Altena Castle is where it all started – hostels. In 1914 the first youth hostel of the world was founded inside the castle by a teacher who used to like making nature hiking tours with groups of young students.
After getting stuck in a storm during one of these tours without finding shelter (they got rejected by a farmer to be taken up for the night; who the f*** rejects a group of wet, freezing children to come inside?), the teacher decided to have some kind of base camp from where easy trips into nature could be made. Altena Castle was empty at this time, and he thought it would make a great place for a base camp (nothing wrong with that, right?). The original youth hostel is now part of the museum within the main inner court of the castle. The Harry-Potter-vibe place can be visited but is not in use as a hostel anymore.
Disappointed now that you cannot stay in the castle hostel? Don’t be, because you can! Though the original hostel (and to be honest, it’s the far more cool one!) is only a museum now, there is still a hostel inside the castle walls. The main court with the museum gets closed at night, but there is a little frontcourt that harbours a regular German youth hostel. This older part of the hostel has only 3 rooms though, so there is an extra house outside of the castle walls, the “Jugendstilvilla” where more rooms are available. The only dining room is located with the old part within the castle frontcourt though, where breakfast is served (included in the per night price). As typical for German youth hostels, there is no way of storing or preparing your own food. But you get a key for the dining room, where you can bring take-away food, or call a delivery service (Yes, you can call a pizza and say “please, deliver it into the castle”. Trust us, we did it!)
If you want to book one of the rooms inside the castle frontcourt in particular and not the Villa, you can ask for this while booking. They will note your preference, but will only give the room to you if there are no school groups coming who also prefer the castle rooms. After all, it’s a youth hostel. Preference will be given to children and their teachers. We went to Altena within summer school break, so we managed to get inside one of the castle rooms. Once inside the youth hostel, you don’t really notice anymore you are in a castle. However, walking through the castle gate in the evening into the silent frontcourt under the stars was such a great experience for us. We still speak of “our castle”.
