The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (67 page)

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Authors: Jane Wooldridge

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Convenient lodging can book up quickly and, with the exception of the International Hostel, isn’t cheap. One choice is the
Campus Tower Suite Hotel
(11145 87th Ave., 780-439-6060), where advance-purchase rooms during the festival cost around $100.
Edmonton’s Hostel
(10647 81st St., 866-762-4122,
www.hihostels.ca/westerncanada/1404/HI-Edmonton.hostel
) is convenient to the festival grounds; rates for a private room with shared bath start around $65; en suite rooms and dorm rooms are also available. At the
Varscona
(8208 106th St., 780-434-6111,
www.varscona.com
), festival-season rooms start at around $125.
[$
PLURGE
: For a splurge, consider the stylish
Metterra Hotel
(10454 82nd Ave. NW, 780-465-8150,
www.metterra.com
), where a room during festival season costs about $150.]

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

Edmonton Economic Development Corporation,
800-463-4667,
www.edmonton.com
.

help out at a national park

NATIONWIDE

The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth.

—
SIR WILFRED GRENFELL, BRITISH MEDICAL MISSIONARY (1865–1940)

84 |
Several years ago visitors to Montana’s Little Bighorn Battlefield got a surprise when they signed up for a free guided tour. As the guide opened his mouth, it was clear he wasn’t a local. He had a Brooklyn accent you could cut with a knife.

Some travelers might have felt they were grabbing a cab at LaGuardia, not exploring the Great Plains. But if the guide ever saw disappointment, he never let on. Every day he led his group to the grassy battlefield and quickly put them in the minds of the soldiers on that fateful day in 1876. Soon the arrogance of the U.S. forces became clear, and everyone could see the inevitability of the army’s defeat. Battlefields can be hard to visit. It’s difficult to understand the bloodshed that shook what is now a peaceful meadow. But the New Yorker took his visitors back in time and made this crucial moment in history come alive. In short, he made their visit.

But the surprising thing is that this hard worker wasn’t on the payroll. He was a volunteer.

You, too, can be a VIP—Volunteers-in-Parks, as the program is called. In 2009, nearly 200,000 people participated, contributing work valued at nearly $120 million.

The Little Bighorn guide was working a several-months-long stint. And if you have the time to give, there are literally scores of opportunities for you. If you have a particular interest or skill, contact a park where you’d like to serve or browse the VIP website, where you’ll find listings of opportunities and an application form. You can do everything from operating a gristmill at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas to transcribing oral histories for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Another long-term commitment is to work as campground host. Volunteers who can stay through a season collecting fees, cleaning common areas, and performing light maintenance can often stay free of charge at the campground. But even if you just have a week or only a few days, there are often ways you can assist. For example, parks often need help when they hold special events.

Joy Pietschmann, the National Park Service’s volunteer program coordinator, urges visitors to call a park a few weeks before they arrive and ask about opportunities even if there are none listed on its website. “If the park knows they’re coming, it can often find a project for them. They might paint tables and then get a tour.” Pietschmann says the Park Service works to make volunteer opportunities mutually beneficial. “We don’t want people to just come in and clean toilets if they’re not getting anything out of it. We want people no matter what they’re doing to be happy what they’re doing.”

NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY

Most of us want to volunteer but have trouble finding time. Well, here’s a chance to change that. National Public Lands Day, now the nation’s largest outdoor volunteer event, began in 1994 as a way to serve our national forests, parks, and other properties. In recent years, 150,000 people have come out on a Saturday in late September to pick up trash, fix trails, and remove invasive species. Other tasks are as varied as collecting native plant seeds in the tallgrass prairie near Homestead National Monument in Nebraska to improving the grounds surrounding the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. And to show their appreciation, both the National Park Service and Forest Service offer free admission to their units on the day.
National Environmental Education Foundation, National Public Lands Day, 4301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste. 160, Washington, DC 20008, 202-833-2933,
www.publiclandsday.org
.

That’s not to say the work won’t be hard.

At Florida’s Everglades National Park, volunteers are constantly needed to trim growth from trails and help eradicate invasive plant species. One of the biggest restoration projects is called the Hole-in-the-Donut, a 6,600-acre area that had been covered with Brazilian pepper trees, which absorb water and crowd out native plants. Although the park bulldozed the area, the plant keeps returning and volunteers help by pulling up new plant shoots and using loppers, clippers, and saws to cut the resilient evergreen back.

Other volunteers work with biologists tracking down invasive fish, or even searching for snakes that are tagged with GPS transmitters. Although those jobs are usually reserved for long-term volunteers or groups, the park tries to place short-term guests with these ongoing projects. And then there are the day-to-day park needs like photocopying, painting, and trimming overgrown vegetation. Even if it’s not as sexy, the work is just as crucial.

In gratitude, the park gives even one-day volunteers a weeklong pass good for free admission. Cerisa Swanberg, an Everglades ranger who works with volunteers, says people leave with an even more valuable gift. After working at a park, a visitor always feels connected to the site. “It does make it a more satisfying and more memorable visit,” she says.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

Volunteers-in-Parks,
National Park Service, Volunteer Coordinator, 1201 I St. NW, Ste. 2450, Washington, DC 20005, e-mail: [email protected],
www.nps.gov/getinvolved/volunteer.htm
.

just say “om”

COLORADO

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.

—
B.K.S. IYENGAR, RENOWNED YOGA TEACHER AND FOUNDER OF IYENGAR YOGA (B. 1918)

85 |
Yoga and meditation have become so popular in America that classes are taught in offices, high schools, and even the smallest heartland towns. While doctors laud yoga’s physical benefits—flexibility, strength, and posture—for most people with hectic lives, it’s the serenity that comes with an hour of measured breathing and thoughtful poses that makes the practice endurable.

Travel and fitness writer Debra Bokur was introduced to yoga by a physical therapist following a horseback-riding accident more than 20 years ago. “My horse and I fell at a jump, and both of my legs were injured. At the time, I didn’t know a thing about yoga, but found that it not only helped with my recovery, it also had personal benefits I hadn’t anticipated: My stress level lowered, I slept better, and my overall flexibility increased dramatically,” she says. “In the years since that first session in a medical center, I’ve also found that yoga practice helps me to connect with a community of people who usually share many of my own values, including a mindful approach to moving through life.”

If a once-a-week class isn’t enough to chill you out, a retreat may be what you need. These days, you don’t need to go all the way to Bali to find one you can afford. Many yoga and meditation centers in the United States offer programs that allow you to camp out or bunk in a shared space. Most also offer private accommodations for those who want more amenities and space.

Bokur, who now works with
Healing Lifestyles & Spas
magazine, recommends two Colorado retreats set in landscapes that offer their own healing magic:

Shambhala Mountain Center.
This northern Colorado retreat near the town of Red Feather Lakes sprawls across 600 acres in a mountain valley. Founded in the 1970s as a Buddhist retreat—the grounds feature a Buddhist stupa completed in 2001—Shambhala offers an unusual array of programs centered on mindfulness, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism. Programs centered around drumming, writing, ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement), gardening, and photography are designed to stir the creative soul; meditation to soothe the tired and tortured. Physical activities as a form of meditation become the centerpiece of programs focused on distance running and walking, Chinese qigong, and tai chi. Yoga weekends may be focused on helping you establish your practice at home or helping you manage depression; yoga styles vary. Weekend yoga programs start at $310 and include lodging in a dormitory, meals, and seminars; private rooms are offered.