Fancy being a Lady of the Castle for a night? Joining in a jousting tournament? Taking part in a medieval feast? Youth Hostels in Germany make it all possible. Without making old and new contradictory: 38 old castles and stately homes have been transformed into modern Youth Hostels. Behind historic facades, you will often find state-of-the-art interiors, rooms with en-suite showers and toilets, a cosy cafeteria and common rooms that leave nothing to be desired.
Using them as Youth Hostels helps preserve these heritage buildings, some of which are centuries old. Among them are medieval fortresses with battlements and towers, such as Burg Altena or Burg Stahleck/Bacharach (Rhineland-Palatinate). The Saxon Schloss Augustusburg Youth Hostel and the new European Youth Hostel at Colditz Castle dwell in stately homes from the renaissance era. Castle Ortenberg (Baden Württemberg) is a picture book castle in neo-gothic style. Some of the time-honoured buildings tower high above the city, such as Veitsburg Youth Hostel in Ravensburg (Bavaria). Some of them are located above a river valley, such as Burg Wildenstein Youth Hostel on the Danube or Burg Rothenfels Youth Hostel on the Main. Sometimes they are surrounded by idyllic landscapes, such as Burg Breuberg Youth Hostel (Hesse), sometimes by a moat, such as the Wasserburg Youth Hostel in Heldrungen in Thuringia. Others again are located centrally: Wittenberg Youth Hostel (Saxony-Anhalt) is located in the city palace and Bautzen Youth Hostel (Saxony) in the bastion of the old town fortification.
Many Youth Hostels in historical settings offer exciting programmes with an experiential-education approach for families and groups. In Burg Trausnitz Youth Hostel in Bavaria, for instance, families can book "Time travel to the Middle Ages" or experience "Knight Life in the Castle" at Passau Youth Hostel. In the Wasserburg Youth Hostel in Heldrungen, "A Place for Learning: History" makes the past experiencable for youngsters.
In the following section we have put together five exciting travel destinations for you. Click here and you can also download the associated eBooks about German Castle Hostels by The Family Adventure Project for free!
The DJH Youth Hostel at Bacharach (also called Burg Stahleck) is a classic castle hostel. Its name literally means ‘impregnable castle on a crag’ and it is one of the most famous youth hostels in Germany. It’s about as fairy tale a setting as we’ve ever experienced. Sitting amongst the vineyards high above the timber framed old town of Bacarach, Burg Stahleck literally stands tall over the Rhine. It has towers. It has turrets. It has a partial moat. And when the sun goes down it has princess pink sunsets. People come for all of this, especially in the summer months. But they stay for the views. From the terrace you have a prime view of the Rhine as it curls and bends its way through the landscape. The best time to sit out is at sundown when you can buy a cold beer from the bistro and watch the day fold into gold. And if you lie on one of the benches once the sun has gone to bed you can imagine yourself looking up at the stars at any time from the medieval period to infinity. Then it’s time to go to bed. And what a treat that can be...
You can’t miss Burg Bilstein as you approach Lennestadt. It’s set high on a hill that plunges steeply downwards, with its walls dropping away as sharply as day turns to night. And night is when it really comes to life. As we entered the heavy gates and caught a glimpse of atmospherically lit walls through ancient arches, we were well on our way to a warm bed. We are headed up through the courtyard filled with young wizards from a Harry Potter convention and families playing ping pong. We wandered up the stairs to a hall where chandeliers cast shadows from the past onto the quaintly uneven floor, watched over by a knight in armour. This hostel has been welcoming travellers into its hundred and forty bedrooms for most of a century. And it does it well.
Youth Hostel is in Grafenberg castle, a beacon of white and charcoal, set on a hilltop surrounded by greenery. It’s believed the Burg was built as a hill castle around 1115 by Gerhard I but it was most famous as the seat of the Blankenheim family who were elevated from Lords to Counts in the 1300’s. It became a youth hostel in 1936. A gentle stroll downhill from the hostel brings you to an impressive medieval village packed with cultural monuments and houses that look like they’ve fallen out of a picture book – there’s no shortage of pillars, beams, struts and whitewashed walls. There’s also something rather special in one of the cellars. More about that later too. There are plenty of bars and restaurants in the village and several curious little museums; the Eifel Museum is a little gem dedicated to local traditions and customs displaying everything from shoe making to weaving.
In the small town of Colditz, the early morning sunlight casts impressive golden shadows over a square filled with cheerful bars, bakery and restaurants. Above the town, the white and yellow Renaissance castle looks so peaceful and beautiful that it’s hard to imagine the hardship endured within its locked gates when it was the military prison Oflag lVC in World War II. The high security prison was just one chapter in the castle’s thousand-year history. In its time it has been a royal hunting lodge, a poorhouse and a psychiatric hospital. The hostel is in the administration wing of the former prison, with the small museum in the next courtyard, and tours taking place three times a day (offered in English, French, and German) around the interior and exterior of the building. The town itself provides a post-tour warm up and a place to think about everything you have seen.
You might recognise Nuremberg from your history books rather than a bedtime story, but this medieval city in northern Bavaria has many fairy tale elements. Once world famous for its toymakers, it offers luck if you touch magical rings embedded in a gilded fountain. Shades of pink dominate the architecture. And towering above the edge of the Old Town is one of the most beautiful castles you could hope to visit, with Mayoral gardens to explore, a deep well to look into, and high towers and castle walls to climb. Nuremberg is Bavaria’s second biggest city and the largest in Franconia. It’s just 170km from Munich with good transport links in and out by bus, intercity or regional train. From Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof it’s only a 20-minute walk to the city centre, Hauptmarkt and castle. A good value way of seeing the city is by investing in a Nürnberg Card. This is valid for 2 consecutive days and gives you free entry into more than 40 museums and attractions and you can use it for unlimited travel on Zone A city public transport. And when you are tired of city hustle and bustle, you can follow a trail of gingerbread crumbs to DJH Nuremberg Youth Hostel, which was magically turned from royal stables into a modern palace for the backpacker and family traveller. It was a great base for our city centre stay.
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