Inn, B&B or bunkhouse: where to sleep
An inn, a B&B and a bunkhouse buy you different kinds of night. Choose by food, noise and how early you must leave.
The night is part of the walk. An inn, a bed and breakfast and a bunkhouse can all be the right choice, and they fail in different ways. One is noisy and convenient. One is quiet and particular about breakfast. One is cheap and sociable and may not have a drying room when you most need it. Pick from the walk you are actually doing, not from a photograph of a four-poster.
The inn, when you want one roof
An inn or a pub with rooms keeps food, bed and a drying place for a coat under one decision. You can come down muddy, eat, and go upstairs. The risks are noise on a Saturday, a kitchen that stops early, and a room over the bar that you will not sleep in. Ask where the room is. Ask whether food is served on the night you arrive. A pub lunch is a pleasure. A pub that is your bedroom is a question of earplugs and honesty.
It suits a two-night village stay if the paths leave from the door and the landlord is used to boots. Say you are walking. A good house will tell you where to put the rucksack.
The B&B, when breakfast is the point
A bed and breakfast is often quieter, smaller, and more interested in whether you slept. Breakfast can be the best meal of the weekend and the reason you start the day well. The constraints are real: a arrival time, a breakfast time, and sometimes a proprietor who would rather you removed your boots at the step. All of that is reasonable. Read it before you book, and pack slippers or a pair of clean shoes so you are not padding the carpet in mud.
Dinner may be absent. Plan it. A B&B in a village with no evening food is a picnic in a nice room, which can be lovely if you bought the picnic on the way. What makes a village work includes this check.
The bunkhouse, when the walk is the guest
A bunkhouse or a simple hostel gives you a mattress, a kitchen and the company of other people with wet coats. It costs less and asks more: you may share a room, you should wipe the stove, and you will not be brought a cooked breakfast unless you cook it. It suits friends who are happy to be slightly communal, and it suits a early start.
It suits you less if you need silence, a private bathroom, or a guarantee of a hot shower at seven. Read the latest notes from other walkers. A bunkhouse can be excellent and it can be a damp loft with a broken kettle. Both exist.
Drying, arrival and the bill
Whatever you book, ask where wet kit can hang. A radiator that may be used, a porch, a drying room: these are as important as the view from the window. Arrive when you said, or ring. Pay attention to the cancellation line. A weekend that falls through because of weather still has a bill, and you should know whose bill it is.
Wild camping and a booked bed are different nights. This choice is entirely inside the booked kind. You are paying for permission and a roof. Use both politely.
A way to decide
If you want dinner without thinking, look at the inn and check the noise. If you want quiet and a proper breakfast, look at the B&B and check the evening meal. If you want a cheap, early, sociable night and you can cook, look at the bunkhouse and check the drying. Write the answer down. Then walk. The right bed is the one you do not think about at midnight.
Frequently asked questions
Is a bunkhouse rude if we are not a club?
No. Be tidy, be quiet after the hour the house asks, and clean the kitchen. Those are the manners. A club is not required.
What if we have a dog?
Say so before you book. Some inns and B&Bs are glad of a dog. Some bunkhouses are not. Arriving with an unannounced animal is how a welcome thins.
Should we book two nights in the same place?
For a slow weekend, yes. Moving bags every morning is how a short break becomes a tour. Stay put and change the walk instead.