Bingen School Inn

This hostel is in an old schoolhouse on the Washingon state side of the Colombia River Gorge (across from Hood River, OR.) As other posters have indicated, it's not a "posh" hostel, but it does in fact still have hallways full of stuff from the old school, including the card cataloge from the library, all the old lockers, etc. I arrived on a blustery chilly night in late November, to find myself one of only about 8 guests, 6 of whom were a group of older women traveling home via Amtrak - they were making homemade blueberry dumplings in the kitchen the next morning - YUM! I found the hallways a tad chilly at first, but once I checked in found the rooms and bathroom to be toasty warm. I would hate to have to heat ALL that big ol' rambling, funky, wonderful building in the off season! Although the kitchen doesn't have the greatest cookware/dishs, I was able to cook up something just fine and check out the old dining room stuff in the common area. The next morning OMG - what a view! across the Gorge of Mt. Hood. I love that this great old building has found a new use. It gets high funky factor (in a good sense) in my book of "hostels I have visited" and was a memorable stay.

This hostel is so cool. You get to sleep in old classrooms complete with textbooks, blackboards and chalk. The corridors look exactly as they must have done when it was a schoolhouse, which gives it such a strange (but unique) atmosphere. It's so nice to stay somewhere that's a bit different and this was the most memorable hostel of our trip. The kitchen may not be as bright and clean as some others, but it's certainly not awful, and you can watch TV in the old canteen. When we were there it was extremely quiet, we were the only guests on one night, but this just adds to the sleeping-in-a-haunted-old-schoolhouse atmosphere. It's very convenient for the Amtrak station and it's quite easy to get across to Hood River from Bingen.

I stayed in a two-bed private room. This place is grrrrreat! (The bathrooms could use a little help.) But the rooms were excellent, and the old school house stuff is excellent. The room has a full wall chalkboard to scribble on, if that takes your fancy.