Bingen School Inn

Bingen

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Address	Cedar Street, Bingen Washington, USA Map
Price	From US$19.00/€13.56/£12.14 per person. Price may vary by season - Check Current Prices by Date Here

Location/Contact

Details

Description

Features

Kitchen
Phones (public or in room)
BBQ
Gym/Fitness Room
Washing Machine (laundry)
Food/Restaurant
Lounge / Common space
Bike Rental

Ratings & Comments

4.3 Average from 4 Ratings

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Comment by DL, Madison WI "America"

April 2009

Laid back, one of a kind! Comfy and memorable
This hostel sits on a hill in a residential setting. the property itself is huge as it was a former school shut down in the early seventies, excellent parking. I arrived in my little Chevy Metro from WI, eventually on way to Portland and the coast. Friendly staff (one person), I stayed in smaller bunkroom. Was only person first night. That was a little creepy. Bathrooms are a locker room style with reduced privacy. Loved the school environment and smells. Unbelievable! Kitchen is part of school cafeteria seating area. Was getting a little rugged looking but comfy. Pots and pans were over used condition. The school gymnasium smelled of old wood floors and wax, it seemed to be in great shape and there is a stage with what looked to be the original velvet curtains. Lots of wood and trim. Big windows light the gym well, just nice. It was easy to imagine children playing and romping here. I played hoops with basketball from grab box by stage. There is a playground with old chain link fence just to east. Grass was high mowed, game of softball with other guests until realized too much work finding ball! Stayed out at night to watch carpet of stars blanket the sky, this a rural location so get ready for an awesome and easy to see display of planets. Bingen is located more towards the drier side of WA. This means a little more scrubby and arid. I prefer this to most as sunshine can be prevalent.This hostel made its money off of wind surfing at one time, wind surfers jammed the Columbia Gorge with their sails, sport has died off recently staff said. For you amtrakkers, the train does stop here. Groups were departing and arriving almost everyday. Most everyone here works for forestry or in farming. Bingen has somewhat of a port, you can see barges tied to moorings right from the hostel. Sweeping cliffs, wide stretches of river all viewable.Years ago I had fished and hiked creeks of gorge from Oregon side. Truly one of a kind.

Comment by HER/Denver, CO

December 2005

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.

Comment by Mary and Dan

November 2005

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.

Comment by Jimmy

January 2005

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.

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