Bessemer Hostel
Stay in this exquisite hostel with tile and hardwood floors and great views of the Wayne National Forest for only $10 per night (in the dorm room, now with room for 5).
The hostel has a pool table (with free games), a library, high speed internet and cable TV. It has a full bathroom, kitchen and a washer and clothes line. The hostel grounds are a paradise for nature lovers with hand-dug ponds with fish, fruit trees and diverse wildlife. Miles of hiking trails are next to the hostel in the national forest.
Private Rooms are available for $20 per night. You can book a space at the hostel below or call to reserve a room:
Book with Hostel World
Book at Hostel Lovers
Contact: Environmental and Civil Liberties Author and Film Maker Chad Kister (740) 753-3000 or (740) 675-1211 or (740) 707-4110 or ckister@chadkister.com. If you do not get through, just come to the hostel and ring the doorbell.
Payments and donations can be made here:
The hostel has never been completely booked, and is now mostly vacant. If the hostel does get booked, the Bessemer Hostel will update this website within an hour. Feel free to stop by, walk up the walkway and ring the doorbell (but do not enter the first floor apartment, it is the second floor that is the hostel, as clearly marked).
The Go Bus goes to Nelsonville four times per day (twice coming from Athens, and twice coming from Columbus), and a cab company (740) 753-3535 can take people to the hostel for under $10 from either Nelsonville bus stop (the closest is at Hocking Parkway and Route 33), and another one is at Hocking College. The cab company is not open on Sundays. Those staying for a week or more get a free copy of the Hostel Owner's first book, Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness about his 700-mile journey by foot and raft through the Arctic Refuge, living off roots, berries, greens and fish.
Hostels are similar to Motels and Hotels but they offer shared rooms and lower prices. The Bessemer Hostel also offers private rooms. Here is Wikipedia's definition of a hostel.
Southeast Ohio's First Hostel Opens near Nelsonville, Ohio
While they are popular throughout the world, and in much of the United States this is the first hostel in Southeast Ohio. The Bessemer Hostel provides a place to stay in a nice, tile and hardwood floor house for $10 a night (shared rooms) or $20 a night for private rooms, enjoying great views and wildlife with thousands of acres of national forest in the backyard. The pleasant, quiet neighborhood will give travelers a break from hectic cities to enjoy the forest setting.
Camping spots are available for $10 a night, and they include access to the hostel's kitchen, shower and bathroom. Camping and backpacking equipment is also available for rent at a very affordable price. The hostel has a full kitchen, washer and clothesline, a full bathroom with bathtub. Free internet is available.
"Athenians can easily bicycle to the hostel, being just two miles from the bike path, and stay next to the national forest," Kister said (it is about 14 miles, mostly flat). "This is a great opportunity to see one of the nicest areas of the Wayne National Forest while meeting travelers from around the world."
Monday Creek is a half a mile away with excellent kayak and canoeing, and the Hocking River is two miles away with superb smallmouth bass fishing, canoeing and kayaking.
Next to the Wayne National Forest
Thousands of acres of the Wayne National Forest and miles of trails are in the backyard. Be careful not to get lost, as the trails are not marked. Maps are posted in the hostel.
Directions
The hostel is at 4592 Bessemer Rd.; Nelsonville, Ohio 45764 (about an hour southeast of Columbus). It is located at the corner of Conner Rd. and Bessemer Rd. up on the hill. From Nelsonville, take Route 78 East (at the BP station, left if coming from Columbus). Go through two traffic lights, past Krogers on your left, and up and over the hill. At the bottom of the hill, past where the bypass is going in, take a LEFT on Sylvania Ave. (about a mile from Route 33). At the first intersection, veer RIGHT and Sylvania Ave. turns into Bessemer Road. It is about an eighth of a mile farther on the left.
You can park down by the building (Bessemer Place) with solar panels on the green and blue roof and walk up, or take a left on Conner, go past one house down on the road, then take a right at the driveway just before a chain link fence and another house, and go all the way up the driveway. The house has a green metal roof, white siding and a brown block bottom. Reservations are not required.
If you park on Bessemer Road, please park uphill perpendicular to Bessemer Road, and walk up the walkway and ring the doorbell at the upstairs (second floor) door. Please do not walk on the West side of the house, or near any of the first floor doors or windows. Parking is also available at the top of the driveway next to the main house.
Contact: Chad Kister (740) 753-3000 or (740) 707-4110 or ckister@chadkister.com
Chad Kister is also the author of 4 books, and a film maker and Arctic Explorer. Competitors and corrupt police have been interfering with Kister's communications (Kister has sued 3 police agencies so far because they are bought off by the coal industry to attack environmentalists). Chad Kister is the only person authorized to answer any of the phone numbers listed above, and the hostel has never been completely full. Please feel free to record any phone call to the above phone numbers. If anyone tries to turn you away from the hostel, record, videotape them and take their photo, and go past them and ring the doorbell.
The Bessemer Hostel is a charitable non-profit organization
Landlord-tenant laws do not apply because hostel guests share a bathroom and kitchen, and the hostel washes the towels and linens and cleans the hostel (though like any hostel, guests are asked to help to clean after themselves and do their own dishes)