If location was all that mattered, the best hotel in Britain might very well be Whitby youth hostel. The hostel - it opened a few weeks ago - sits on one of the most magnificent headlands in the country. Below it, the pastel-hued rooftops of the town are spread out, while the North Sea crashes impressively beyond the harbour wall.
It's a view that could hardly be bettered. And yet it is bettered . . . by the view from the back. There, the ruins of Whitby Abbey - one of the best-preserved and most dramatic ruins in England - rise majestically towards the sky. Bag room 4, as we did, and on a sunny morning you'll find it hard to tear yourself away from the sea view from the picture window, and the abbey view from the side bay (and unfortunately, they don't do room service in a youth hostel).
Abbey House, the hostel's home, is a handsome mansion that had fallen into a dilapidated state when, a couple of years ago, its lease came up for tender: and though a building of its size, position and splendour would make it a steal for any five-star hotel chain, the costs of renovation (the bill was pounds 3.5 million, pounds 1.5 million of which came from the Heritage Lottery Fund) and the limited parking space pushed it into the arms of the Youth Hostel Association. And praise be say all of us who scour the country for affordable, stylish, family-friendly accommodation, because the best address in Whitby is now within our sights.
Within our sights, but not what you'd call exactly cheap. My friend John, who was holidaying with me with his three kids, had spent the previous week in a four-star hotel in Brighton for virtually the same price, a conundrum explained by the fact that many hotel chains offer free accommodation to kids, while youth hostels have an all-in family room price.
On the other hand, there's plenty for families to cheer at here apart from the bill. The dining arrangements, for example, are perfect: the hostel has a very well-equipped self-catering kitchen, and it's not only much cheaper, but often also much easier, to feed young children the kind of food they have at home. But there's a restaurant, too, so you can ring the changes: and while it's not the most sophisticated place you've ever dined in (we ate surrounded on all sides by an exuberant troupe of cub scouts), the food is certainly more impressive than you'd expect. Bangers and mash at pounds 6.50, for example, turned out to be locally produced wholegrain mustard and apple sausages on chive mashed potatoes with red onion gravy.
But there's nothing remotely opulent about the decor: indeed you get the sense the entire place is probably hosed down and industrially cleaned between visitors. But then again, if you're travelling with a hoard of toddlers that's a distinct plus: at least you won't lie awake at night worried about whether they'll break a Ming vase or draw all over the walls.
You might, though, lie awake anyway, since the beds - in an impressive double whammy - are both too hard and too narrow. And the bedrooms, it has to be said, are painfully spartan. There is at least an en suite loo and shower room, though you have to take your own soap and towels. The YHA still seems committed to eschewing anything that could remotely be construed as plush - it all feels a touch miserly given the cost, and the fact that no expense has been spared transforming the house.
But what it lacks in finishing touches, Whitby Youth Hostel definitely makes up for in ambience. The renovators have gone the extra mile to preserve the building's past: our kids were able to have a first-hand history lesson just along the corridor from our bedroom, where an original wattle-and-daub wall has been left exposed, complete with explanatory notes. They can also slide down the 17th-century hand-carved banisters - not that you'd want them to, although you get the impression that no one would bat an eyelid if they did.
Outside in the garden, they're growing the medieval plants the abbey's monks would have cultivated, and there's the same unstuffy feel. Our kids spent ages kicking a football and jumping on and off the small ornamental wall - and while you might worry about that kind of behaviour in the garden of a hotel, you get no sense that anyone minds a bit here.
And it's an easy walk into the town and the beaches, and more history: it was from Whitby that Captain Cook sailed to Australia, and a tour of the harbour on a replica of his ship the Endeavour makes for a fun hour. And Whitby's other star resident, Bram Stoker, penned his novel Dracula in the town: his inspiration for the graveyard scenes, it was said, was the churchyard of St Mary's which is alongside Abbey House on the other side from the abbey - so if you've teenagers in your party, a midnight stroll there is a must. Meanwhile, the eight and 10 year olds were thrilled with the blood and gore of the Dracula museum, complete with open coffins and bloody stakes.
· Abbey House, East Cliff, Whitby, North Yorkshire (0870 7708868, yha.org.uk). Through the summer, en suite family rooms for four cost pounds 78.50 a night B&B, six-bedded rooms pounds 109.50, dorms pounds 18.50
