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iBackpackCanada: A Backpackers Travel Guide

Corbin, the author of the blog, iBackpackCanada.com, is a 20-something guy from the 'flatlands of Canada' (Saskatchewan). Corbin's family has a huge farm just North of Regina, which has cattle, a few horses, and thousands of acres of land.

After finishing high school, Corbin planned to take a year off before diving into university, which he refers to as "The Best Trap Ever". Corbin sold his Ford Ranger truck, most of his possessions, and took off for a year of Round the World Travel. Of course, he loved every minute of it, and upon arrival back home, he realized he couldn’t stop.

When Corbin got back from his travels abroad however, and after travelling around Canada for a couple of months, it occurred to him how little info there is regarding Canada for backpackers. Corbin agrees with us that the infrastructure for budget travel in Canada is there--Corbin decided however that for some reason people either have been keeping this a secret or are just too cold to bother telling people about it.

Corbin has decided to reveal these secrets of budget travel in Canada in his blog, iBackpackCanada.com.

Enjoy his blog, and if you like, email him at webmaster@ibackpackcanada.com

Feature of the Week October 29th to November 1st 2009
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Skweeks House, Kingston Ontario

Skweeks House is a great location to explore Kingston & the 1000 Islands from. One of the newest buildings in historic Sydenham Ward, it was built in the early 1950's as a three unit apartment building. Walk, bike, drive, ski, skate, kayak or sail there's history, shopping, entertainment and scenery in all directions.

Guests are encouraged to explore Kingston's active night life with in walking distance. Sample locally brewed beer at the "Brew Pub" or Ontario wines at local night spots. Check out the range of entertainment in the theatres, cinemas and restaurants.

Skweeks House is a family oriented building (with pets). A place for restful rejuvenation after a busy day of work or play. A piano is central in the shared common room, a guest computer is provided, but no television. Books, puzzles, games, quiet socializing often pot luck style meals fill the evenings.

"Purr-fect hostel style accommodation for all seasons."

Hostel of the Week, October 19th to 25th 2009
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Wherever I have been on my travels the first thing someone says to me when i tell them I am from is England is "Are you from London?". The answer to this I have to say is a resounding "no" - and let me tell you there is far more to the UK that is worth visiting than it's illustrious and internationally renowned capital city. Indeed, if you are a traveler young or old or are even planning a family holiday or vacation and are thinking of visiting England for the first time but are is looking for an alternative to the usual site seeing trips to the city of London, why not instead look for a more serene and scenic alternative than the hustle and bussel of the capital and instead please give some special consideration to the incredible natural beauty of the Lake District - my favorite area of the British Isles. Situated in the North West of England in the county of Cumbria, the Lake District offers unique scenery quite unique to anywhere else in Europe and is an ideal location for any traveler who loves walking, hiking, cycling, camping or any other outdoor activity as the natural landscape offers the perfect backdrop for any such pursuit.


The Lake District's main claim to fame and also a key attraction for English people and tourists alike is that it has the highest point of altitude in all of England - Scafell Pike - and offers fantastic views of the surrounding area on a clear day. Although modest in its height by even European standards (standing at 978 meters tall) Scafell is an excellent place to take a walk if you ever get the chance to visit the North of England and forms one part of the famous national 3 peaks challenge. In spite of the fact that you may find the idea of climbing a mountain a rather daunting prospect, let me tell you that the beauty of the place is that it is very accessible to anyone who is reasonably fit and mobile and requires no specialist equipment to traverse other than a decent pair of hiking boots and a rain coat if you plan to visit in the summer months. although rain is to be expected and snow is likely near the summit, the paths to the top are very clearly laid out and frequented by many people of all ages every year.

Pictured? Definitely not the hotel in question - that's one of our better hotel experiences.

I am probably suffering from chronic information overload - how about you? - but increasingly I'm finding myself wanting to read more informed opinions from people with experience and expertise in a subject, no matter what the area, but especially travel. If I'm doing research or simply trying to stay abreast of trends, I don't have the time or inclination to sift through reviews and advice from people whose backgrounds and qualifications I know very little about. Which is why I very rarely visit Trip Advisor (see my post of yesterday for more on user-generated reviews) and which is why I was so happy when the smart people at Uptake, in partnership with BootsnAll Travel Network and Tips from the T-list, started Travel Insights 100 (and also asked me to join!). Travel Insights 100 consists of 100 opinion makers in travel, from tourism industry leaders to travel writers and bloggers. Essentially it's an online forum where you can find a diverse group of travel experts and a place for discussion about the issues and changes affecting travel around the globe. You'll find members' blog posts, RSS and Twitter feeds, as well as the results of surveys of the members that Uptake will undertake and release from time to time, the first of which was a survey - what else - on Twitter. Check out the actual results here and a summary here. And do let me know what you think.

GO Backpackers, Edmonton Alberta

GO Backpackers has gone through a lot of recent changes. The hostel has a full kitchen with a cozy dining room as well as many different common areas which include a TV room and a library/games room that you can kick back and relax in!

There are internet terminals available in the lobby and free WIFI is also available in the common areas. Coin operated laundry is up and running, though the hostel provides all bedding and towels, so there is no need to bring your own. There is also hair dryers in all of the female dorms and private rooms.

The Jekyll and Hyde pub downstairs is a good way to start off an evening of fun! Every Friday, the owners get up on stage and play live music, which is a real treat. Come by and check it out!

GO Backpackers is in the heart of downtown and within walking distance of the Legislature, the Edmonton Art Gallery, City Hall, the Royal Alberta Museum and the Shaw Conference Centre as well as a variety of restaurants. Additionally, the hostel is conveniently located near the LRT (lower rail transit) which gives quick access to places such as the Commonwealth Stadium, Rexall Place and the University of Alberta.

"Come by and stay awhile at GO Backpackers! Looking forward to hosting you!"

Hostel of the Week, October 12th to 18th 2009
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

The city of Florence is the capital of the Tuscan region of Italy and a city steeped in rich history and renaissance art. Lying along the river Arno, the city is a sheer delight to behold with its fantastic buildings and architecture. Florence is without question a “must see” for any young backpacker travelling across Europe - although it may not necessarily be the first city that springs to mind when you are planning your trip. Established in the year 59BC by the famous Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, it was originally an army camp for Roman army veterans. However, it is more famous as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance during the middle ages with buildings constructed in the classical “Romanesque” style such as the Basilica Di San Miniato al Monte also helping to define the city of Florence and its architecture.


The main landmark of the city however is surely the fantastic Santa Maria del Fiore - a cathedral famed for its large dome - which remains open for visitors to the city to help them enjoy spectacular views of the city and its ornate buildings from up on high. Along the Arno is the Ponte Vecchio bridge which is also worth a visit for any tourist or traveler in Florence.

Travel 'experts', whether they are travel writers, guidebook authors, travel bloggers, tour guides, travel agents, hoteliers etc, are also 'real' travellers in my mind. Yet publishers and travel sites are frequently pitting the two against each other. Sure, the travel experts sometimes get special treatment and they can rarely shut themselves off from the act of reviewing, even when they're on holidays, but the fact is that they do take holidays and do travel like 'normal' people too. I book my flights and hotels online. I have to negotiate local transport like you do. I eat as many bad meals as I do good ones, and I also get allocated my share of crappy hotel rooms too. Yet increasingly the opinions of the experts - the people who stay in hundreds of hotel rooms a year, catch scores of flights, and talk to thousands of other travel experts and travellers - that is, the people who make it their business to accumulate vast travel experience and knowledge and develop skills at discernment - seem to be increasingly undervalued and overlooked in favor of the opinions of 'real' people. One example is the hotel reviews in Budget Travel (a magazine I love, by the way), such as this one which states that "Online reviews generally praise the hotel as an affordable gem with a fun, unique theme" and "Reader Dawn recommends Franklin Feel the Sound, where she stayed in June 2009. She writes that the Franklin exceeded her expectations and was excellent value". Frankly, unless I know who these online reviewers were and have more information about them and Dawn, I don't care what they think. I want to know how much hotel experience they've had, how many hotels in Rome they've checked into and inspected, and how many hotels they've stayed at fullstop, so I can then determine what their idea of "affordable" or "unique" is, and how different their expectations may be to that of other travellers. You see, travel experts know these things. What do you think?

Being able to spend a night in the restaurant kitchen of a Michelin-starred chef - in this case that of Pierre Gagnaire at Reflets, Dubai - is one of the delights of our job. It wasn't our first time - which was Bacchus at Read's, Mallorca, where we dined at the Chef's Table and Terry did a Master Chef experience with Felix Eschrich - but our night at Reflets was probably one of our most enlightening and educative experiences in a restaurant kitchen. And Terry and I have both spent a lot of time in kitchens. I worked in Sydney cafes to put myself through uni and during high school for pocket money, while Terry did a stint working weekend nights in the kitchen of a friend's Surry Hills bistro to keep himself out of trouble when I went to South America to do my masters. But these were no fine dining restaurants! It would be inconceivable to think that a chef in a Michelin-starred fine-diner would retrieve a salad he'd dropped intentionally on a dirty floor, plopping it back in a bowl to be served to an impatient customer as one drug-crazed cook did in the kitchen of a popular Balmain cafe I onced worked at. What I also find inconceivable, after these Michelin-starred kitchen experiences, are the abusive Ramsay-like tirades of the kind we see on Hell's Kitchen. Because the atmosphere we witnessed in both kitchens was one of calm. No yelling. No screaming. No chaos. Very little confusion. Over the course of 3.5 hours of service at Reflets, we only heard the head chef shout "Allez! Allez!" a couple of times and witnessed a few minor moments from the sous chef, irritated with the energetic expediter who could occasionally be a little too eager to send unfinished plates out. In stark contrast, the chefs were cool and composed, the kitchen quiet. There was still a buzz, a real energy about the place, but it was a positive one. Throughout the night, when not checking plates, watching his team or talking to diners, a patient Pierre Gagnaire took time to explain, answer questions, and even ask us about our work and travels. He brought us delicious morsels of food that we savoured - some foie gras here, lobster ice-cream there - while Head Chef Olivier Biles brought us bottles of water and periodically asked if we were okay. Servers ducked out of range of Terry's camera and apologised for getting in our way, when we were the ones clearly in their's. What struck us is how extraordinarily professional, how kind, and how hospitable chefs of this calibre can be. It's their generosity in such stressful conditions that is most remarkable. But then it really shouldn't be surprising because when we talk to chefs about why they do what they do, mostly they say they do it to give pleasure. And how very pleasing the experience was. I'll let you know when the story's out.

Pictured? That's me chatting to Pierre Gagnaire.

It's been a busy period for Terry and I, as you've gathered from the dearth of blog posts these last months. And we've got a lot of work being published to prove it, from a small 'Up Next' piece on Abu Dhabi in the September edition of National Geographic Traveler to half a dozen eco-experiences I wrote about in Rough Guide's Clean Breaks book. I saw our first edition Travellers Northern Italy guidebook for the first time in a bookshop in Dubai the other day too and got exhausted just looking at it - that was a tough trip. Although I know you don't believe me. We've always written for in-flight magazines, but we've been doing a lot more writing for them these past few months. If you're wondering why, it's because it's fun, the editors are lovely, easy to work with and respond to emails, it's nice to submit a story and see it in print a month or two later, and they pay on time. In September's Storytelling issue of Gulf Air's in-flight magazine Gulf Life, we have features on Abu Shady, Syria's last hakawati or professional storyteller and a review on the Sheraton Aleppo; while in the October issue, we have articles on Syrian sculptor Mustafa Ali; a new Damascus jazz duo comprised of opera star Rasha Razk and pianist Ghazwan Zerkli; and funky Zen bar in Damascus with its fabulous views. All feature Terry's gorgeous photos of course, as does a story on Doha Tribeca Film Festival director - he shot the stunning portrait of Amanda Palmer in the lobby of Doha's W hotel. We've got a bunch of stories in this month's issue of Jazeera's in-flight J Mag too, and in MPI's One Plus magazine a profile on Emirati Ali Al Saloom who is changing the way visitors to Abu Dhabi experience the UAE.

Our recent trip around the Middle East (see this post) wasn't meant to be that kind of trip. There was no guidebook to write. No insane photography commission for Terry to undertake. Just lots of stories and hotel reviews to research and a couple of meetings about a book we're developing. However, somehow a trip that was meant to be fairly straightforward and one we'd hoped would trundle along at a slower pace than normal - a donkey's pace was what I desired - turned into the usual frenzied adventure where we find ourselves running from one appointment to another, and working long days that extend well into the night, every day and night. And now we're frantically writing up those stories and Terry's editing and prepping images for the stories (hence the lack of time for blogging), at the same time as we're pitching more stories, doing more reviews, going on photo shoots, and prepping for the next trip - every day and night, well into the night. So how as travel writers do we get ourselves into this situation? And is it possible to avoid this frenzied life?

The Hostel Chef blog

Noah Witenoff (a.k.a The Hostel Chef) is a 31 year old food stylist, living in Montreal, Canada. He became interested in food after travelling around Australia. It was in youth hostels that his passion for fast delicious food was ignited and since then, his life has been all about food. This blog is designed to be a guide for backpackers staying in hostels around the world and can also be useful for people interested in fast easy recipes at home. Each entry starts with a blurb from his actual journal from 9 years ago and links to useful tips and recipes.

Hope you enjoy!

Feature of the Week, October 6th to 11th, 2009
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and physically unique cities in the entire world, the great city of Venice located in Northern Italy presents a travel destination quite like no other for any young backpacker travelling around Europe. Venice is of course most famous for its numerous rivers and canals that help to clearly define the unique and intriguing natural characteristics of this Italian Adriatic jewel.


The city itself is built upon 118 small islands that sit proudly amongst this intense intertwined network of waterways. When you picture the perfect ideal of Venice in your mind you always think of images of romantic boat trips on summer evenings - and travelling serenely along the waterways of the city by the numerous traditional gondolas that can be hired is surely a must have experience for any tourist or backpacker visiting the city and is also a great way of taking in the city's incredible architecture.


Indeed, it is these enduring images and traditions that not surprisingly have continued to make Venice a very popular holiday destination for young couples travelling around Europe.