National Parks host final free weekend of the summer

by Kraig Becker on

As we’ve mentioned a couple of times this summer, the National Park Service has designated several weekends as “fee free”, meaning we can get into any and all national parks and monuments without paying the usual entry fees. This weekend, August 15-16, is the final free weekend of the summer, and your last chance to take advantage of the government’s generosity.

There are a number of amazing parks spread throughout the U.S. and I’ve recommended five of them here and five more here. When writing those lists, I was looking at parks that were a bit off the beaten path, and less crowded in the summer months, when travelers flock to the top parks, resulting in traffic jams and less than ideal conditions. But as the dog days of summer begin to fade, it may be time to visit one of the more iconic parks. Here are five of the best.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
Perhaps the most famous and popular of all the national parks, Yellowstone is home to Old Faithful, the geyser that erupts at regular intervals of roughly 90 minutes or so. Yellowstone offers travelers plenty to do year round, with hiking, fishing, camping, and much more. There is spectacular wildlife to be seen as well, including elk, moose, bear, and wolves. But be warned, this popular park can get crowded quickly, and it can definitely impact your experience there.

The Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina
The most visited of all the national parks, Great Smokey Mountain offers up access to the mountain range that is gives it its name, thanks to more than 800 miles of hiking trails and remote backcountry campsites.There are an estimated 1500 bears living within the park, along with plenty of deer and elk as well, and the plant life is equally diverse, with more than 1660 different kinds of wildflowers alone. The park is celebrating its 75 anniversary this year, with plenty of activities and attractions for everyone that visits.


Glacier National Park, Montana
For sheer beauty, it is difficult to beat Glacier National Park, which has 700 miles of hiking trails that wander through the snow capped Rocky Mountains and past crystal clear lakes. But the major attraction is the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which is 53 miles in length and takes visitors right through the heart of the park’s amazing wilderness, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan’s Pass along the way. But the road is only open from June through October, so go before it is closed for the winter.

Acadia National Park, Maine
Some of the best wilderness found on the East Coast falls within Acadia National Park, the oldest park east of the Mississippi River. Acadia offers adventures both in the mountains and on the sea, with plenty of hiking and biking trails through the wilderness and along the coastline. Campsites on Mount Desert Island are just minutes from the ocean, while Mount Penobscot offers a challenging and scenic climb. Visitors to Acadia truly do get amazing experiences from sea to summit.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
At more than a mile deep and 18 miles across, the Grand Canyon is as awe inspiring as any landscape on the planet, and no list of top parks in the U.S. would be complete without it. The hike down into the canyon and back is tough, but rewarding, and for many it is an experience of a lifetime. And if you want to visit the North Rim, which is more remote than the typical tourist trails, you’ll want to visit in the summer months, before the snows move in and close the road for the season. The Grand Canyon is the quintessential national park and a must see for anyone.

Honorable Mentions: Denali National Park, Alaksa, Yosemite National Park, California, and Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Enjoy the final free weekend of the summer!

High altitude adventure in Colombia

by Kraig Becker on

For years, Colombia was off limits for most travelers. It was a dangerous place filled with warring drug lords, violent guerrilla activity and rampant crime. But that has changed in the past couple of years, and visitors to Colombia are beginning to rediscover its natural wonders, as stability has returned to the country.

As usual, adventure travelers are the first to return, looking for an opportunity to explore a remote region before the word gets out to the rest of the world and once solitary travel experiences become crowded and touristy. That’s the premise behind this story from the New York Times, which sends author Matthew Fishbane to Colombia’s El Cocuy National Park for a hike above the clouds on the 17,749 foot Ritacuba Blanco, the highest mountain in the Cordillera Oriental mountain range, which is part of the Andes.

The article notes that both the national park, and the mountain, remain relatively free of visitors at the moment, unlike other high altitude treks such as Kilimanjaro or Aconcagua, which have become increasingly crowded in recent years. But the region has seen a sharp increase in visitors in 2009, as the word spreads that not only is Columbia a safe place to visit again, but it also holds some hidden gems that will be of interest to the outdoor crowd.

Getting to Ritacuba Bianco isn’t easy. It requires an 11-hour bus ride just to reach El Cocuy, and from there you’ll generally need to hire a guide and a horse, although depending on the trek you choose, they may not be necessary. The trek to the summit is non-technical, but there are rock and ice routes available for those looking for more of a challenge. And when you reach that summit, at least for now, you’ll have blissful solitude and an amazing view of the country below. It seems the view will remain, but the solitude may be fleeting. Get there before it’s all gone.

Traveling the globe with Nat Geo Student Expeditions

by Kraig Becker on

In the summer of 2008, National Geographic launched a fascinating and inspiring project called Student Expeditions, which aimed to send high school students to a variety of exotic locals around the globe, immersing them in that location through unique, special projects that give them the opportunity to experience the culture and landscapes of the place, while learning something special in the process. The program is now in its second year, and even more students are getting the opportunity to take part in this amazing travel experience.

The students can choose to travel to Australia, Belize, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Galápagos, Iceland, India, Mexico’s Yucatan, Peru, Rome and Greece, Spain and Tanzania. Each of the trips is three weeks in length, and along the way, the students, and their trip leaders, are joined by National Geographic experts, who share their insights and unique perspectives on each of the countries. These experts are generally writers, photographers, explorers, and so on, and they typically spend between four to eight days traveling with the high schoolers.

While traveling in their selected country, each of the students adopts an On Assignment Project, which are specially designed to teach them something about the country, while offering an experience that only National Geographic can deliver. The projects focus on photography, filmmaking, wildlife and conservation, and more. The trip leaders and experts work closely with the young travelers to help complete the assignments, and create a lasting travel experience unlike any other.

Many of the studens have been blogging their travels all summer long, and you can read all about the Student Expedtioins experience by clicking here. You’ll find thoughts on trekking glaciers in Iceland, exploring Inca culture in Peru, and visiting the sites of ancient empires in Rome and Greece, amongst many others.

And if there are any students out there that are interested in joining future Student Expeditions, click here to begin the application process.

Creating the perfect “liecation” – and how to prevent getting busted

by Scott Carmichael on

So, you read our little story on the new trend of “liecations”, and you too want to create your own little fake vacation? Well, even though the whole thing is incredibly tacky, and downright stupid, we know the economy is tough, and a trip abroad might not be possible this year.

Of course, the right thing to do is tell people you are staying home, but if the liecation trend is to be believed, there really are people out there that would rather lie than just chill out at home being honest.

To create the perfect liecation, you’ll need to find the perfect balance between plausible lies, and downright pathetic lies. For example – don’t claim you went on a 2 week safari to Kenya. The same applies to a liecation involving Mount Everest. European liecations are easy, as are any liecations in North America.

Before I erase whatever credibility I have – I have never lied about a trip, simply because I have never had the need to. I’ve always been lucky enough to get to my destination, whenever and however I wanted. However, don’t let my honesty get in the way of your devious plan of creating the perfect 2009 liecation.




Picking the right fake destination

As I mentioned earlier – play it safe. Pick a destination with plenty of support for your lie. If you are telling a lie about being just one of 100 tourists a year visiting a remote island, you’ll need a pretty damn good cover story to keep that one going. Europe and North America are simple ones.

If you suck at lying, then you may want to “take a cruise”. Pick a nice 7 day round trip cruise with little or no stops on the way. Virtually every cruise is the same, and if you mention “food and shows”, you’ll have covered almost everything you could have done on your liecation.

Physical evidence of your trip plans

Keep at least one or two suitcases in the hallway after you “return”, leave a guidebook on the table, and if at all possible, find an old ticket wallet as evidence of “your tickets”. Really smart fakers will find a way to print a fake online boarding pass, but since the TSA frowns on that, you are on your own.

Go to Google maps and print maps of everything you “plan to visit”, then leave them lying around the house.

Photos and how they help you lie

Finding or creating photos of a trip that never took place can be tricky. You can pick photos other people made (off Flickr or other sites), but showing your friends 100 pictures without you in it will set off alarm bells. Stick to the basics – photos of food, photos of buildings.

Just remember to keep the weather in mind. Was the weather horrible during the week “you were there”? Then don’t show photos of a nice sunny trip. If you do want to use photos, pick some from deep in the search results – using the first 5 results for “Paris” will get you caught.

If you put the photos on your PC – rename them, you don’t want people catching you because they found the same file name from others. Don’t upload photos as your own to the Internet – that is stealing, and the move from liar to thief is one you really need to stay away from.

Pick an “I can’t talk about it” destination

If you want to make your life easier, pick a destination with activities you “can’t talk about”. A great liecation for this could be the Hedonism resort or one of the Mexican beach destinations. Any time someone asks what you did, just give them a glazed look, close your eyes and tell them “too much, just too much”.

Details are your enemy

Specific details of your trip will either kill your lie, or keep it going. Did you “visit” a museum? Check online to be sure it was actually open. Don’t give a 20 minute lecture on the museum you “visited” unless you know your stuff really well.

The Internet is a quick and easy place to find support for your lies. A quick trip to Weather.com and Wikipedia will get you up to date on almost everything you need to know to create your liecation.

Eat lots and lots of unhealthy food

If you went on an all-inclusive vacation or a cruise, you’ll have a hard time convincing people you really left the country if you come back looking skinny.

Before you start your week long liecation at home, stock up on lots and lots of bad food. A pint a day of your best friends Ben and Jerry will be a good start.

Let this also be a reminder to do groceries before you start your trip. Running into friends at the local store when you are supposed to be in Hawaii is a real deal breaker.


Saying “hi’ from your “destination”

Technology is on your side here – it isn’t hard to send out greetings, tweets and emails from around the world, without actually leaving your liecation headquarters. Want people to think you are in France? Find yourself a French webmail service, sign up, and send emails to your friends. You’ll need to be able to read or translate the site in order to sign up, but before you know it, you’ll be emailing people from your bigfatliar@ French webmail account.

Remember to stay away from any social networking services when there is a time difference. Your whole story will be busted if you are Twittering from “Sydney” at 3am “local time”. If you do screw up – lie some more, and say you just left the bar.

Got some REALLY nerdy friends you may need to deceive? Find a nice foreign proxy server and send your mail through that, or use a web mail service that doesn’t reveal your location.

Souvenirs say it all

You really don’t need tacky crap for your friends, but family members may be expecting something special from your destination. Thankfully, sites like Ebay are full of people who were given tacky crap, and put it up for sale.

For about $9, you can order an ugly Eiffel Tower key chain and $20 will get your some clogs or a piece of Delft Blauw porcelain to remind people of your lovely “trip to Holland”.

Relics from your trip to other countries could be as simple as some stickers or junk from an antique store.

Funny anecdotes

Remember the guy at the place, doing the thing? That was awesome! Create a couple of fun an
ecdotes, so you can think back to all the fantastic memories of the trip you never took.

Keep your stories straight

Did you “visit” your vacation destination with a friend, family member or partner? Get your stories straight. It starts with silly details like the hotel, what you did and things you saw. Don’t try and synchronize 100’s of false details, you’ll only increase the chance someone calls you out for being the fraud you are.

If you have to describe your vacation to someone with the knowledge to uncover your dark truth, you may have to resort to the “explosive diarrhea” excuse – once you start talking about that horrible case of the exploding runs, most people won’t dig any further into your trip report.

Adventure Destination: Patagonia

by Kraig Becker on

South America has some of the most remote and amazing places on the planet. The continent is home to the Amazon and the Andes of course, both of which conjure images of beautiful, wild places. But perhaps the most remote, beautiful, and wild of all, lies far to the south, transcending the borders of Argentina and Chile, in a place called Patagonia.

Sitting just on the southern end of the Andes Mountains, and stretching east onto a series of stepped plains. Patagonia is amongst the most geographically and climatically diverse places on the planet, with arid plains, icy mountains, spiky rock towers, and wondrous glaciers. As if all of that weren’t enough, the region is also home to a number of active volcanoes, which bring bubbling hot springs, geysers, and an occasional eruption to the region as well.

Patagonia is also legendary for its weather, which can best be described as tempestuous. Because of its proximity to both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the entire area is buffeted by storm fronts on a regular basis, and visitors should always be aware that weather conditions can, and do, change very rapidly, with beautiful, warm, sunshine giving way to high winds, rain, and snow, on a moments notice.

But those who make the trip to Patagonia will be rewarded with an outdoor playground unlike any other on Earth. Hikers, climbers, paddlers, and backpackers will find plenty to keep them occupied, with spectacular trails stretching throughout the area, and some of the best rock climbing in the world. The Torres del Paine National Park, for instance, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that offers a number of classic treks, several of which pass within the shadows of the Towers of Paine, three rock monoliths that are considered amongst the most challenging big walls on the planet. Patagonia’s Pacific Coast serves up spectacular sea kayaking, with a multitude of islands and glaciers to explore as well, rounding out the outdoor adventurers wonderland.

Patagonia isn’t just for the adventure crowd however, as the amazing scenery is worth the journey for anyone who appreciates beautiful outdoor environments. The sweeping vistas and breathtaking mountain views can be viewed from the comfort and safety of a tour bus as well, and wildlife, which include cougars, foxes, an assortment of birds, and guanaco, an antelope-like herd animal, are abundent.

For many, Patagonia represents the ultimate adventure travel destination. It is remote, strikingly beautiful, and sits practically at the ends of the Earth. So whether backpacking, climbing, paddling, or just beautiful scenery is your thing, you’ll find plenty to like in this South American paradise.