An 80 bed facility, Chamounix Mansion is a delightful, successful, and certainly creative reuse of an historic structure. A Federal Period mansion and a Gothic Revival carriage house, Chamounix was saved from the wrecking ball in the early 1960s and transformed into America's first urban hostel. Not 'urban' in atmosphere, the hostel is nestled on an idyllic wooded bluff in a picturesque corner of Fairmount Park, above the Schuylkill. Thousands of overseas visitors, and thousands of Americans, coming as individuals or as part of a group, find their way to Chamounix Mansion every year. There are plenty of free amenities, and there is free parking as well.

Image Credit: Kit Grundstein