YHA Ironbridge Coalport

Lovely hostel with great facilities and clean rooms. We visited over half term, taking a 4 bed room. Pros: Very clean Friendly informative staff Good cooking facilities Nice lounge area Great for exploring Ironbridge and nearby hotels Pleasant walk to several pubs Nice and warm - maybe too warm for some but I liked it! Food was very good Cons: I never find the YHA mattresses or pillows very comfortable - will take a SIM to go on top next time. We had a spare bed so I used the spare mattress to double up. Rooms were a bit noisy - it’s an old building and there are fire doors throughout the corridors which don’t always close softly. Ear plugs are a must.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at YHA Coalport, first time staying with YHA. The hostel was spotlessly clean. We had an issue with the door not locking but was sorted immediately. I was surprised at how quiet the hostel was and being August it was fully booked bar 2 rooms, there was never more than one other person in the kitchen/dining room at the same time as us, and in the evening just a handful in the lounge quietly reading. There is a tired pool table but a welcome distraction for my daughters who played for hours. There are books and toys for children to keep them entertained. We stayed two nights but will be back again as there is so much to do in the area, and a beautiful area it is too. 4G is very scetchy down in the valley where the YHA is located, there is wifi but that was also a bit sketchy depending where you were in the building, didnt bother us but might bother some. We walked towards Ironbridge (ask for directions before leaving), took a good half hour/40 mins at a stroll, there were at least 3 pubs along the way with beer gardens which was needed on a hot day.

This place is effectively a giant Faraday Cage, so don't expect a decent phone or internet signal inside most of the rooms. The building is basic but functional; the ensuite room I had was adequate for my needs and was largely empty so no late night noise problem. The YHA is right next to the China Museum, which is handy and not too far from the Jackfield Tile Museum (15 minutes). It's 30 minutes walk into Ironbridge itself along the safest route via Jackfield which avoids the main roads and is really very pleasant. There is a small canal along which you can walk in the morning or evening, as suits. The negative aspect is that the food, as at many YHAs, is a let down. I'm 63 and fading a bit, it takes me time in the morning to get going, so I arrive at breakfast after 0800 by which time the locusts have been through, overfilling their breakfast plates, eating what they can then making off with the remains, along with the bread and butter so they can make sandwiches for lunch. What remains isn't very palatable - rubbery scrambled egg, congealed bacon, anaemic sausages, mushy fried tomato - and they're very, very reluctant to make fresh. They often advertise the breakfast as 'unlimited - it isn't unlimited if you just point at what's left and say "that's all that there is, there's no more". The Tile Press Cafe at the Maws Centre (ten minutes away) does an amazing freshly prepared breakfast for an extra quid, I'd rather walk there and eat than have the poor, industrially-produced breakfast at the YHA. This, along with the inadequate and expensive new evening menu, is a problem all over the YHA with the honourable exception of YHA Chester (Trafford) where the kitchen staff were happy to go the extra mile to make the food enjoyable, even if the one breakfast I had there was overrun with noisy schoolkids. Obviously, I don't expect 4-star treatment at a hostel but I'd like the food to be better at the prices that they charge; even Wetherspoons do better for less money and O'Neill's certainly do better for less. When you factor in the price of the room and the expensive breakfast and the expensive evening meal, you might as well stay at a small B&B closer to Ironbridge via Trivago or Tripadvisor. And if the manager of the hostel comes on and vomits up the usual meaningless ManagerSpeak instead of making real efforts to change the culture in favour of the guests, you can make up your own mind about whether or not to stay here.

Really nice hostel, very clean. Don’t be put off because of reviews re parking - staff here said at check in if we get any fines through the post to just email them and it would be cleared. You won’t have to pay. Just an admin error. Beds were comfy, kitchen great. No games/books for adults in the lounge area though. Wanted to enjoy our stay here, however the heat was insane! This place was the hottest building I’ve ever been in; me and my 2 young kids couldn’t sleep! And it wasn’t even warm/sunny outside. I’ve no idea how people cope here in summer! So if you don’t mind your eyeballs sweating, and heat is your thing, you’ll love it. I’d like us, you prefer normal human temperatures, I’d avoid. It was genuinely unbearable.

We went for a day out to the China Museum, time was getting on and we wanted some lunch so we decided to interrupt the visit and go to the YHA cafe, the only onsite catering option. It wasn’t busy and we placed our order for a simple snack, toasted sandwiches with salad and fries. After half an hour we realised that the waitress bringing some plates was actually going to the next table so we continued to wait. It was totally shambolic with kitchen staff juggling making the salad, shaking the deep fat fryer and watching the panini press. It was another 15 minutes before our order arrived, only for us to discover that it was incorrect, not cheese as requested but ham and tuna respectively. We decided not to wait for them to conjure up the right food and headed off to Ironbridge, missing out on the remainder of the museum. The cafe manager had just come on site and refunded us in full but we left hungry and our day out was marred. It’s a pity, we were thinking that we might join the YHA and stay in some hostels this summer.

Brilliant staff and a lovely place to stay. Communal kitchen was spotless and well equipped. The place has a youth club vibe and is a little run down so don’t expect a sparkling modern place. If you want a cosy, friendly place to stay in a perfect area for walking and kid friendly museums, this is ideal. Cafe there is great and bar is open in the early evening.