The Hostel at Jackson Hole

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The Hostel at Jackson Hole is a great option for those that are low maintenance. I stayed there with my wife and 1 year old son in 2020. It was perfect for our needs.

Location

The Hostel is in Teton Village, i.e., at the base of Jackson Hole Ski resort. In ski gear, it is a 4 minute walk to the Tram, 6 minute walk to Bridger Gondola and an 8 minute walk to Ski School / Day Care. You can ski right back to the Hostel’s door.

Teton Village is simply the base of Jackson Hole. There are some mediocre restaurants and other services in the village, but if you are looking for the town, you want to be in Jackson. Jackson is about 25 minutes away by car or 30 by bus (very easy and old $3 each way). Jackson has many good restaurants and a old western look.

Rooms

The rooms are very sparse. For private rooms you can choose between a king or 4 single beds. You can also rent dorm style with a few strangers. They provide small cribs (though they are a tight fit in the room). We had a quad room with a private bathroom. It fit our needs but we were stepping over things and used the upper bunk for storage. There are no TVs, phones or other room amenities. It is motel style with a door directly to an external hallway, external stairs and no elevator. Note that it can be chilly (negative 19 F on one of our mornings) walking from your room to the lobby. The common hallway acts as a beer fridge in the winter, but do note that it may get cold enough to freeze the beer solid so you may need to manage its exposure carefully if you get thirsty at a specific time.

Common Amenities

There is a small lobby with good free coffee and a large basement common area. The basement has a TV pit with a wood fire a game room with a pool table and foosball table and some space in-between. The basement also has a ski room with some racks if you want to leave your stuff to dry and an onsite boot fitter/tuner (see below). The tuning area seems to be reserved for the professional, so not clear what the situation is if you want to use the room to do your own work. The basement also has a couple of common fridges and freezers, one microwave, a toaster, a bathroom and a ping pong table. There is also a coin laundry room ($1.50 each). The laundry room has a kitchen sink and hot plate. However, cooking is not easy at this hostel. I would focus on cold food or microwave food in a pinch and use the money you save on housing to eat out in Jackson.

The Hostel provides WiFi but it is nearly useless during peak times in the evening. This is despite them advertising their WiFi as being “fast and reliable”. However, Verizon LTE works fine there.

Note that the common area does close down around 11pm and the front desk leave by midnight (they can arrange keys ahead in a lock box) in peak season and earlier at other times. The coffee doesn’t start up until around 7 or 7:30 which is early enough for most as first chair is 9am, though if your baby wakes you up early, you may find yourself sitting around in your no frills room waiting for the lobby to open.

Ski Tuning and Boot Fitting

There is professional ski tuner / boot fitter in the basement. His schedule varies but he seems to arrive mid-day and stay through early evening depending on the work load. His name is Stephen McDonald and he is great. He is a C Ped (effectively, a certified boot fitter) and tunes skis and snowboards as well. He was charging $25 for a wax, $50 for a full tune and $50 for boot work. I hired him to improve my boot fit (Lang RX130’s in my case) with some extra foam around my ankles. He often has his whole family around and seems to be the social center of the basement. I would call ahead (307-413-5745 / [email protected]) to make sure he is around. I don’t think you need to be staying at the hostel to use him.

Vibe

The place has a very relaxed vibe. There are a mix of families, groups in their twenties and people from all over the world. If you can handle being a thin wall away from a baby crying at 6am (could be ours) and college kids smoking up at midnight, you will fit in just fine. If you are the one causing the noise, share you beer with your neighbors to compensate.

The Hostel
3315 Village Dr
Teton Village, WY 83025
(307) 733-3415

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