USA/CANADA ilxors. give me ur best tips for travelling across yr great respective countries on a ^ budget ^

like how dodgy is hitchhiking? i have already learnt from movies that if you try and sleep in a car on the side of a highway a cop will come and shine a flashlight on the blankets in your backseat and anyway i cant drive.

nobody really hitchhikes anymore. I mean some people do, but it's def not a reliable way to get around.

look into craigslist rideshare, I think.

Still super dodgy. Possibly also dodgy, but that I have friends who have done it successfully, is hooking up with couchsurfers and couchsurfing your way across the country.

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Sadly USA has no national public transportation things, it's all state-based. That being said, there are private companies like Greyhound and Amtrak, though those tend to cost a lot. For travelling between cities on the east coast on the cheap, though, budget bus services like Bolt Bus and Megabus are totally the way to go.

I was just going to suggest couchsurfing! I have several friends who've both couchsurfed and hosted. I met these two lovely German girls once when we all happened to be sleeping over someone's house in Brooklyn one time.

yeah ive done loads of couchsurfing, hosting and staying. but all in the past and its kindof a load of work sometimes

also, wrt camping. do ppl just *camp* or is it all this RV club bs the internet is giving me?

bulk trail mix in health food stores will save you lots of money on long bus rides, also you will not have to eat bad vending machine food.

camping rules differ from state to state, but camping in a designated campground with (just) a tent is usually around 8-10 bucks for a night, in most states you can stay for a week or two at the same spot. of course there are campgrounds that exist only for RVs but you don't want those.

fwiw, I don't know anyone who has camped. Most people just drive across and either arrange places to crash thru crashsurfers (or maybe craigslist if they're feeling dangerous), or pull up to road stops and try to catch a few hours of sleep in their car, or, if they have a chunkier budget, staying at a budget hotel.

Megabus proved ace for me last summer. $50 return trip to NYC from Toronto. By plane that would have costed, God, like, 16 times that.

I've hitchhiked a lot before, but I think I'm getting too old for it. There are def. creeps out there (esp. for lone young women, like I once was), but nothing terribly dodgy has ever happened to me. It seems more popular in Canada and the west, though. Used to go Greyhound a lot, too.

If you don't want to couchsurf, camping is available most places. There're also a lot of hostels out there (HI affiliated and otherwise).

Why not organize a couchsurfing adventure exclusively thru ilxors?

I have friends who are right now biking xcountry and camping along the way.

remember that one guy got decapitated riding the greyhound

just sayin

yeah i recall!

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo305/lejospopo/map.jpg

this is my initial *rough* over-ambitious plan (3 months) the pink part is first and joined by a flight to the green part. from NC to NM i'm thinking rail pass or something?

except w/o AZ "in protest" maybe

Why the hiccups in sask? I have never heard of anyone doing anything like that on purpsoe.

i have my reasons

i just hope it's not "cos regina is a funny name"

is that a bad reason?

i jsut think you'll be disappointed is all. i suppose you're going north for saskatoon though (where there are iirc no toons so that's bogus too)

i need to get halfway b/w edmonton and saskatoon

we didnt want your sort in MN anyway

you're welcome to stay on my floor or couch (if i have one by then) in baltimore, plax

that would be awesome!

Saskatchewan is awesome. Enjoy the skies. Not sure a rail pass will help much in that part of Canada, iirc VIA Rail has pretty fixed and expensive routes. Busses will probably be more flexible.

yeah, canadian rail is probably a nogo it is v. expensive.

Yeah the only really well travelled rail in Canada is the Quebec City - Windsor corridor. Just too big and sparsely populated out west. Though if you can swing it, the train trough the Rockies is breathtaking.

your line goes straight through my house but I dunno if I'm gonna be around whenever you do it

looks like your flight leaves from Portland Oregon to Northern CA? I am 2 hours south unfortunately, but there are lotsa ilxors in Ptown.

well from portland to chicago but yeah

we didnt want your sort in MN anyway

― I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SAVED CHALK (jjjusten), Monday, July 26, 2010 3:59 PM (3 hours ago)

this hurts btw

i was in the Alberta rockies last year and was amazed how many people were hitchhiking out there!

my best friend once hitched from lisbon to riga in three days, which is not too far off the distance between toronto and vancouver.

personally, I wouldn't hitchhike anywhere unless forced, but I have long had the recurring phobia that most people are waiting for everyone else to leave so that they can eat my eyes

You're starting in Western Ontario and missing out on Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal? Interesting choice of Canadian provinces.

no im starting in toronto

nice - fap!

:-D

yeah, if you need a couch to crash on when you're in SF, mine is available. Also, ask roxy when she gets back from tour about camping, i think they did a lot of this.

i should have a ton of ex couchsurfers i hosted but i lost the couchsurfing account in the divorce, i do have friends in ny and vancouver tho

also <3 sarahel

also - hit me up for free tix to SFMoMA.

i should get one of those art in america issues where they list all the galleries too i guess.

it's not that comprehensive - probably most areas have websites that are more accurate, esp. when it comes to alternative spaces, but i guess it depends on what you want to see.

idk it has taken me such a long time to build up a good knowledge base of art scenes in like dublin/london/paris i can't imagine doing it for every city im gonna pass through. I guess im v excited abt glossy nyc ice box painting shows though.

btw my MN comment was not meant in spite, more of a resigned pattern of dejection re: our tourist draw

My brother relates that, if you speak Spanish and are a male, hitchhiking is still a useful, cheap, and highly acceptable way of getting around Mexico.

I know you're not looking for Mexico tho.

i mean, hitching is totally normal here and i regularly hitch home from work bc of how bad the bus service is (today i finish work at 7pm, meaning i will have missed all the buses home)

yeah, canada, no fucking rail b/w west coast and east, really. i did it when i was a kid, all those trips from van to winnipeg or further east but everytime i've wanted to do it now, it was like: oh, shit, flying is five hundred bucks cheaper-- or i just take the greyhound.

hitching on the prairies (and further west into alberta foothills/bc, obv) is still a v. alive phenomenon. you'll see it on the #1 or the yellowhead, guys and girls with packs, dudes trying to get between calgary and regina or whatever. pretty easily done. but it's even more common off those main highways, especially north of saskatoon. if you're into just kicking it with a tent and some cash or whatever, i think the prairies are the best place for that, where people are still generally cool with that kind of thing and not freaked out, you know?

;-D

seriously though if you make it down here soooo much amazing scenery and look there it is + house music talk if u can muster it !

btw does anybody have any idea what you're supposed to do in calgary. i am totally at a loss.

just keep movin'

ya - head to Jasper! take a drive up the rockies spine, it's gorgeous.

yeah, i'm here for the night en route to vancouver. i would srsly kill to find a fn cafe that opens late so i can escape this creepy hostel. srsly never come here

edmonton is worse, believe it or not.

i always thought the people were nice enough (until they find out you're from toronto).

no, edmonton was not half this boring.

but yeah, alberta hates pedestrians

it's a monday night too, which makes it worse...
i haven't been to calgary since, like, 2000. it is not a hoppin place, but from what i gather, people just make their own kinda fun. which doesn't help you right now, obv. there are some bars.

there used to be a pretty party scene about 10-15 years ago :s

shit, what hostel?? i stayed in a fucked up hostel in calgary once, looked sort of like a combo somebody's rec room and a home for troubled youth. front step, an open air crack house, blood smeared all over the needle exchange boxes.

but on the transit/pedestrian thing, let's be honest, edmonton and calgary are really no worse than a place like vancouver. they're not great but... they're small enough, right? what do you do in calgary? i dunno... nothing. stroll around, check shit out, soak up the atmosphere.

get excited about the drive west from calgary. the sudden rise of the mountains as you leave the city is amazing. you're suddenly in them, giant pillars of stone and green lakes, always climbing.

the drive north through the rockies is amazing. seriously. if you have time for a detour take it!

this actually turned out to be a great night and i almost deflowered a 23 yr old virgin

um

yay!

i said almost

hey plax i have a pull out couch if you wanna stay in a suburb of dc at some point!

i'm into that!

Dude, come to Boston and hang with me and Benson. Have a spare room tbh.

r u serious? can we attach a dreamcatcher to his lead?

Enjoy Indiana!

i should have pimped the thread where i was explicitly asking ppl to stay w/ them way harder

I am serious. Well, duh, of course we can!

U can tell people about Ireland. how green it is. the castles.

actually its kindof great, ive realised that most ppl just want to talk and you really dont have to volunteer much information about yourself as long as you pay attn to their life story.

I'm glad you think that's fun!

idk, i find talking abt myself pretty boring. like im over it.

and ppl have some pretty great life stories

this girl today's mother was a stripper and she got bear-maced once by the first boy she ever kissed.

she was nice, she gave me directions for vancouver and told me to add her on facebook

FWIW I did a trip a bit like this, though no Canada, right before university, starting in NY going up to Chicago then South to Louisiana and west to California. We did Amtrak for the most part. It was cool

Okay srsly why are there no hostels in Michigan? The guidebooks tell me the only cheap places to stay are super sketchy. Um fine but can u tell me where they are pls???

also, any recs for between buffalo and boston? could use a guidebook maybe lol

more liveblogging of this pls btw

im in buffalo

oh lol that dry irish sense of humour

srsly i think evry1 is joking all the time

turns out i am laughing at real things

boston and buffalo, try to stay somewhere in the berkshires in western, ma. nice out there.

im partial to off-season burlington, vermont but i cant guarantee that the amazing mexican place is still there

i was gonna say albany, maybe albany sucks tho

or u cld come & chill in toronto id put u up

i thought u lived in ny?

lol i was in toronto already

albany is weak.

north hampton massachusetts is worth a definate stop.

Many state parks and campgrounds have cabins, some with heat and light. They can cost 50 bucks or less a night, the days of cheap hotels are mostly gone. I haven't tried a cabin yet but the idea of sleeping in some piney thing in the woods is appealing if you like sleeping close to nature but a tent is too rustic for you.

i thought u lived in ny?

i moved... sorry i missed u :///

yeah me 2 man