Your backpacking travel planner

Caledonia Country Hostel, Southwest Nova Scotia

"The saying here is that "we are in the middle of everywhere", because we are less than an hour away from 3 large towns--Liverpool, Bridgewater, Annapolis Royal. We are only 16km from Kejimkuijik National Park and Historical site of Canada where you will find trails to hike in the summer or snowshoe in the winter. There are also groomed trails for crosscountry skiing during the winter months. If you like to skate we have lots of lakes in the area or in the spring you can fish in the lakes and streams. If you like the outdoors and want some peace and tranquility then this is the place for you! Look for special deals at www.caledoniacountryhostel.com."

Hostel of the Week January 27th to February 1st 2010
Submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Now that we are out of the hectic Christmas and New Year period and my life has returned to some sort of parity again, I’ve been giving some more serious thought to planning my next holiday travel destinations to visit in 2010. I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time travelling and backpacking in Europe over the last few years - and while this has been fantastic fun, meeting some great people, and I would always recommend it to any one - I think its time for me to explore some pastures new a little further from home. I’ve been considering doing the whole West Coast USA thing as many of my friends have recommended it as one of the best holiday destinations in the world. I have been grabbed by the idea of renting a car and checking out all the unusual scenes and landscape of the desert and surrounding areas - and of course visiting some of the great cities in the region like Las Vegas. It looks like a real great city to go and party for someone my age, packed with all the grand style Vegas hotels, bars, clubs, music and live entertainment that you come to expect from one of the worlds most famous places to take a break. Basically, I’m looking to soak up all the fun and bright lights that the city of Las Vegas has to offer - without breaking the bank! Indeed, I’ve already committed a bit of time looking online for some cheap hotels and flights to try and find something affordable within my budgets - then of course there are also a raft of discount saving Vegas coupons which you can get hold of online to save yourself a few good bucks along the way. Now all I need to do is keep working hard and save up some cash then I can get back on a plane and get out of here once again!

Kip and Kaboodle Backpackers Hostel, on the main road, half way betwen Mahone Bay and Lunenburg Nova Scotia

"Kip & Kaboodle is a friendly little backpackers hostel in a quiet country setting located conveniently between Mahone Bay & Lunenburg - an area with a lot to offer! Mahone Bay is our closest town, and it is famous for its three postcard-perfect churches as well as its arts & crafts community. Lunenburg is 7km away and is the home of the famous Bluenose II as well as the Picton Castle, a square-rigged barque which has done four world voyages. Lunenburg is also a UNESCO World Heritage site - one of only two towns in North America to carry such a prestigious title. Close to beaches, hiking trails, art galleries & museums, wineries and much more."

Greg Inglis, your host (and a tour guide who has been providing tours throughout Nova Scotia for over 7 years), is always happy to sit down and chat in the evenings to help you plan out your trip to make sure you don't miss a thing while visiting this beautiful part of Canada.

The editors of Backpackers Hostels Canada wanted to draw your attention to a very funny page on the Kip and Kaboodle website called "Ridiculous rules we (mistakenly) assumed were totally unnecessary to state". For some comic relief (and certainly a little provocation of thought for travellers) please read through this page.

Hostel of the Week January 18th to 24th 2010
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Are you a student looking to fill your year out? Looking to meet other like minded young people, make new friends and gain great life experiences? If this sounds like something you would be interested in then I would highly suggest taking advantage of the trips that a teen service can offer you. Backpacking and adventure holiday package trips such as these can be a great way for young people to spend a gap year, take some time out from college, and ultimately help you develop as an individual. Teen Service Programs offer young people a great chance to see new and exciting parts of the world and enjoy adventure holidays in numerous locations across the globe in safe and well structured surroundings. With trips available to Europe, Central America, USA and Canada, Asia, Africa and Oceania there is surely going to be a perfect opportunity for you to enjoy the experience of a lifetime - no matter where in the world you are thinking of traveling to. Book online now for exhilarating and exciting experiences that will give you memories that will last a lifetime. So why not challenge yourself as a person and become stronger through these unique experiences? Book today and pack your rucksack for the holiday of a lifetime!

Anyone else feel like they need to get away for a short city break somewhere? I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty fed up with all the freezing cold weather and snow were having in England at the moment. It’s cold, dark and quite frankly, all a little depressing sat in the office at the moment. Think its time to get the lads back together and visit some of the fantastic cities I’ve already visited on my backpacking travels around Europe. You may notice that in some of my older posts I wrote a backpackers guide to Barcelona - without a doubt one of my favourite cities to visit because it has something for everyone from the football fan, food lovers and those who are interested in the arts. Luckily at this time of year in particular I’ve found that you can get cheap flights to Barcelona relatively easily - and you can always save money by booking online. I remember visiting the city in January 2008 and was pleasantly surprised that the temperatures are still very mild - certainly a lot higher than the sub zero temperatures we’ve got in the UK at the moment.
If Spain is not the place for you, then maybe you could try a short winter break to Paris? If you are traveling with a partner as a young couple then maybe Paris could be a better option for you. Please take the time to read my blog post review of the city to get a great travel guide to France’s capital - and hopefully learn about all the best sights to see in this beautiful, historic and romantic city. Again, it seems that flights to Paris are pretty inexpensive at the this time of the year, so I would probably now is a great time to let your hair down for a few nights and begin to enjoy fine wining and dining in some of the best restaurants that Europe has to offer. So what are you waiting for, check out my city guides and forget the winter blues - get yourself on that plane right now!

Squamish Inn On the Water

"Greetings from all the staff at the Squamish Inn on the Water. We provide unique accommodation offering inviting rooms along with all the comforts of home. Our personalized service and hospitality is the perfect fit to a memorable experience in the premier destination of Squamish.

Squamish, meaning “Mother of the Wind” in Coast Salish is nestled in the heart of the Sea to Sky corridor, between Whistler and Vancouver on Hwy 99. Our new facility has been custom built to be the ultimate character accommodation for the distinctive destination of Squamish: “The Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada”.

Squamish Inn on the Water is more than a place to stay…it’s an experience!"

Hostel of the Week, January 12th to 17th 2010
Submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Backpackers on Dundas

Backpackers on Dundas is in downtown Toronto, very near the Chinatown district. It is central to everything downtown Toronto has to offer. It is a very friendly hostel and is very clean. Over 150 dvd-library, free internet, hot showers, laundry and kitchen facilities are only some of the amenities offered. Take a video tour through the hostel (link below), taken during a quiet time by Michael Scott, the owner/host. You'll see why Backpackers on Dundas makes a great place to spend your nights while you visit Toronto.

Watch the video!

Hostel of the Week, January 3rd to 10th 2010
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada

Sydney's bridge is now a major tourist attraction, the Bridge Climb considered a must-do activity for visitors, and a place of celebration, with Sydneysiders streaming over it for its anniversaries and other significant events. The bridge is the centrepiece for every New Year's Eve fireworks, when the country anxiously waits to see (after weeks of speculation) what illuminated symbol will appear on the structure following the dazzling display - it was a disco ball one year, a dove of peace another. 

But, more than anything, like the Sydney Opera House and other great iconic monuments, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a source of immense national pride. Its completion not only united the city when it connected Sydney's northern and southern shores in 1932, but it also united a nation during very challenging times. I suspect Burj Khalifa has done the same.


P.S.my tweets motivated this lovely post from Julie on Matador: How Twitter Helped Me Care About the Burj

The posts I will be popping up on my poor neglected travel blog over the next few days have been a long time coming. Some I drafted back in Beirut in November, others I scribbled almost a month ago while I was recovering from bronchial pneumonia from a hotel room in Bangkok where we were working on a guidebook. That diagnosis, by the way, based on nasty symptoms like coughing up blood, came from my doctor uncle in Australia by email because I was too busy working to get to a GP. It would be an understatement to say that 2009 has been a hectic year of travel and writing for Terry and I - something I only recently appreciated glancing at all the books we've written which have been published this year sitting on the shelf beside my desk here at my family's house in Bendigo, Australia: Footprint Italian Lakes, Thomas Cook Northern Italy, and Thomas Cook Travellers Calabria, plus a handful of books I updated for AA and Thomas Cook. Then there are others we've written that I haven't even seen (like the Rough Guides Clean Breaks, which I contributed to) or are not yet published, like the new edition to the Rough Guide to Australia (for which we updated four and a bit states - half the country! - on a four month-long road trip from October 2008 to February 2009), and another first edition, Back Roads Australia for DK. I skim down this page scanning my posts, and while there have been few compared to last year or the year before, when I stop at In Print and Online and then take a look at that archive I see why. We may continually read the claims that print is dead yet we've spent more time writing for magazines this year than any other, and up until we returned to guidebooks in December we'd spent six months solid doing little else but write for magazines. The irony is that we've now been hired by HomeAway Holiday-Rentals for a year to travel the world, stay in their properties, and blog about the experience - something I never could have predicted. So the travel blogging that for me had been an escape from my 'day job' as a travel writer now becomes our main source of income. Print is still not dead, however - as much as our new client appreciates social media, they are still going to pay us bonuses for every article we get published in a magazine or newspaper. So I'm expecting it's going to be another busy year, but I'm pleased to say that we'll be slowing down considerably. No longer will I be envying a donkey his pace. More on our new project, Grantourismo soon.

Pictured? Fortune tellers in Bangkok.

Ottawa Backpackers Inn

Just recently, on December 12th, the Olympic Torch was carried past the newly refurbished Ottawa Backpackers Inn, at 203 York Street Ottawa. Behind the runners, staff and guests of the Ottawa Backpackers Inn can be seen waving with Olympic fervour.

Ottawa Backpackers Inn will soon be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. Congratulations to Martin Jones, owner and operator of the OBI!

Hostel of the week, December 20th to January 3rd 2009
submitted by Kennedy Jones
Backpackers Hostels Canada