WA&O Hotels and Hostels GmbH is a chain of hostels, headquartered in Berlin, that targets young travelers and backpackers, offering cheap group rooms and hotel rooms for two. The hostels are generally centrally located, mostly close to train stations. A&O has 34 subsidiaries in six countries, making it the biggest privately owned hostel-chain in Europe. In 2019 it recorded about 5 million overnight stays and realised sales of €165 million.
WBackpacking is a form of low-cost, independent travel, which often includes staying in inexpensive lodgings and carrying all necessary possessions in a backpack. Once seen as a marginal form of travel undertaken only through necessity, it has become a mainstream form of tourism.
WThe Danhostel Copenhagen City is a hostel situated next to Langebro Brige in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the largest European hostels, the biggest in a metropolitan area.
WHostelling International (HI), formerly known as International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF), is a federation of more than 70 National Youth Hostel Associations in over 80 countries. HI has over 4,000 affiliated hostels around the world. Hostelling International is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation working with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation UNWTO.
WOne Man and His Bog is a 1986 travelogue book written by Barry Pilton and published by Corgi which started life as a series of talks on BBC Radio 4. It gives a light-hearted account of his walking the full length of the Pennine Way in 21 days, from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. The book has a foreword by Mike Harding and illustrations by Gray Jolliffe.
WRichard Schirrmann was a German teacher and founder of the first hostel.
WMonroe William Smith, a former Boy Scout executive, and his wife Isabel Bacheler Smith, art teacher, founded American Youth Hostels as a young couple, in 1934, in Northfield, Massachusetts. Monroe also founded Youth Argosy, an organization intended to "provide travel opportunities for worthy young people of slender means" and resigned his directorship of American Youth Hostels in 1949 to devote time to Youth Argosy. After a promising start, Youth Argosy went bankrupt in 1951, largely due to a new Civil Aeronautics Board regulation aimed at small charter groups.
WThe Youth Hostels Association is a charitable organisation, registered with the Charity Commission, providing youth hostel accommodation in England and Wales. It is a member of the Hostelling International federation.