YHA Hartington Hall
This handsome 17th-century manor house has been a YHA property for more than 75 years, so has seen multiple generations of hostellers coming here to enjoy the autumnal hues of the Peak District. The in-hostel offering might have changed over the decades — visitors in the late 1940s wouldn’t have found much in the way of premium bell tents, draught beer or unlimited breakfasts — but the setting is as enfolding as ever.
The surrounding landscape is a mix of wooded scenery, rolling hills and high-sided dales, and the lovely River Dove flows just minutes away. One of the best ways to savour all this is on a glorious six-mile loop walk heading south from the hostel and passing through Beresford Dale, Wolfscote Dale and Biggin Dale. Wolfscote Dale, with its steep slopes and jumbled outcrops,
is a particularly special spot.
If you really want to get among the foliage, meanwhile, the nearby Go Ape Buxton stays open in all but the most extreme weather and gives the chance for adventurers young and old to venture into the treetops. Buses run between the hostel and Buxton itself — and YHA members get 10% off at Go Ape.
YHA London Central
It might sound counterintuitive to head to the UK’s biggest city in search of nature, but London is home to some of the most impressive urban parks in Europe. Hyde Park, a 350-acre spread clustered with limes, sweet chestnuts and plane trees, is the most obvious case in point. Wandering the park’s many paths when the autumn colours are
at their most vivid is a joy.
YHA London Central — one of several YHA properties in and around the capital — is around a 30-minute walk from Marble Arch in the park’s northwest corner, making it a strong option if you’re looking to combine the bright lights of the city with the open expanses of the Royal Parks.
On which note, the similarly lovely Regent’s Park is even closer to the hostel’s front door. In autumn, late-flowering plants like chrysanthemums, aster and autumn crocus add colour of their own, while 200-year-old oaks bring bold oranges and coppers to the scene. Just to the north, Primrose Hill is notable not only for its own rich flora but for the deep views it grants across the rest of the city; as an autumn walk, it’s a cracker.
YHA New Forest
Down in Hampshire, YHA New Forest knows all about the gifts of autumn, sitting in woodland that was proclaimed a royal forest as far back as the reign of William the Conqueror. The monarch was a millennium or so too early to enjoy the hostel (although some of today’s camping and cabins options are, yes, fit for a king), but he very much fell under the spell of the forest itself.
Things have come a long way, however, since the days of his hunting parties. Today, the New Forest National Park still covers 219 square miles (566 km2) but has become a haven for walkers, cyclists and wildlife-lovers, with more ancient trees than almost anywhere in Western Europe and swathes of everything from ash, beech and hazel to rowan, oak and silver birch.
The forest’s wildlife, meanwhile, is a draw of its own. Heathland birds thrive here, an incredible 2,600 kinds of beetle scuttle through the undergrowth, and no less
than five deer species (fallow, roe, red, sika and muntjac) can be spotted in the pasture woodland. Most famously of all, some 5,000 free-roaming ponies still graze the landscape.
YHA Manorbier
Various adjectives hang naturally on YHA Manorbier. It’s unique, for a start, being an ex-Ministry of Defence building now reinvented as a clifftop family hostel. It’s convenient, too, thanks to its easy access to beaches and its proximity to the coast path. But perhaps most of all, when you look at where it sits on the South Pembrokeshire coastline, it’s gloriously scenic.
Autumn colours aren’t just about trees. There are also the dramatic shifting tones
of the sea and sky, not to mention the moody tints of the green hills, the limestone cliffs and the wave-bashed shoreline. For sheer outdoor atmosphere, and the chance to wallow in the elements no matter what the conditions, there’s nowhere quite like Pembrokeshire.
To blow away any post-summer cobwebs, try walking west from the hostel along the coast path to reach the sandy, dune-fringed Manorbier Beach. The beach is a stunner at any time of year, and also sits just minutes away from the 11th-century Norman stronghold of Manorbier Castle.
The property has been a YHA hostel for more than a quarter of a century but remains one of a kind — and it’s also available on exclusive hire.
Photo credit: YiuCheung - stock.adobe.com / Phil Sproson
