posh

LIKE the idea of a hostel but hate that most look like a children’s bedroom from the noughties with bunk beds and striped bedding?

Well, you might want to check out the newest spot in Manchester.

A new hostel has just opened in Manchester‘s Northern Quarter with rooms costing from £39.

But unlike your usual hostel decked out with pine or metal bunk beds, Malacuna Manchester is more ‘posh’ inside with sleek dark wood and cosy matte black bunk beds.

According to the hostel, the new accommodation is “design-driven, experience-focused, and built around community”.

The hostel sits in the Northern Quarter of the city and inside, there are 37 rooms with 132 beds in total, which are a mix of shared and private dorms.

Read more on travel inspo

ALL IN

I found the best value all inclusive London hotel… just £55pp with free food & booze

HOL YES

I’m a travel editor & mum-of-3… my favourite family holidays from just £3pp a night

Private dorms feature twin or double rooms, but you can also book out a private dorm of four, six or eight beds.

As for the shared dorms, these are formed of four, six or eight beds.

In the bathrooms, guests will be greeted by white and black interiors, with some rooms having their own bathroom with some toiletries such as shower gel included.

Each guest gets free Wi-Fi during their stay too.

The hostel is also home to Wilson’s, which features a bar and restaurant and hosts a number of events including live DJs, comedy nights and live sport.

The venue was refurbished in November, with the interiors now boasting leather booths.

The accommodation marks one of the brand’s first spots in the UK, along with Liverpool and Birmingham – which also opened this month.

As for things to do near the Manchester hostel, guests can head to a number of independent shops a short walk away, as well as music venues and restaurants.

The hostel chain is aimed at solo travellers, as well as young professionals and those on city breaks.

A spokesperson from SmartRental Group, the parent company of Malacuna, said that the UK is a key stepping stone for the company.

They added: “There is huge potential in the UK for a brand that connects with the discerning modern traveller who values culture, creativity and connection.”

Rooms in January for the Manchester site cost as little as £39.

Though this discounted rate is for members, the good news is you can sign up for free.

If you don’t fancy signing up, the fee would be from £55 a night.

But if you wanted to stay in Birmingham, it costs as little as £35 per night, and Liverpool costs from £33 per night, both on discounted member rates.

For more inspiration on cheap staycations, here’s the cheapest hotels in the UK: everything you need to know – including prices & perks.

Plus, the most popular cheap hotel in Britain according to TripAdvisor – 4* ‘luxury B&B’ has great breakfast and honesty bar.

With his White House aspirations riding in no small part on the kind of Ohio voter who favors Budweiser over Pouilly-Fuissé, Mitt Romney -– like John F. Kerry before him -– has been struggling mightily to shed his image as a man of the Massachusetts elite.

This weekend, he gave it a break.

Romney took a jaunt to the most rarefied precincts of Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod and Nantucket on Saturday, after a Friday evening of mingling with millionaires in the Hamptons on Long Island.

It was all part of a chase, by private plane of course, for campaign money.

The former governor of Massachusetts left most of his traveling press behind. (“Bad optics,” campaign consultants call it.) Instead, he let just a small pool of reporters tag along to catch glimpses of Romney mostly from afar as he and his entourage made their way along such streets as Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton, N.Y.

“An 8-foot hedge blocked your pooler’s view of Romney exiting the house and getting into his SUV,” a journalist in the pool reported from outside the Southampton estate of hedge fund mogul Martin Gruss, where the Republican candidate stayed overnight on Friday.

Around the time of Romney’s “clambake luncheon” on Martha’s Vineyard, which included a $50,000-a-ticket VIP reception, President Obama was telling a less well-to-do crowd in New Hampshire that his rival was pushing tax cuts for the rich on the premise that “somehow prosperity’s going to rain down on all of you.”

Not that Obama, whose fundraising dinners with the likes of George Clooney have made headlines, hasn’t had optics problems of his own. Republicans trashed Obama when his campaign put out a video of Vogue editor Anna Wintour telling donors “don’t be late” to a soiree at Sarah Jessica Parker’s house on the same day that the unemployment rate notched up to 8.2%.

Romney’s weekend opened at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, where his motorcade rolled through the stately brick gates and up a long, winding driveway. Guests included NFL football team owners Steve Ross (Miami Dolphins) and Woody Johnson (New York Jets).

“I guess if all golf courses were like this, I can understand why the president plays so much golf,” Romney told donors at the club. “If I had a course like this near me, I think I’d probably play a lot of rounds as well. This is just gorgeous.”

On Martha’s Vineyard, Romney joined donors at a private home near the Farm Neck Golf Club, where Obama and former President Bill Clinton have played during family vacations.

Before taking off for Cape Cod, where billionaire businessman Bill Koch and his wife, Bridget, threw a reception for Romney, the candidate lamented his time spent hunting for money.

“You appreciate all the help you get,” he said. “But you wish you could spend more time on the campaign trail.”

From Cape Cod, Romney flew on to Nantucket, where Kerry’s windsurfing during his 2004 campaign for president was captured on videotape that was used in advertising by PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s reelection campaign to portray the Massachusetts senator as a flip-flopping elitist.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com