YHA Borrowdale

Lovely service, lovely food, lovely location. My only issue is the beds. The mattresses are firm but comfy, but the suspension underneath is pretty much nonexistent (they cover the metal mesh suspension with a large wooden board). Plus they're quite short, if you're taller than 5'10 you won't fit comfortably.

Great stay at Borrowdale YHA. |Staff friendly and welcoming, on check in the staff member was so helpful in sorting an out our room. ||Our room was clean and comfortable. Showers and toilets were clean. Unlimited breakfast was hot and no issue getting more. Plenty of seating. ||Nice atmosphere in the evening while having a cheeky beer or too. Staff seemed to genuinely enjoy working there.

A great hostel to explore the surroundings. It's clean and the beds are comfortable. Service is good although they were struggling with the large amount of guests. They have a full bar and serve decent hot food too.

Fabulous location, main building well equipped with a nice chalet style bar area. Road in is diabolically narrow with deep potholes, water pressure in the showers is poor. We stayed in a landpod which is one up from a camping experience. The night we stayed there was a big school group in, who were quite boisterous, and we were advised to get our food orders in early which didn't work for us so we ate elsewhere.

We often visit this YHA, it is in the perfect location, set a pleasant 15 minutes drive from Keswick. The hostel has all you need for your stay, large social areas, a games room and a fabulous self catering kitchen. Staff are lovely and amenities are clean. We camp or stay in the dorms. Highly recommend!

Building is different to previous YHA purpose built, if not seems like. Clean and with all facilities. Staff really nice, friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. Decent food dinner and breakfast ( unlimited which it was ) Pleasant atmosphere Still not keen on dynamic pricing but that’s YHA HQ not site.

We stayed here after hiking from Grasmere. It was a long and wet walk which is why we were particularly disappointed when there was no towels available at the reception. This was particularly vexing as online we had been assured there would be towels available. Furthermore, we were not helped at all by the person manning the desk who just simply didn’t seem that wanting to help us with this issue. Unfortunately, this is the main reason for my 3* review. Aside from this, the bar service was excellent, the hostel was very comfy and had by far one of the best common rooms i’ve experienced from YHA. The food was great but took a while to come, presumably because it was close to the closing of the kitchens, and the person manning the bar was very good. All in all, this was a very nice hostel but the reception service was simply not good enough to rate it highly. I recommend any future travellers bring or reserve towels!

Thank you to the Borrowdale staff for the great friendly service. We camped and explored the beautiful area for over a week and watched 2 different school parties take over the place having a great time. YHA serving young people who may never have been in the countryside before having a ball...|Meanwhile the staff here (apparently!) cheerfully got on with each person wearing many different hats - reception, bar work, waitering, cooking, endless cleaning, unblocking toilets etc... bravo!||The site itself is in an absolutely exquisite position, loved hearing the river and birds while falling asleep and waking up. There are really amazing walks and climbs you can do from the site without getting in the car and also regular buses at end of lane. We were blessed that the weather was much better than forecasts were saying. ||The bar and dining area were great, we were very grateful we had the option to eat inside with our dogs, either our own cooked food or YHA meals. This is amazing when weather is bad. Lovely to chat with people from all over the place. Personally, I loved the great occasional background music and the chance to recharge phones etc.||Facilities for outdoor people need some attention - there is only 1 toilet on the camping side and 1 working shower but you can use the inside facilites. Could I suggest a mop/cloths and a small bin get left in outdoor showers? They get horribly dirty underfoot very quickly and some of us would be happy to clean up after ourselves. Found out later in stay that there are other outdoor loos and showers on other side of building but showers are more open to elements so probably for warmest months. ||Self catering kitchen needs some TLC, especially leaking fridges, one of which was much too warm. The cookers and kettles are very slow and old but once you get used to that and avoid peak times, all good. Given how much use and turnover it gets though, the system works remarkably well.|I see in comments below that the hostel is working on improvements and we know YHA is struggling financially - it must be hard for the staff in a creaking system that needs updating. As the manager's reply says in the review below, they have been pushing Highways to get their horribly pot-holed lane fixed - fingers crossed it's soon.||Overall, what a joy to have this wonderful facility with friendly capable people to interact with in the midst of such beauty. Add mountains to take your breath away and you have a great holiday. ||PS. Cannot recommend pub Yew Tree in nearby Seatoller more highly. Or cafe with incredible view in Rothswaite. Food and service in both outstanding.