought with Tesco deals - So you might be able to get membership for an effective £1.25 and stay in a hostel for as little as about £4!!!!

Cheaper than camping - that can't be bad!!

I've called up and they won't accept Tesco deal vouchers as payment for this special offer.

pennystretcher

Skoorb wrote: »

I'd just like to point out that the Scottish Youth Hostel Association offer free membership for students. - - -
The details are at http://www.syha.org.uk/SYHA/Web/Site/JoinUs/students.asp.

They also have free membership for anyone who has a valid Military ID:

http://www.syha.org.uk/SYHA/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=1109&sID=84