Cranmore Mountain Lodge

Cranmore Mtn. Lodge Hostel

FYI: this is the review I wrote for hostelz.com

From the outside, the Cranmore Mountain Lodge looks less like a guesthouse and more like the family farm that it probably was at some point. Less than five minutes from tourist-driven North Conway, with its green meadow, barn, and frog pond you can almost forget that you’re anywhere near a Wal-Mart and bumper to bumper traffic.
In theory, the Lodge is a backpacker’s dream come true. The main lodge has the average prices for a regular B & B in the area (around $100 per night) while the bunkhouse (the “hostel” part) is $25. The good news is that even the bunkhouse patrons have access to the same amenities as the Lodge patrons do. You can access the outdoor swimming pool, the hot tub, and still have a free breakfast with the other guests in the main building’s cozy eating area. The catch is, of course, that while those amenities are good you’re still ultimately staying in a hostel. A hostel that probably hasn’t been updated in about 10 years.

Unique Quality: There are three dorm rooms with about 10 beds per room. The beds are the basic metal structures with paper thin mattresses and the obligatory hard hostel pillow. For once, it is actually encouraged that you bring your own sleeping bag, or else you can rent bedding from the hostel. However, there were blankest on all of the beds as far as I could see. A good thing was that it seemed like each bed had access to a plug-on, which made it easier to recharge your cell phone, etc. The common area was of fairly good size, but really outdated and needed a good scrubbing. The furniture was old and a fine layer of dust seemed to cover everything. If money were going to be spent updating anything, however, it should go into the bathrooms first. For starters, despite the fact that there is room for about 30 guests, there are only two bathrooms. The nozzles on the shower are incredibly tiny and don’t give off much of a spray. It seems like it would be difficult to get really good and clean after a long day of trekking around Mt. Washington. Or even trekking around the Outlet Mall.

The good news:Because the bunkhouse sets partly underground like a basement it is incredibly quiet. There are lodge rooms above the hostel so quiet hour starts a little earlier than in most hostels, but it seems to be a natural absorber of noise anyway. At night you can’t even hear the traffic up on the main road. That makes for a really good night’s sleep. In the common room there is a color TV with a VCR. The TV has cable and gets an abundance of channels. After a long day of hiking it’s kind of nice to kick back and unwind that way. There’s also a fireplace in the common room that looked like it had been in use recently.

• Opinion of Price: least expensive
• Related to: National/State Park, Hiking and Walking

Cranmore Mountain Lodge

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