Travel Stops- My List of Campgrounds and Hostels

After meeting a lot of cool travelers on different trips, I've realized that keeping a running list of campgrounds and hostels I've been to could be a handy thing to have, in case I ever want to recommend them or check them out again. I had a cool old boss that used to rate everywhere he went on the BARF system (quality of beer, atmosphere, restrooms, and food) and while I'm just not detailed enough to list EVERYWHERE, after a while I started jotting down campground notes so I could tell friends when I got back. Recently I've added 'Pollock Ratings' (PR-p for portos, PR-f for flush facilities, and PR-s for showers) to some of the campsites- after traveling cross-country, I realized it was a useful way to describe the condition of a porto (outhouse or camp flush facilities), based on, well, how closely it resembles a Jackson Pollock painting. Thus, a 1/10 is suprisingly clean, and a 9/10 is quite splattered, or in our term, 'Pollocked'. You probably don't want to enter anything above a 6/10 if you can avoid it. A few Pollock ratings also pertain to shower facilities, too. In terms of my 10/10 regular rating system, a 10 rates a fantastic campsite- I just made it up for whatever I felt like, rating them for what they are (good for a campsite vs bad for a campsite) and not on a comparative scale to nice hotels, etc. To get a vibe of the place it's better to read my review than go by the somewhat arbitrary number alone. (So remember, high Pollock (PR) ratings are bad, while high campsite ratings are good. Sorry for the confusion, but that's how it worked out in our heads as we made this all up.)

So far this list has alphabetical entries for 20 US states (AZ, CA, CO, CT, GA, MS, MT, NM, NV, NC, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WY) and 3 foreign countries, (Australia, New Zealand and Peru) but hopefully that list will grow...

US Stops

Arizona, Kaibab National Forest Campground. The group campsites at Kaibab are extremely spacious and full of trees; I really liked it. Each campsite is also nicely secluded from the others as well. It's about 45 min from the Grand Canyon, but being farther away means it's less expensive than the places close to the park. 2008. Rating = 8.6/10, PR=3p

Arizona, Woody Mountain Campground, Flagstaff. Woody Mountain is essentially an RV park, with very few trees and close-together campsites. It was hard for all of us to fit our tents in the space they gave us, and it felt kind of like camping in a gravel-covered parking lot with bad shower facilities. 2008. Rating = 3/10, PR=4f, 6s

California, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. Smaller place, but really cool to be surrounded by lush forest and redwood trees. Rating= 8.3/10, PR=4f, 3s

California, Lava Beds National Park. Beautiful, secluded campsite in a high desert environment surrounded by sage and shrubs. The sunsets here are really phenomenal, and it's close to lava tubes you can go caving in, and a lot of nice desert hiking trails. 2008. Rating = 8.6/10, PR=1p

California, MacKerricher State Park. Camp near the beach with little wooden platforms we used to sleep in the open air without tents, although it got a bit cold for that (in July). Nice enough place, with trees and close proximity to the beach. 2008. Rating = 7.6/10, PR=3f

Califonia, Mammoth Lakes RV Campground. Really nice as far as RV camps go. Our campsite wasn't too close to anyone else's, they have bear boxes already set up to use, and there's a small pool and activities center with free nightly movies over on the RV side of the park. Black bear sitings in the park. 2008. Rating = 8.0/10, PR=4f, 4s

California, Olema Ranch Campground. We stayed at Olema Ranch, between Yosemite and Redwoods State Parks near San Francisco, during 4th of July weekend, so it was insanely loud and crowded with families, and the bathrooms were unbelievably disgusting, bordering on biohazard-level bad. We were there for a few days, so after 4th of July weekend pretty much everyone else left and we had a lot more room, but the bathrooms were still disgusting and were never fully cleaned. Our campsite was small, there weren't many trees, and each campsite was squished into everyone else's. 2008. Rating = 4.8/10, PR=8f, 7s

California, Hogdon Meadows outside of Yosemite National Park. Hogdon Meadows is essentially a large field (with rare roaming cattle) outside of Yosemite- the campsite itself is nothing worth raving about, but you're there to be close to Yosemite in case you can't get any better (or affordable) alternatives. 2008. Rating = 4.8/10, PR=4p

Colorado, Bonny Lakes State Park. This place was unbelievably empty, so we had the entire place to ourselves. Sparse trees in a field-type environment near the Colorado / Kansas border, with incredible wind storms as we left in the morning. We had a great deal of space and probably could have camped wherever we wanted because no one else was there. Fantastic night sky / starry views because it's in the midle of NOWHERE. It's not really close to anything particularly noteworthy backpacking-wise, so maybe that's why it wasn't crowded, but we stayed there for a night on our long drive from Colorado back to Georgia. 2008. Rating = 7.2/10, PR=3f

Colorado, Boyd State Park. Sparse trees in campsites close to one another, after we set up some people came and told us we had to purchase more sites because we had too many tents set up... of course they were fine with our numbers when we first ordered the sites, and they waited until it was later at night to tell us we had to buy more sites, so I find that a bit suspicious on their part. The campsite was relatively empty and I have a feeling they just wanted to make us spend more money. I never saw the lake, which is apparently farther along a trail from our site, but I heard the bank was covered in trash and broken bottles. 2008. Rating = 5.2/10, PR=1f, 2s (showers also had no curtains)

Colorado, Mesa Verde Morefield Campground. I really like Mesa Verde, it has a great, mellow vibe to it. The campsites are nice and wooded, with great views of the mesa tops all around. The sites are near a toilet hut, and there are showers and a general store down a little road. 2008. Rating = 8.8/10, PR=3f, 3s

Connecticut, Appalachian Trail State camping facilities- basically, there's nothing really to rate about the government-allotted AT stops. You can just set up tent along the trail, although different states have different regulations about the use of bear bags, campfires, etc. The quality of each place really just depends on where along the trail you choose to stop for the night. If you are hiking the AT in Connecticut, I usually went in Augusts (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006), which is a good time to go there because it's not too cold in CT yet. This rating also applies for stops in NY, MD, VA, NC, SC, and GA. Rating = NA, camp wherever you want, PR=7p to 10+p for the infrequent portos along the trail

Georgia, Kolomoki Mounds State Park. In a grassy field there are places to set up a tent, and a few cabin-like buildings which are used for a camp each summer. There isn't really anything to it, and I feel like its main purpose is a summer camp later on in the year. We stayed in one of the cabin buildings because they were all empty on a stormy day (we were initially going to camp) so essentially we just slept inside on a concrete floor. Extremely humid and buggy. 2008. Rating = 6.4/10, PR=2f, 3s

Georgia, Okefenokee State Park Canoe Platforms on the canoe path through the swamp. First off, that's just a cool concept. Setting up camp on a wooden platform for the night during a multiple-day canoe trip through Okefenokee swamp. It's pretty straightforward, I mean you just put up your tent on a platform. They had a portapottie on the platform, and that's it. Some of the platforms, spaced sporadically throughout the swamp, have roofs, some don't, but you should be in a tent anyway. Cool place for seeing lots of gators, good price to camp there. 2004. Rating = 7.4/10

Georgia, Okefenokee Halloway Campgrounds. We stayed there for a night last-minute when other reservations fell though. You're basically camping in these people's backyard, but they have a water and shower facility, and a decent amount of land with palmettos and stuff. The people who run the place are nice but crazy, and there's alien paraphernalia all around the place. They asked me if I run SETI on my home computer. Their front lawn is decorated with gater and alien stuff, and it just makes it fun because it's so weird, and it's this obscure place in the middle of a swamp in Georgia. It was cool to be there, but being in that area isn't the same as camping at a campsite. They had picnic tables and such, but not a heck of a lot of land, though it served our purpose of crashing there for the night. Interesting place, though. 2004. Rating = 3.6/10

Georgia, Sapelo Island dormitories. Sapelo's a tough place to get to, on a private ferry to an island you have to have permission to enter. The dorm facilities themselves are ok, and I stayed in the 'old' dorms, while the new ones are apparently pretty nice. So, for the old ones, it's pretty much what you expect from a dorm, with two beds with sheets in each room, although our shower was freakishly filthy and muddy when we got there, and the extremely strong sulfur smell in the bathrooms and shower is a bit overwhelming. The dorms have a kitchen and air conditioning, which is nice, but the Sapelo dorms are fairly (very) expensive to stay in. 2008. Rating = 6/10, PR=4f, 8s

Georgia, Lake Harmony Grove, Townsend. The campsites are very close together with little tree cover, but it faces a cute little lake. It's the kind of place you stay in while traveling towards somewhere else more interesting, because there isn't really a lot to it. 2008. Rating = 6.0/10, PR=3f, 6s

Mississippi, Battleground Campground, Vicksburg. A crowded RV park. There's really NO aesthetic reason to camp there, it's extremely close-together, in a very humid part of Mississippi, and kind of sketchy, too. People walked onto our campsite in the night and tried opening the doors on our cars. Our tents were squished really close together, and the campsite was covered in trash and anthills. 2008. Rating = 2/10, PR=3f, 4s

Montana, Glacier Campground. Nice place, very wooded, although somewhat close to other campsites. Free showers were a bonus, and the laundry facilities were convenient. 2008. Rating = 7.4/10, PR=2f, 3s

Montana, IU Field Camp (Cardwell). Essentially we just set up our tents on the outer edge of IU's field camp, which I doubt anyone else is allowed to do. We just crashed in a grassy field and were able to use the shower facilities at IU, but that was about it. 2008. Rating = 6.4/10, PR=3f, 2s

Montana, Lost Creek State Park. Nice site surrounded by a small river and cliffs, although the sites are somewhat close together and there were random pets wandering around. (I'd be worried about that with the possibility of bears around...) Rating = 7/10, PR=2p

Montana, Yellowstone Gardner RV/Campground. Close to the Yellowstone entrance / arch, down in a valley of some sort next to a river. The camp itself is all open and close to other sites, but the river is nice and I saw a family of elk wander by, which I thought was cool. Free showers are a bonus.. 2008. Rating = 6/10, PR=1f, 1s

Nevada, Toiyabe National Forest, Hilltop Campground. Toiyabe's another place high up above a city where you need to make sure your car can make the steep trip. The campsite itself was nice and secluded in the forest, although you're camping on a slope so make sure you don't roll off your tarp at night! The shower facilities happened to be right next to our campsite, but other people had to drive to our camp to use them. I liked Toiyabe though, and it's nice to be (somewhat) close to Vegas while still camping. 2008. Rating = 8.2/10, PR=4f, 3s

New Mexico, Hyde State Park. Hyde is really high up above Santa Fe, so make sure you get there in a vehicle that can handle the steep slopes. The campsite itself is nicely secluded, with the sounds of running streams all around, and the cries of coyotes at night, which I thought was cool. It had a nice, relaxed vibe to it, high up in the hills and surrounded by dense forest. 2008. Rating = 8.2/10, PR=3p

New Mexico, Navajo Lakes State Park. First off, Navajo Lakes is far along a dirt road with many turns that would be easy to get lost on. The view of mountainous cliffs everywhere is pretty great, and it's right by a river (not a lake), but the campsite we were on was essentially a concrete lot covered with dirt. (Which made staking tents impossible!) I don't think all of the campsites were on top of concrete, but ours was. The camps by the river would probably be really nice, and I saw a black bear there. 2008. Rating = 7.3/10, PR=4f

North Carolina, Kings Mountain- Crowder's Mountain State Park (campground, road to trails and Crowder's Mountain itself). $1 per person group camping fee, which is a pretty good price. Simple setup in a wooded area, but slightly crowded with boyscout troops, etc, which would not be noticeable but the campground areas are somewhat close together. No shower or toilet facilities. 2004. Rating = 4.8/10

Oregon, Tumalo State Park. Nice campsite next to a river, with a mellow vibe and free showers. 2008. Rating = 7.9/10, PR=4f, 3s

Pennsylvania, RB Winter State park. Yay for free camping! It's nice to be able to go there any time. They have shower / bathroom facilities off at one part of the park near certain parking lot areas, but these facilities are closed in the off-season. It's never been overly crowded when I was there, either. They have bike, snowmobile and other trails, too, but I haven't done that. The campsites range from ceiling'd 3 side shelters to middle-of-the-woods areas, so you just have to scope out a spot. Since it's free, it's really hard to complain about it, I mean the park is pretty straightforward. PA is slightly less exciting in terms of environmental atmosphere (in my opinion), so this woodsy area isn't extremely lush or pretty, it's just 'average woods', but still cool. 2005. Rating = 6.8/10

South Carolina, Columbia- Sesquicentennial State Park (campground). Wooded area with a little lake near it, pretty simple setup. Cute playground near the lake, away from the campgrounds. Nothing particularly amazing about it, but a decent place to camp for the night, and shower facilities off to one end. 2004. Rating = 7.2/10

South Carolina, Murrells Inlet- Huntington beach campground, Huntington Beach. Great site with an abandoned castle right by it, (Atalaya castle), a cool little pier, hiking trails, and it's right by the ocean. Pretty good shower facilities for a campground, but not as cheap as the other sites we went to. 2004 and 2005. Rating = 8.9/10 because of the castle.

Tennessee, the Smokies state park outside of Gainesville. It really depends on which campsite you take. You have to camp at certain areas where they've set up wires for bear bags. We stayed at campsite 10, which was average, 18, which was gorgeous and right by a lot of water, and 6, which was really cold and flooded at the top of a mountain. I bet if you went to campsite 6 in the summer when you're not in an ice storm and the trees are all green and blooming, it'd be a gorgeous place to camp. If it were sunny and summertime, the mountaintop views would probably be amazing there. No streams or water by campsite 6 though, so you'd need to have enough water with you. No bathrooms or shower facilities, since you're hiking into the depths of the park itself to get from campsite to campsite. The paths have a lot of hiking up and down mountainsides, but I guess that's what you should expect in the Smokies. The price to camp through is great, the sites are marked, the wires for bear bags are convenient, and beyond that, your experience depends on the weather and what you make of it. 2005. Rating = 7.4/10

Texas, Lake Arrowhead State Park. Lake Arrowhead is decently sized, and located on an oil field, which is weird because there is an oil drilling machine right next to the bathroom hut. Along with the lake, it's also home to 'Prairie Dog Town', which is a section of land with wild prairie dogs running around, including right by the lake. It's odd though, because of all the warning signs not to touch the prairie dogs because they've been known to carry plague. As in.. the black plague. Really? That's pretty crazy. Our campsite was pleasantly secluded from the other sites, although there's a major fire ant population around all of the tents which is hard to manouver around. Beware though, I did find two brown recluse spiders in the girl's bathroom (who decided to crawl out while I was taking a shower and then brushing my teeth). 2008. Rating = 7.6/10, PR=3f, 3s

Utah, Kodachrome Basin State Park Campground. It takes a beautiful, twisty dirt road to get to Kodachrome (at least the way we got there- I hear there's an easier but less scenic way) which is a large, open area of Utah covered in sandstone monoliths. It was fun to wander around and explore / climb all the rock formations, and also cool to set up your tarp on a huge rock protruding out of the ground. The atmosphere was nice, although during the day and at dusk the bug / gnat situation was a bit on the extreme side, which you wouldn't expect for Utah. 2008. Rating = 7.8/10, PR=1f

Utah, Zion Canyon Campground. Another RV park. Extremely crowded, with random people walking through your camp at all times. We were right next to a stream, which was nice, but because of it random families were trampling through our stuff to sit on the edge of our site on the streambank. Personally I think they let too many people camp in such a crowded space, and there was a 16 min wait to use the bathrooms because of the long lines. You don't really feel 'out there' in the wilderness because it seems too much like camping for a concert or something, just too many people and not enough nature. No trees except those on the stream bank; this again was like being in a parking lot. 2008. Rating = 3/10, PR=4f, 4s

Virginia, Virginia Beach- First Landing State Park (campground). Right by the water, but campsites are somewhat close together and not separated by trees, etc. The campground itself is sand, and is right next to the beach. We went in the end of March and it was freeeezing, especially at night. Shower facilities off to one end, but shower building is not exactly clean. 2004. Rating = 5.7/10

Washington, Battleground State Park. Close to Mt. St. Helens, this campsite, with multiple lean-to's with shelf-like bunks to set up a sleeping bag in, was nicely secluded and in a cool-looking forest with lots of moss and trees. We were extremely far from the shower facilities (~15 min walk) but that's also the price you pay to stay secluded. I didn't even know there was a large lake until I walked a far distance from our camp, and if we'd had more time there it would've been nice to explore / swim in it. While there I got accosted by bible-pushers, but I can't blame that on the park itself, just some of its more eccentric guests. 2008. Rating = 8.0/10, PR=5p

Washington, Mt. St. Helens Winter Bivoaac. We had to stay at the winter bivvy in summer (mid July) because the summer bivouac was covered in 16 ft snow drifts. The winter bivvy is essentially a parking lot surrounded by forest, so you can either set up camp on the lot or the nearby forest. There was a little lodge-thing with benches in it, but one of the other groups 'claimed' that entire lodge for their breakfast supplies, so we camped in the parking lot. You're really only there to be close to the trails to Mt. St. Helens, (which start right off to the side of the parking lot) so the atmosphere doesn't really matter at all. The snow drifts started appearing withing 5 minutes of the start of the trail, which is apparently very unusual for July. 2008. Rating = 4/10, PR=4p

Washington, Sun Lakes State Park. Weird place, fairly crowded forest/ field mix over a large area with a small lake off to one corner. We were down in a gulley of some sort and the intense wind is apparently always there- I slept next to one of the vans, using it as a wind sheild, and a few people setting up their tents had to go chasing after them as they blew away. The strong winds were pretty warm though, and I thought it felt pleasant, although I had stack my stuff to make sure it wouldn't blow away. There was a golf course right on the edge of our campsite and people in golf carts drove by a lot. 2008. Rating = 7.2/10 PR=4f, 6s

West Virginia, Lewisburg, the WVSAC caving fieldhouse. Really cheap place to crash for a night, with army surplus style camp bunks, a kitchen and a decent shower. The attic you sleep in has a freakishly low ceiling and you can't stand upright, but we just moved our bunks out to the main room. They probably had the bunks kept there for privacy reasons, but we're a big group and I didn't care if I'm sleeping in the main room. The guys that run the place are really cool people, they gave us advice, directions, and even drove a girl in our group to a church so she could attend service. It's not camping, it's a fieldhouse, but the people there were really good guys. 2005. Rating = 7/10

Wyoming, Gros Ventre Campground. Really nice forested site secluded from others with a fantastic view of the Grand Tetons. 2008. Rating = 8.4/10, PR=3f

Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, Grant Village. Our campsite was on the edge of a burnt out forest (probably from the 1988 Yellowstone fires) so the scenery wasn't as nice as it could have been, but that's nothing anyone can really control. Our site was relatively close to other sites, but each site looked outward at forest, which is nice, and in other areas of Grant Village there are views of a large lake and nicer forest views. (So it was really just our campsite and maybe 3 others that looked out on a worse area.) It's convenient to camp within Yellowstone, and really cool to hear wolves howling in the night. Elk wandered through our campsite in the night, and when I heard them and woke up, I turned my flashlight on and heard them all stomping away. Other sites have had bison and grizzlies wander through, which I think is really cool. 2008. Rating = 8.2/10, PR=4f

Australia

Queensland, Cairns - the Bohemian Resort hostel. Nice place; only 4 beds to a room, a great pool, and outside movies every night. Some other people didn't like it because they said the staff were mean, but I really liked it there; I thought it was a good place to stay. It's a 20 min walk from Cairns central, but they have shuttle buses there if you're lazy. 2006. Rating = 8.8/10

Queensland, Coolangatta / Bilinga - Coolangatta YHA. Nice surfie hostel. They let you rent boards for great prices, they have a daily report on the surf conditions (good breaks / places to go depending on the weather, tide, winds, etc.) and a shuttle that will drop you off at the different good surf spots. It's not close to the beaches or to Coolangatta really, but a 10 min shuttle ride a few times a day will get you there, and it's in a location where you're only really going to stay there if you're surfing, and Cooly does have some really great waves. (The shuttle takes you to great spots, like Kirra, Snapper Rocks, and Durunbah.) It has a nice, laid-back vibe. I stayed in a 10 person barracks room, but it only had 4 people in it. 2006. Rating = 7.9/10

Queensland, Mission Beach - the Beach Shack hostel. Small place, stayed in a crowded 12 person room. They did a bbq in the back, but only when there are a lot of people there, and the pool is really gross. Nice lounge tv room, though, and a free pool table. 2006. Rating = 6.6/10

Queensland, Port Douglas - 'Douggie' hostel. Nice place, small pool and a cute yard area, not much really special about it though. Stayed in an 8 person barracks room. 2006. Rating = 7.0/10

Queensland, Surfers Paradise - The Islander Resort Backpackers Hotel. Sketchy as all hell. There are two different parts, though, and I stayed in the sketchy part. Basically, there's a hotel called the Islander Resort hotel, and they added a cheap backpackers wing to it. However, they also have some conference rooms in the hotel, and when they're not being used by a company or something, they fill it up with 10 bunk beds and jam as many backpackers in there as is physically possible. It's not really a real room though, and there has to be some kind of zoning law against that kind of thing, but it was the cheapest place by far to stay in Surfers Paradise ($15 AUD per night for the sketchy conference room barracks) so I stayed there for a week. (They have a limit of one-week stays in the conference rooms). You have to be a bit concerned about having your stuff stolen when you're just that crammed into rooms though; so use common sense with your stuff. There's a kitchen / tv area for backpackers, but since all the rooms are somewhat integrated into the hotel, there's no 'hostel' feel to it; it's a bit antisocial. The great thing is you get to use the hotels' facilities, like their pool or the tennis courts. So it's really a bunch of trade-offs for the very, very good price, and considering the urbanization of Surfer's Paradise, it's in a really great central location. (A lot of other hostels in Surfers are horribly far away.) 2006. Rating = 7.6/10

Queensland, Yungaburra - On The Wallaby hostel. Real cute, small place, nice personality to it, very cozy. Stayed in a small 4-person barracks room. They have bbq cookouts and tours of the area run by the staff. 2006. Rating = 7.4/10

New South Wales, Broomshead- Yuragir National Park - Basically a place to pitch a tent. Outhouse facilities if you walk far enough, no showers. The sites are well-separated from each other, but it's in a terrain with no trees, so you can easily see other people far enough away. It's a national park, so kangaroos and wallabies came hopping across the site during the night and eat grass right next to it during the day (as long as you stay maybe four feet away from them). It's in a good spot surrounded by lots of other national park land, so you'd have a good opportunity to see more roos or emus out on a hike if you wanted. I went for surfing, but you need to take some sort of transportation to get to the beaches, because they're not close to the park- the oceanfront next to our tents wasn't for beginner/intermediate surfers, and the good breaks are elsewhere. 2006. Rating = 7.3/10

New South Wales, Byron Bay - Jay's Bay YHA. A bit on the expensive side in Byron, but Byron was PACKED when I was there (reserve in advance!) so it was the only place open. Nice, big hostel with a great big kitchen and a good tv lounge area, but it was a bit out of my price range ($36 AUD for a 4 person barracks room) so I switched hostels the next day. It's a good place, though. 2006. Rating = 8.0/10

New South Wales, Byron Bay - Main Beach Backpackers. Crowded place, crowded kitchen, crowded lounge, overall crowded. Better price for Byron though ($25AUD for a six person barracks room.) My stuff kept getting stolen from the kitchen, too. It's a trade-off for the price, and it was relatively close to the beach. (A lot of places in Byron aren't.) 2006. Rating = 5.9/10

New South Wales, Byron Bay - The Arts Factory tent community. Ok, the Arts factory is like a bizarre hippy commune, built over a giant area of land away from central Byron. If you're carrying luggage, you need to get a shuttle to get there, otherwise it's not too bad to walk into town, but it is probably the farthest hostel in Byron from the beach (which is on the other side of town, but you can still walk it.) There are a few different types of accommodation in Byron, from a giant tent community to some weird teepees to a hostel-bunk area. The tent community is a bit crowded (then again, I was there at an apparently crowded time) but it's cheaper to camp out (with your own tent) than to stay in a hostel. You pick a given spot of land and camp there, and have use of the hostel facilities like showers, a pool, and other particularly random Arts Factory things like their odd little movie theatre and random hippy stuff, I can't really explain it. The tent community in particular gets some really interesting / strange people, but it's all in good vibes. The tents were relatively close together, but again, I went during the busy season. You need to take the term 'tent community' for what it's worth when rating this place. 2006. Rating = 6.8/10

New South Wales, Byron Bay - The Arts Factory hostel bunks. Same as above but in indoor rooms. I stayed in a 12 room triple-bunk situation, which was ok. It's on par price-wise with the other Byron hostels closer to town, but you really stay at the Arts Factory for the bizarre vibe it has, so that's why you'd tolerate the distance from the beach. 2006. Rating = 7.3/10

New South Wales, Kempsey / Point Plomer - Point Plomer Caravan Park. You're here if you want to do some surfing in good-to-learn-in but not 'baby' waves. It's basically just a caravan park, has some toilet facilities and cold showers. The sites are very close together, and it's mostly camper vans. Surf beaches are not life-guarded in Australia (some swimming beaches are, and you can surf at some of those, but 'surf spots' are mostly unguarded) so it doesn't really make a difference that you're camping here or somewhere else, it's just convenient to camp right next to the beach here. 2006. Rating = 6.2/10

New South Wales, Sydney - Sydney Central YHA. Expensive, but so is everything in Sydney. This place tries to be all hip and high-tech, but in a way the large scale of the place makes it less personable. Most places in Sydney are like this though, and at least the new-ness of the place makes the rooms seem nice. I stayed in a six person room. The desk people are really helpful with advice and directions around the area, and they were all very nice. It's a huge, multi-story place, but it's in a good location, a 15 min walk from the harbour and Opera house, which is great by hostel standards. 2006. Rating = 7.6/10

New Zealand

North Island, Auckland - Base Backpackers, Auckland. The Base Backpacker places in New Zealand are generally pretty good. Big, multi-level places, but this one had a good kitchen and lounge area. The rooms in Base are generally small and cramped (six people in what would be a McDonnell double at BU), and I heard from other people that Auckland Central Backpackers (ACB) is a better place to stay, but I thought Base was ok. 2006. Rating = 7.2/10

North Island, Hahei - Hahei Holiday Park. Small backpacker accommodation units w/a small kitchen in one of the units . You have to pay extra for sheets, and they openly said that they don't wash the fitted sheets that are on the mattresses between guests, which I think is really gross, so for that alone I don't think I'd go there again. It's also not really a hostel-social environment, because it's just a bunch of separated, crowded units. (Six people in a single-size room.) 2006. Rating = 2.8/10

North Island, Raglan - Karioi Lodge. Way up on a hill, so it's a long walk down to the surf spots (which are a lot of baby learning waves, but there's one pro place which is renowned and has a pretty famous left-hand break) but it's a good hostel. Big lounge room, tight but efficient room size (six people in my room, but the bunks are organized more efficiently because they're all built together), very open-air, good kitchen, etc. There's also a small low-ropes course and a flying fox zipline, which are cool. The place has a nice vibe, but if you're not there to surf, there's not much else to do; you're far away from everything else. 2006. Rating = 8.6/10

North Island, Rotorua - Hot Rocks Backpackers. Cute place, if a bit on the cramped side, but Rotorua has some pretty bad hostels and this one's decent. They have a few tiny mineral pools (more like mineral bathtubs) but they weirded me out a bit ( hot springs smell funny) and they have a geothermally heated outdoor pool and hot tub, which was fantastic after a bunch of hiking. Rotorua is all about the hot springs, and this hostel is in a decent location, pretty much down the block from a giant park of boiling springs. The room I stayed in houses 10 people but only had five or six in it, and there's a bar right next to the hostel. 2006. Rating = 7.2/10

North Island, Taupo - Urban Retreat. The room I stayed in was pretty much an attic, with sixteen people in it, and it was COLD. (They give you blankets though.) The kitchen area gets pretty crowded, and I wouldn't exactly call it the best location, but that's because there aren't really any hostels near Lake Taupo, you have to wander around, and this is decently close to some of the local pubs. This place didn't really have a 'vibe' to it, it seemed kind of impersonal, and even though they do have smaller rooms, since I was in a sixteen person room, it's a bit much with so many people coming and going while your stuff is stored there. It was ok, though. Rating = 6.0/10

North Island, Tongariro National Park - Skotel Alpine Resort. A ski resort with a small section designated for backpackers. When I was there, I came through with a group of ten people that had all taken a bus because we wanted to go on the Tongariro Crossing, one of Lonely Planet's 'Best Hikes in the World', and we were the only people in the entire hostel / hotel. It was fantastic, because we had this huge hotel, embedded in the side of a mountain with a view of ' Mt. Doom' (I forget the real name, but that's what it was in when they shot Lord of the Rings there) all to ourselves. There's a small kitchen, a nice lounge room, and a huge variety of free dvds to watch. They'll also shuttle you up to the start of the hike, which is a 8-9 hour trip. This hostel is in the middle of nowhere, and I mean NOWHERE in the mountains, so if you want to do that hike it's really one of the only places to stay, but I liked it. The rooms are small but cozy, and they have REAL mattresses on the hostel beds, which is an extreme rarity in hostel-traveling. 2006. Rating = 8.4/10

North Island, Wellington - Base Backpackers Wellington. Similar in the line of huge, impersonal city hostels. The location is good, and it has a good amount of kitchen space, lots of internet (for a cost) and cramped rooms, but that's the way it is in city hostels. It has a bar in the basement, and a nice vibe for what it is. There's also a lot of information on things to do in Wellington in the front lounge, and the staff will tell you, too. 2006. Rating = 7.4/10

South Island, Abel Tasman National Park (Montekua)- Old MacDonald's Farm. Abel Tasman Nat'l Park is in a pretty remote area, and this farm lets backpackers stay in one of a few (cold) unit-things, but it's right on the edge of the park and if you want a place to stay, it's one of your only options. The unheated outdoor shower stalls are freeeezing if you go in winter like I did, and the rooms full of bunk beds are pretty cramped, but apparently it's either 'full or empty' in terms of whenever people decide to stop by, and it's near a lot of nice trails. 2006. Rating = 5.4/10

South Island, Barrytown- Barrytown Tavern. Very similar to Old MacDonald's in terms of having 'unit-things' full of bunk beds, in a location in the middle of nowhere. Barrytown is not really a destination by any means, but it's a long travel down the snowy west coast of the South Island, and you can't make the trip from Abel Tasman to the glacier parks in one day, so Barrytown is a very remote farming community that happens to have a fake hostel available out of their tavern. Their beach about a third of a mile down the road is gorgeous, made up of green and purple sand, but other than wandering around, Barrytown is simply a place to stay overnight until you continue down the west coast. 2006. Rating = 6.4/10

South Island, Christchurch- Base Backpackers Christchurch. Cramped bunks on a number of different floors, but like the rest of the Base urban hostels, it's a decent price for staying in the middle of a city. The location of this one is nice, very very close to the city center and in a good place for exploring. The staff are also helpful in terms of suggesting places to go, and they have a shuttle that will take you to the airport every half hour for a small fee. 2006. Rating = 7.6/10

South Island, Franz Josef Glacier / Franz Josef Township - the Rainforest Retreat. You need to take a shuttle to actually get to Franz Josef glacier, and most people do guided hikes up the glacier that are ridiculously over priced, but I decided to wander around on my own (the area is gorgeous) and the hostel offered a shuttle that would pick me up and come back for me (at times you estimate in advance) for a pretty cheap price. The hostel itself was ok, it had a cute bar area and did bingo, and they had a hot tub which is fantastic after a day of hiking around glacier areas in the winter. The hostel is a bit far away from what you could attempt to call central town (a small isle of stores and tourist venues, because this place is not even a its own town) but the other hostels were a bit far away too. It had a nice big kitchen area and a little lounge. 2006. Rating = 7.6/10

South Island, Queenstown - Discovery Lodge. Very similar to Base Backpackers in terms of being an urban hostel. It was in a good area in the middle of Queenstown, and the rooms were a tad less crowded than Base hostels are, but it's a similar vibe. The kitchen was very crowded, and they don't have a central lounge per say but they do have a small tv room with tons of bean bag chairs and dvds. It's very close to a lot of bars (including one that's in the basement) and it also has a tourist area where people will book events for you (Queenstown is an adrenaline junkie area with tons of stuff to do), give you discounts on tours, and help recommend stuff. 2006. Rating = 7.8/10

Peru

Aguas Calientes- Gringo Bill's hostel. More pricey than the other hostels we stayed at, but there aren't a lot of places around. The rooms were good, and we had our own porch overlooking an amazing mountainous landscape. 2005. Rating = 8.6/10

Arequipa- Casa de mi Abuela hostel. Gorgeous place, filled with plants, bird cages, a tiny pool and an overall cool atmosphere. Good price, too. 2005. Rating = 8.9/10

Cusco- Samay Wasi hostel. Barrack bunk-style housing, but really good rates. It was about $4 a night for us, plus free breakfast. The guy that runs the place, Walter Casenova, is a crazy but really hospitable guy. Sketchy electric showers, but workable. 2005. Rating = 6.8/10 (because of great price and helpful people)

Lima / Mira Flores- Mami Panchita hostel. Nice place, air conditioning, house-ish feel with couches in a little central lounge w/ piano, helpful guy who runs the place. Moderately priced, free breakfast. Good location, but it's in the outskirts of Lima in Mira Flores, so you need taxis to get in to central Lima. 2005. Rating = 8.2/10

Puno- Gran Puno Inn / Hostel. Mediocre price, not great location. The place itself isn't 'pretty' in any way, unlike Mami Panchita or Casa de mi Abuela. Right by a road that makes it noisy with people at night, and a bad internal noise problem too, I could hear the people next door snoring. Decent shower facilities, free breakfast. We had to haggle with the people there to get the mediocre price. 2005. Rating = 3.4/10