One for the Road: Great Hostels USA

by Kelly Amabile on

I’ve only stayed at one hostel in the USA. But I plan to visit more in the years to come. Which is why I was happy to come across Colleen Norwine’s Great Hostels USA. Although it’s a bit dated now (published in 2005), it is still a good resource to consider if you plan to do hostel travel in the USA in the coming year.

When Colleen decided to quit her job and spend a year traveling around the country, she was unable to find a dedicated hostel guidebook that met her travel needs. So she wrote one herself! Although she did use hostel web resources to plan her travels, she wanted to have a lightweight reference guide that could travel with her as well. But since she could not find one that suited her, she created this one as she went, personally reviewing over 250 hostels from Seattle to Bar Harbor.

Only 100 hostels made it into the book — her selection includes a mix of Hostelling International locations and other lodging options. There are reviews for at least one hostel in each of 25 states, as well as nine Canadian accommodations. Multiple entries exist for states like California, Florida, Colorado, New York and Massachusetts, so the book may be especially useful for folks planning to visit those places. There are a few thematic lists too — including the best hostels for hiking, mountain biking, partying, meetings and romance. Colleen’s hard work paid off, and earned her book the 2006 Independent Publisher Award for best travel guide.

Yunnan: The inspiration behind Shangri-la

by Neil Woodburn on

When a specific location proves to be the inspiration behind certain legends or works of art, it suddenly becomes all the more fascinating.

Of course, it helps if the product of this inspiration was, well, something inspiring itself; like Shangri-la, for example.

This mythical paradise was thought to have originated from an untouched section of China where the Himalayas thrust up towards the heavens and the natural beauty is said to be stunning and breathtaking. I have not had the good fortune to visit China’s Yunnan province–the true inspiration for Shangri-la–but a rather enthralling article in the Telegraph now has me salivating at the prospect.

Sadly, what was once a long arduous trek to reach, is serviced these days by a local airport. As a result, the capital of Dayan now sees three million tourists a year. The good news, however, is that few venture into the wilds beyond as journalist Katherine Tanko discovers while gallivanting about the region. In the process, she also learns if the nature itself isn’t paradise, the prices are. Tanko paid just $12 a night for room and board. Now that, folks, is my definition of Shangri-la.

Chris McCandless’ Bus an unlikely tourist attraction

by Martha Edwards on

Chris McCandless, the famous vagabond and subject of Sean Penn’s new film, Into the Wild, is perhaps best known for living out of an abandoned bus in the Alaskan Wilderness in the early 90s. He hiked to the middle of nowhere of his own accord, despite warnings from concerned locals, and lived off the land for a number of months. On September 6, 1992, two hikers found the bus, and on the outside, a note that read:

SOS. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?

Unfortunately they were too late. McCandless had been dead for two weeks.

The bus was strategically placed on the Stampede Trail to provide refuge for hunters better equipped for the Alaskan wilderness than McCandless. But since the publication of the book the movie was based on, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, wayward travellers, mostly young men, have been romanticizing McCandless’ story and re-enacting his journey. And now, amidst worries that even more fans will flock to the site, located about 25 miles from the town of Healy, locals are considering moving it.

Moving it is a problem of it’s own, since they can’t just drive it out of there. And it’s a shame to take away a refuge for legitimate hunters who are equipped for the wilderness, just because some lost souls have a morbid curiosity to see the deathbed of their ill-placed hero. Thoughts?

The longest national park?

by Iva Skoch on

I’ve been to Washington DC more than a few times now, but I can still be surprised. And it happened again this weekend.

It turns out that DC is the ending point for a very special national park: the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, where it dumps into the Potomac River.

Unbelievably, the canal starts near the Pennsylvania border, in Cumberland, MD, more than 185 miles away, and ends here in DC, in the Georgetown neighborhood. And, yes, you can bike or run the entire length.

The C&O Company formed in 1825, started digging three years later, and finished the canal twenty-five years later, at a cost of $11 million. By the 1920s, the traffic had ceased, a victim of competition with the railroad. It uses 74 locks because of the 605 foot elevation change over its length, and it had up to 500 boats regularly operating on it, mostly moving coal in the 1870s. [Check out Quick Road Trip: Washington, D.C. Part Two for a first person account of a ride on the canal boats.]

Next time you’re in Georgetown, head down to the canal and take a stroll. Just don’t forget to turn around before you end up in Pennsylvania.

Tim Cahill goes down Death Valley

by Abha Malpani on

If, in Tim Cahill’s words: “the sight of Death Valley National Park is something akin to scientific pornography for hard-rock geologists,” the piece he wrote on his travel there is soft-porn for the solitary adventure travel-writer.

Metamorphosis used to vaguely tickle my curiosity in geography class at school, but other than that, I have absolutely no interest in geology. I still managed to read Cahill’s detailed narration in National Geographic on Death Valley in one shot, without yawning.

For those of you who don’t know about Death Valley other than being a set for Star Wars, it’s a valley in California that is recognized as the lowest point of the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottest places on the planet; it covers an area of 3-million acres.

It’s called Death Valley after some explorers got lost there around 1845; although only one of them died, they all thought that it would be their grave.

What makes the place interesting other than it’s grim and forbidding name, is that it has sand-dunes as well as snow-capped mountains; multicolored rocks that move, and canyons. It is home to the Timbisha Shoshone tribe, and 1000 types of species and plants — 50 of which are not found anywhere in the world.

Cahill’s feature reads as if you were in an open museum of the Valley — he captures more than the essence of the place. So if you get a kick out of obscure geographical dwellings of our mother earth, you will love this article.

I suggest you start off by reading Cahill’s interview about the trip; then go on to the full article if it did something for you. The feature will be in print in National Geographic’s November issue.

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