Hostel

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Many Americans, if they think about hostels at all, think of them as something you do in Europe just after college—before you grow up and put away childish things like sharing dorm rooms with strangers. I’m not going to try to convince you that this is always a good thing—hell, I’m not always up for it—but it’s worth thinking about. In Boise, I stayed in a pretty private room in a semi-rural property with lush landscaping for $35. I got to meet the lovely lady who runs the place and feels a sense of mission to make travel more affordable and more personable for all of us.

Near Klamath, Ca, the Redwoods Hostel is a renovated house from the turn of the century, located within Redwoods National Park, and just across from a wonderful beach—for $21. Yeah, I made my own bed. Yeah, I slept in a bunk bed with 4 strangers in the room—and they were all really nice--brought my own food, and cleaned up after myself in the kitchen.

In the big common room in the evening, the British guys hit on Scottish girls who looked about 12 but couldn't have been, while a mother and daughter from Philadelphia worked a 700-piece crossword puzzle. A multigenerational group from Arizona made dinner in the kitchen while an Indian couple studied maps. The New Zealanders argued about where to go next. I pulled a book off the bookshelf and looked at pretty pictures—after a day spent hiking, skidding down slippery trails, and crawling up sand dunes in violation of state policy, I was too tired to even make conversation, but it’s Ok. There was plenty without me.

In the morning, I woke up early and the crashing surf drew me out to the beach. It was silent, except for beach sounds, and the tide was out. There were starfish clinging to the exposed undersides of rocks, and sea anemones. The morning fog clung to the redwoods, and just a few miles down the road were some of the biggest trees on the planet. It is a place of magic, and it was all mine.

Yes, that very night I became an American again and shut myself into a private motel room capsule and fell asleep with some bad movie on TV. But for $21? Do you really need your own private room every night?

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