The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (74 page)

Other great festivals for solo travelers to attend: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, western Massachusetts (June–Aug.); Williamstown Theatre Festival, western Massachusetts (June–Aug.); Aspen Music Festival, Colorado (July–Aug.; classical music); Tanglewood Music Festival, western Massachusetts (summer; classical music and jazz; see pp. 274–275); Toronto Fringe Festival (early July; fringe theater); Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Oregon (Feb.–Oct.; see p. 261); Summerfest, Milwaukee (late June–early July; rock); South by Southwest, Austin (March; new media, music, and film).

Spoleto USA,
843-579-3100,
www.spoletousa.org
.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
National parks are great (and generally safe) places to get out and enjoy nature, yet still be within shouting distance of help. You’ll find plenty of other people on the trail, too, although most will be polite enough not to intrude. Ranger-led tours offer chances to connect with others if you’d like, and learn about the ecology as well.

ALONE, NOT LONELY

Traveling solo doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. Here are a few tips for connecting with others:

 Before you leave, get names and numbers of friends of friends and colleagues who live where you’re going. Touch base in advance and make a date for coffee.

 Join a tour. Even a two-hour walking tour, ranger talk, or excursion will help you connect with others.

 Museums, colleges, women’s tour companies, and adventure firms offer group trips—often with affordable single rates. Choose a trip based on a passionate interest or go to a place you’ve always wanted to visit; if you don’t like your fellow travelers, you’ll still have a worthy experience.

$PLURGE

YELLOWSTONE LODGES

Yellowstone has nine lodges scattered around its interior; many of them offer the choice of accommodations in the lodge or cabins. The most requested lodging in the park is Old Faithful Inn, a national historic landmark that, as its name suggests, stands next to the park’s iconic geyser. The Victorian-era eponymous Lake Yellowstone Hotel was the first lodge built in the park. Rooms at Yellowstone’s lodges offer few frills and can run $145 and up, but the experience is worth the expense.
Yellowstone National Park Lodges,
www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com
.

At more than two million acres, Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park offers you plenty of space and a wide diversity of attractions and activities. You can drive from one fluorescent boiling mudpot to the next, learn why Old Faithful’s timing isn’t what it used to be, marvel at Mammoth Hot Springs terraces, hike into the woods, go fly-fishing, catch a tour in a historic open-topped car, and sign up for a horse-riding trip.

Unless you are camping, which can be a little daunting on your own, and unless you’re traveling in the off-season, staying within the park can be expensive. Fortunately, the towns of
Cody
(Wyoming;
www.codychamber.org
) and
West Yellowstone
(Montana;
www.destinationyellowstone.com
), both located near a park entrance, have plenty of clean, cheap accommodations. In addition, the towns present an interesting mix of charm and honky-tonk.

Other great national parks for a solo visit are California’s Yosemite National Park and Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park (especially the South Rim).

Yellowstone National Park,
307-344-7381,
www.nps.gov/yell
.

restore the trails

NATIONWIDE

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

—
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, JOURNAL (AUGUST 19, 1851)

92 |
Ever wonder about that park footpath that takes you up to a mountain peak? It didn’t just appear there. Someone had to move the rocks, build the footbridges, and map the route all so that years later, you could have a memorable hike.

That someone can be you. For more than 30 years, the American Hiking Society has run volunteer vacations to build and maintain trails on public lands across the nation. The trips mix the best of an outdoor adventure with public service. You travel to some of the prettiest places on the planet—places like the San Juan Islands of Washington, the Colorado Rockies, and the Virgin Islands—and get to know them literally from the ground up. You have to pay for your transportation to the volunteer site, but once you arrive, the price for a weeklong adventure is an incredible bargain, $265. That includes all food, local transportation, and lodging, plus membership in the American Hiking Society, which includes subscriptions to
American Hiker
and
Backpacker
magazines. And if you do more than one trip in a calendar year, additional trips run just $175.

Now there are a few caveats. That lodging? It may be a tent pitched on a mountainside miles from civilization. But not necessarily. Other trips are based in developed campgrounds with flush toilets and hot showers, and some even use lodges or cabins. You can check out all the details before you sign up.

And that volunteer work? It really is work. “It’s not just a hiking vacation, there is a purpose to it,” says Libby Wile, the society’s volunteer programs manager. Expect to be digging, moving rocks, and building structures. Shirley Banks, a longtime American Hiking Society volunteer, says most people are surprised how strong they are, and how much they and their small group can accomplish in a week. “You are
working,
” she says. “There will always be a couple people who are really burly and pound the rocks. And there are other people who want to use the loppers and trim back brush. But it’s always OK to take breaks.”

Sometimes it’s quite an adventure just reaching your work site. When Banks volunteered in Olympic National Park in Washington State, llamas packed in her supplies. But she and others in her workgroup still had to backpack in their tent, sleeping bag, clothes, and personal gear. “It was 5 miles,” she said. “Straight up.” For the last several years she has been a team leader on a project in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Kentucky. A truck brings in gear, and Banks is in charge of ordering food and other supplies.

NATIONAL TRAILS DAY

Even if you can’t devote a week to the country’s hiking trails, you can still make a day of it. Every June, usually on the first Saturday, the American Hiking Society sponsors National Trails Day, devoted to celebrating and maintaining the country’s 200,000 miles of trails. (The Interstate Highway System, by contrast, covers less than 50,000 miles.) Trails Day includes up to 1,500 activities across the nation. For one day, volunteers will work on trails of all sorts, including paths for hiking, biking, and paddling. For information, visit the society’s National Trails Day Web page.
American Hiking Society,
www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx
.

Whatever the work, you won’t go hungry, she says. Trips include three meals a day, plus snacks. You’ll have to help prepare some of the food, but everyone takes turns, and groups grow close in just a week. Banks says that meals are never an afterthought. “If you feed people and feed them a lot and it’s good food, anything else can go wrong and they’ll still have a good time.” After dinner, there’s time for conversation around the campfire, but most people turn in early, pleasantly tired from the day’s work.

Still, all work and no play doesn’t make for much of a vacation, so each group gets one fun day to tour the area, whether it be a hike, museum, or field trip. Volunteers working in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, for example, get a private tour of Alcatraz. And Banks remembers fondly her day trip to Mount Hood’s lodge when she got a day off from working in Oregon’s Columbia River Basin.

Banks says there’s another benefit, too: the feeling of giving back. “Being a modern urban American, we use up a lot of resources, and I feel I owe the Earth a little bit. This is my tiny act of reparation. I can’t tell you how much it has enriched my life.”

The American Hiking Society runs about 60 trips throughout the year, although most are concentrated in the summer. Participants range in age from the early teens to the 80s, although there are some age restrictions on certain trips. Each group has about ten volunteers.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

American Hiking Society,
1422 Fenwick Ln., Silver Spring, MD 20910, 800-972-8608,
www.americanhiking.org
.

celebrate the bard

STAUNTON, VIRGINIA

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

—
PLAYWRIGHT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
AS YOU LIKE IT
(
CA
1600)

93 |
The debate over playwright William Shakespeare’s true identity may rage forever. But whether he was truly an English nobleman writing under a pen name or a humble scribe from Stratford upon Avon, the Bard remains one of the English-speaking world’s most beloved storytellers.

It’s a distinction far easier to appreciate on stage than in a high-school classroom—and thanks to the many performances in North America, there’s no need to cross the pond to soak up Shakespeare.