YHA Wye Valley

This is in stellar setting for adventures around the Forest of Dean and Herefordshire, whether you want to get out and about canoeing, climbing, cycling and hiking, or spend days at local attractions like Goodrich Castle or Clearwell Caves. For the first set of options, leaf through the local info available at the hostel or ask the Wye Valley team for their tips. A must-do for active types around here include the famed climbing routes at Symonds Rock – available for novices and experts, and ending with fab views of the Forest of Dean, the Black Mountains and the River Wye; local providers can show you the ropes if you’ve never climbed before. (For climbing of a different sort, Go Ape is 25 minutes’ drive away.) Start at Goodrich Castle five minutes’ drive from the hostel for your first foray into the forest’s local attractions, then take your pick from fluttering around the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo 10 minutes’ drive away; making your way – with luck – out of the aMazing Hedge Puzzle (10 minutes); more pondering at Puzzlewood (20 minutes); subterranean wanders at Clearwell Caves (25 minutes), and finding out all about it at the Dean Heritage Centre, 30 minutes away.