Matador Network's Blog, page 623
July 2, 2021
The US may soon force airlines to refund passengers for delayed bags
Travelers who have been burned by baggage claim might soon get the retribution they’ve been longing for. A new proposal from the Department of Transportation (DOT) would require airlines to refund fees on checked bags if those bags aren’t delivered to passengers in a timely fashion, the Associated Press reported. It would also require refunds for fees on other extras, like Wi-Fi access, if the airline doesn’t provide the service during the flight.
The current rules only require refunds if bags are lost, even though airlines are supposed to compensate passengers for reasonable incidental expenses incurred during baggage delays. The new proposal would require airlines to issue refunds for baggage delays of more than 12 hours from the time a passenger’s domestic flight touches down, or within 25 hours of an international flight arrival.
The goal of the new rules is to increase competition between airlines and shift power into the hands of passengers. Last year over 100,000 consumers complained to the government about airline service, with many specifically alleging airlines refused to provide refunds where appropriate.
The DOT will issue the new proposal in the next few days, though it won’t go into effect until at least next summer. 
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Watch: England’s youngest Olympian ever has a chance to win skateboarding gold
Sky Brown is about to make history. The skateboarder will be the youngest Olympian ever to represent Great Britain at a Summer Games, which begins in Tokyo on July 23.
The 12-year-old — who’s on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube — qualified through world rankings last month and will compete in the women’s park event.
During the event, Brown will be 11 days past her thirteenth birthday. That beats out Margery Hinton, who was 13 years and 44 days old when she swam for Great Britain at the Amsterdam Olympics nearly a century ago.
@thebrownfamilyAlways want to go bigger 💨😊❤️ ##skate ##skateboardring ##sky ##skybrown ##bigger
♬ Kiss Me More (feat. SZA) – Doja Cat
Brown will also make history by competing in skateboarding’s debut as a Summer Olympic sport. It’s one of five sports that have been added to the Summer Games.
Brown may even set a record by winning. The daughter of a British father and Japanese mother who often trains in the US, she’s already won silver and bronze medals at previous world skateboarding championships. Her chances of taking home a medal are high, and Brown could even win gold.
One of Brown’s fellow athletes on Great Britain’s skateboarding team is also a teenager. British national champion skater Bombette Martin will be 14 at the Olympics. Brown and Martin have already inspired more girls to take up a sport that has, until recently, seemed very male-dominated, The Guardian reported.
While Brown will be the youngest Briton to compete in the Olympics, other countries are planning to send young athletes to the games, among them Syrian table tennis superstar Hend Zaza, who’s 11.
Many young Olympians have come before them, including 13- and 14-year-old swimmers and divers from Nepal, the US, and Japan. And while gymnast Nadia Komanici stunned the world by earning the first perfect score at the 1976 Montreal Games at the age of 14, gymnast Dimitrios Loundras competed in the first modern Olympics ever, held in his home country of Greece in 1896. He was 10.
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This downtown Boston hotel is offering super cheap rates through Travelzoo all summer
We hope you love the spaces and stays we recommend! Just so you know, Matador may collect a small commission from the links on this page if you decide to book a stay. Listed prices are accurate as of the time of publication.
Hotels in trendy areas of major city centers are famously expensive. Boston is no exception — in most cases, at least. This Boston Travelzoo deal puts you at the Kimpton Onyx Hotel in Boston’s West End, just outside downtown, for $125-$145 per night Sunday through Thursday, and even keeps the price under the $200 mark starting at $159 on weekends through November. The voucher also waives the resort fee, lands you free Wi-Fi, and even allows dogs to come along without an extra charge.
Photo: Kimpton Onyx Hotel/Facebook
With this Travelzoo deal, you’ll be within walking distance of the Paul Revere House, Faneuil Hall, as well as everything in Beacon Hill and the city’s North End. Stroll the harbor, have lunch at Lederman Park, and when game time comes, Fenway Park is a quick Uber ride down Beacon Street. Or if you’d rather exercise, the hotel offers free bike rental which you can use to cruise a few minutes away to Little Italy. We encourage you, however, to take some time to enjoy the hotel itself. The hour-star hotel has yoga mats in each room, a 24/7 gym, and offers in-room spa services.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better location and won’t find a better price on a Boston hotel for this summer. Book now though because this deal will sell out. It’s fully refundable if your plans change — that’s how wicked smaht it is.
Why this deal is unique:
Unheard of rates from $125 on weeknights and $159 on weekendsWalking distance to historical sites and dining on Cambridge StreetEasy access to downtown and the harbor, with Fenway Park not far in the other directionWaived resort fee, complimentary Wi-Fi, and free stays for petsTake a scavenger hunt sightseeing tour of Boston for $29
Photo: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
When to tour: Daily through March 2022
Fully refundable: Yes
What better way to experience a city than to spend an afternoon digging up its history? This tour covers two miles of historical sights and landmarks and provides a great opportunity not only to learn about the rich history of New England’s vibrant hub, but to have fun and get some exercise while doing it. You’ll save more than 35 percent on the Freedom Trail Tour with this Boston Travelzoo deal.
Take your partner out for a nice Boston dinner for only $55, wine included
Photo: Pazza on Porter/Facebook
When to dine: Before July 31
Fully refundable: Yes
Of course, you need to eat after all that sightseeing. This Boston Travelzoo deal secures you a high-end dinner for two at Pazza on Porter, where you’ll dine Italian style and enjoy a bottle of red or white wine included with the price. This deal is 50 percent off what it normally costs to dine out at Pazza, and includes an appetizer and dessert. The vouchers expire July 31 and will undoubtedly sell out, so grab yours and make a reservation.
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12 ways that french fries are made around the world
Americans get fries with everything — burgers, fried fish, sandwiches, and hey, maybe even salads. Sometimes we put fries in our burgers for extra efficiency and texture. There’s truly no limit to how to eat french fries in the US. But what about other countries? Not everyone eats fries the way we do. Expedia created a video illustrating how different countries around the world consume french fries, and while you might not be changing your fry habits anytime soon, a little creative inspiration can’t hurt.
French fries are Canada’s unofficial national dish, forming the backbone of the ever-popular poutine — french fries with cheese curds and gravy. It might not be your favorite, but you have to admit that the elevation of a side dish to a national cuisine is pretty impressive.
Among other lesser-known fry concotions are Spain’s patatas bravas, which consists of thicker potato chunks covered in a spiced tomato sauce. The UK also prefers thicker fries (or “chips”) but with curry sauce, and Peru throws sliced sausage into its fries to really kick its salchipapas up a notch. Similarly, Germany’s bratkartoffeln rely on onions and bacon to flesh out their flavor.
Regardless of our personal or political differences, or where we live in the world, there’s one thing we can all agree on without controversy: Fries are awesome.
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US citizens can self-select gender on passport without medical certification
On the last day of Pride month, June 30, the State Department announced that US passport applicants will have the ability to self-select their gender marker as “F” or “M” without the need for medical certification. The option to select the gender marker “X” for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming people is currently in the works.
The National Center for Transgender Equality has called the change a “a common-sense way to improve the lives of transgender people.” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, a transgender policy, advocacy, and messaging expert explained that “having accurate passports and consistent ID is critical to daily life. It’s necessary for travel, banking, starting a new job and school. Inaccurate IDs open transgender people up to harassment and discrimination.”
Until now, US citizens who wanted to select a different gender than the one they were given at birth needed to present certification from medical professionals that they were going or had gone through a full medical gender transition.
The option to select the gender marker “X” has been promised, but the State Department remarked, “The process of adding a gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons to these documents is technologically complex and will take time for extensive systems updates.”
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This year, skip the crowds and plan your trips around second cities
“I just returned from Hamburg” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as, “I just returned from Berlin.” Yet travel isn’t about what sounds best, it’s about having the most impactful and memorable experience.
Conventional wisdom might suggest that the best experiences are found in the cities that live in the limelight — the Bangkoks, Lisbons, and New Yorks of the world — but in many cases you can have a more memorable vacation by avoiding a country’s most populous, headline city and instead visiting its second city. The second city moniker refers to population, but that doesn’t necessarily mean its cultural, culinary, or leisure offerings are second best. Second cities are typically less crowded, more affordable, and allow travelers to escape the tourist traps that plague their better-known counterparts.
Fewer touristsNo group of people is more self-loathing than tourists. You never hear doctors say, “Ugh, I wish there were fewer doctors in this hospital,” yet a disdainful “That museum is packed with annoying tourists” is a constant refrain from frequent travelers. Irony aside, this attitude is justified. Tourists don’t want to feel like tourists. Even the guy with the Hawaiian shirt, sun visor, and camera around his neck wants to feel like he’s having a one-of-a-kind experience. But nothing shatters that illusion like sharing the streets with thousands of other tourists in Hawaiian shirts and sun visors.
Photo: Guiderom/Shutterstock
The most immediately obvious benefit of second cities is that there are fewer tourists. That means fewer people crowding into trendy restaurants, brushing past you on the street, and waiting in line for the same attractions. No one is calling the Colosseum a waste of time, but waiting in line for an hour only to be shuffled around with a group of 80 other people can somewhat detract from the grandeur of the experience. In Milan — Italy’s second city — you can visit the 14th-century Piazza del Duomo cathedral, the palatial Grand Gallery shopping area, and the 15th century Castello Sforzesco relatively hassle-free in probably the same time it would take you to get into the Colosseum. Second cities aren’t crowd-free, of course, but those crowds are smaller and not as concentrated around one or two headline attractions.
Affordability and availabilityFinding an inexpensive city is as tough as finding a brewery that serves Bud Light. The more a city is known, the more demand exists for its attractions, restaurants, and accommodations, meaning prices inevitably climb. Second cities might not exactly be budget destinations, but they can certainly be easier on the wallet.
It’s not a secret that location has as big, if not greater, impact on price as the actual food quality. Proximity to in-demand attractions, or a coveted location on a highly-trafficked, tourism-focused pedestrian thoroughfare, could easily make your meal a lot more costly than the exact same meal in a slower-paced city. You won’t save hundreds of dollars by dining in a second city, but every meal adds up.
The same principle applies to accommodation. The bigger a city’s hype, the greater demand for its hotels and Airbnbs, thus resulting in higher prices. This is especially true in the summer, when lots of tourists are eyeing the same headline cities, the same popular attractions, and, by extension, vying for the same accommodations. The average price per apartment square footage in Prague is $606, compared to just $389 in the Czech Republic’s second city of Brno. When Airbnb owners in each city calculate how much to charge, which is more likely to be affordable?
Travel more independentlyOne of the main draws of headline cities like Prague, London, Cairo, and Buenos Aires is that planning your trip is relatively easy. As well-established tourist destinations, multitudes of digital and physical guidebooks exist that map out complete itineraries and expose every supposedly “hidden gem.” Second cities are the road less taken. Everyone has a friend who’s been to London, but chances are even your most well-traveled friends haven’t been to Birmingham. Information about these cities doesn’t flood the internet quite like their larger neighbors, and you might not be able to lean on your friends for travel advice. But that’s a good thing.
Photo: Kiev.Victor/Shutterstock
Headline cities are like well-trod hiking paths overworn by the countless trekkers passing through every day. The scenery is still beautiful, but you’re not going to see anything a thousand other hikers haven’t already seen. Second cities are more like backcountry trails. They might be tougher to plan for and you won’t quite know what to expect, but you’ll have a sense of exploration and adventure you wouldn’t get on the main trail. Wandering the Old Port of Marseille feels like you’re charting your own path, while visiting the Eiffel Tower feels more like walking in someone else’s footsteps.
Do your part against overtourismIt’s not only fellow travelers who harbor bitterness toward tourists. In many of the world’s most popular cities, governments and local residents have suffered from overtourism and some have taken steps to curb it. In Venice, cruise ships have been decried as eyesores as an unsustainable number of passengers are offloaded and put serious strain on the city’s infrastructure. In Amsterdam, tourism has overwhelmed the city so dramatically that a tourist ban is being considered for its coffee shops, and plans are in the works to move the famous Red Light District away from the city center. The city also recently cracked down on Airbnbs after residents complained that the proliferation of short-term rentals was adversely affecting the character of their neighborhoods. No one is arguing that tourism should cease altogether, but it could be channeled more responsibly. Namely, by spreading the love.
Photo: Alfio Finocchiaro/Shutterstock
If just a small fraction of Amsterdam’s tourism was redirected to Rotterdam, its woes might be alleviated. If you’re torn between a headline city and its slightly lesser-known, less frequently visited alternative, keep in mind that the second city would likely be buoyed by tourism in a positive way, while the headline city might actually be suffering from it.
Wherever you go, whether it’s a headline city, second city, third city, or hell, even a seventh city, make sure you’re practicing responsible tourism.
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7 stunning US train rides that are worth splurging on
When you think of grand vintage train rides, you probably think of something along the lines of a luxurious train route outside of the US that makes stops at a number of ornate and beautiful train stations. That’s understandable, as many parts of the world have a much stronger rail tradition than in the US. While there’s some catching up to do when it comes to train efficiency and accessibility, you don’t have to go all the way to Europe for luxury. From traversing the wilds of Alaska aboard the Denali Star to exploring the rugged West on the Colorado & Southern Railroad, there’s no shortage of epic train journeys in the US that are listed on the train tour company Vacations by Rail. They might not be cheap, but these US train trips are worth the splurge.
1. Alaska the Greatland
Photo: Alaska Railroad/Facebook
The nine-day Alaska the Greatland tour aboard the Denali Star and Glacier Discovery is one of the most far-flung US train trips you can take. It brings you from Fairbanks to the heart of Denali National Park, then back down through Kenai Fjords National Park. Along the way you’ll see wildlife in Denali, experience small town life in Talkeetna, visit the Chena Indian Village, and even go dogsledding. There’s also a glacier cruise through some of the state’s most dramatic scenery, and a riverboat tour along the Chena and Tanana rivers. The Denali Star is undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, taking visitors along the historic Alaska Railroad through rugged forests and mountain ranges. That includes views of Mt. Denali — the tallest mountain in North America.
Price: $3,995/person
2. America’s Great National ParksNational parks are usually synonymous with road trips, but you don’t necessarily have to load up a car to visit some of the country’s most beautiful national parks. The 14-day America’s Great National Parks train journey brings you through five national parks, including Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. You’ll travel by Amtrak deluxe motorcoach, with private sleeping accommodations available with an upgrade. Along the way, you’ll experience the famed Going-to-the-Sun Road across the Continental Divide; see bison, moose, and elk in Grand Teton National Park; and take in the mesas and buttes along the Colorado River.
Price: $4,620 per person
3. Autumn in New England
Photo: Conway Scenic Railroad/Facebook
This eight-day journey through New England is one of the most classic US train trips you’ll find anywhere in the country. And it’s certainly better than any self-constructed leaf-peeping itinerary you might try to cobble together yourself. Starting in Boston, the trip first brings guests to North Conway, where they’ll travel along the Conway Scenic Railroad. The Cog Railway on Mt. Washington is up next, followed by Amtrak’s Vermonter train from Burlington to Brattleboro. Every leg of the trip will introduce guests to some of the most striking leafy hues they’ve ever seen. Lest you get bored of leaves, the journey also features Boston’s historic Freedom Trail, a trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and a look inside a lofty mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
Price: $2,495 per person
4. California Redwoods and WineriesCalifornia is known for its towering redwood trees and its wineries, and this train journey allows you to see both in the same trip. At eight days total, the trip takes place on three separate railways. First, you’ll hop aboard the Roaring Camp Railroad’s Redwood Forest Steam Train to immerse yourself in California’s famous redwood forests. Then you’ll head to Yosemite National Park and take in the dramatic scenery aboard the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. The final leg of the trip is likely the part you’ve been most looking forward to. The Napa Valley Wine Train will take you through the vineyards of Napa, Sonoma, and Healdsburg, and herein lies the true beauty of train travel: you don’t have to find a designated driver.
Price: $3,495 per person
5. Smoky Mountain Rail Adventure
Photo: Great Smoky Mountains Railroad/Facebook
A nine-day adventure through the Great Smoky Mountains means traveling through some of the most historic, soulful, and vibrant cities in Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as exploring the mountainous landscape. You’ll start in Nashville before moving on to Chattanooga, Pigeon Forge, and then into the wilderness aboard several steam trains. Train rides include the Tennessee Valley Railroad’s Summerville Steam Special, the Incline Railway to Lookout Mountain, and Great Smoky Mountains Railroad’s Tuckasegee Steam Train. These trains will take you on a journey along the Tuckasegee River and through Great Smoky Mountain National Park, before arriving in Asheville, North Carolina to end your trip. In Asheville, you’ll have the opportunity to visit the historic Biltmore Estate and explore the city’s art galleries, and distinctive Beaux Arts, Neoclassical, and Gothic architecture.
Price: $2,795 per person
6. Grand Canyon and the SouthwestThe Grand Canyon is often at the top of travelers’ must-see lists, but it’s not typically associated with rail travel. This 10-day train trip brings you through Grand Canyon National Park aboard the vintage railcars of the Grand Canyon Railway. Beginning in Chicago, you’ll board the Southwest Chief train to Flagstaff, Arizona, before staying two nights at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. Then you’ll head to Lake Powell for a boat cruise, Antelope Canyon to see its colorful walls, and take a jet boat ride along the Colorado River for a view of Utah’s red rock cliffs. You’ll see five national parks in total: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Arches. Your journey will conclude in Grand Junction, Colorado, and by the end, you’ll feel like you’ve thoroughly explored the Southwest’s most stunning geographical features.
Price: $3,395 per person
7. The Colorado Rail Experience
Photo: Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad/Facebook
Setting out to explore the American West is a long-held tradition, but these days you don’t have to settle for a covered wagon — or even a clunky car — to do it. The Colorado Rail Experience is an eight-day expedition through the Rocky Mountains aboard six (that’s right, six), railways: the Georgetown Loop Railroad, the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, and the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway. As you plunge deep into the Old West, you’ll hear from experts onboard about the state’s mining and railway history. The trip, which leaves from Denver, also includes a visit to the Garden of the Gods, Breckenridge, and historic downtown Durango.
Price: $2,695 per person
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The least-visited US national parks
The United States got its 63rd national park in early 2021 when New River Gorge got the designation. If you’re jonesing to go check it out, a trip to West Virginia is pretty easy. But of the 62 other national parks, some aren’t quite so straightforward to get to. They may involve jetting in tiny planes to remote parts of Alaska or flying 13 hours over the Pacific Ocean.
That’s not to say America’s least-visited national parks aren’t worth visiting. It’s just to say that to enjoy their sparsely populated grandeur, it might take some work. Here’s a look at the 10 least-visited parks in America, and why they’re worth the trip.
10. Katmai National Park and Preserve– Alaska
Photo: Chase Dekker/Shutterstock
2020 visitors: 51,511
Fat Bear Week sounds like the kinda thing you’d show up to accidentally during a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, and you’d either really love it or it would scar you for life. Fortunately, the real Fat Bear week is something completely different, an annual celebration in Katmai National Park, best known as home to over 2,000 brown bears. In early fall, the bears feast on sockeye salmon to see who can bulk up the most for the impending winter, and people literally take a week to vote on Facebook and crown the fattest.
But you don’t have to enjoy bears competitively salmon-gorging to make the most of Katami. Obviously, bear viewing is the big attraction. But like most national parks in the Last Frontier, this one is full of massive open spaces and few people. Hike through the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, where the 1912 Novarupta volcano eruption left a stark, eerie landscape. Or if you prefer to go in the spring, spend some time at Brooks Falls and wait for the formerly fat bears to emerge from hibernation as salmon dodge them in the Brooks River.
The only part of the park that’s anywhere near developed is Brooks Camp, which you can reach via float plane from nearby King Salmon. Getting to King Salmon isn’t terribly difficult, either, involving a short flight from Anchorage. Because no roads lead into the park, this is literally your only option — unless you want to go by boat, but you’ll need your own vessel as no commercial tours exist.
9. Dry Tortugas National Park — Florida
Photo: Mia2you/Shutterstock
2020 visitors: 48,543
Once upon a time, the red-brick hexagonal Fort Jefferson was a prison described by one inmate as “without exception, the most horrible place the eye of man ever set upon.” Now, these are the words of a man going to prison in Florida before the advent of air conditioning and bug spray, so take that for what it’s worth. But in ever-developing Florida, Dry Tortuga National Park and the fort located therein are among the few places that still feel truly remote.
Getting here isn’t easy, but is at least straightforward. If you’ve got your own boat, the park is about a 2.5-hour ride from Key West. Lacking your own boat, you can take a National Parks Service ferry for $175 or jump on a flight for about $300. Once there, you’ll be treated to the clearest turquoise water on the US mainland, where snorkeling with colorful fish can take up your entire day if you want it to. The marsh islands around the fort are also filled with rare birds like the black noddy and red-footed booby.
To make the most of the park, book a campsite and stay overnight. Daytime visitors are all gone by about 3:00 PM, leaving only you and the handful of other primitive campers on the island for the night. It’s a little like being Robinson Crusoe, if he had portable battery packs and knew he was leaving the next day.
Photo: Anna Abramskaya/Shutterstock
2020 visitors: 30,885
Lost behind the skyline backdrop mound of Mt. Rainier and the lush rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula is Western Washington’s third national park, just east of Bellingham on the Canadian border. North Cascades National Park is home to some of the most dramatic scenery in the state, where you’ll find aquamarine mountain lakes sitting right under sharp snow-capped peaks — a little slice of Switzerland a couple hours’ drive from Seattle.
The park makes up one-third of the North Cascades National Park Complex, along with the Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. Those areas get slightly more visitors but are still worth paddling around while mountains reflect in the water. If you want a stiff challenge, try climbing Desolation Peak, whose trailhead is only accessible by boat and offers a hike that’s nearly all straight-up. Jack Kerouac spent the summer of 1956 here working for the forest service — if you want to impress your friends with some in-hike fun facts.
If you’re into rock climbing, you’ll find a great concentration of climbs here, most notably Cascadian Rock, and others with inviting names like Terror, Torment, and Fury. The good news is that you won’t be sharing the rocks with many other people. Despite being the closest seldom-visited park to a major city, North Cascades somehow still gets forgotten. All the better for you, getting all the beauty of the Pacific Northwest minus the ever-growing population.
7. Wrangell- St. Elias National Park and Preserve — Alaska
Photo: BlueBarronPhoto/Shutterstock
2020 visits: 16,655
The largest national park in the nation covers 13.8 million acres, stretching from the Gulf of Alaska through the St. Elias mountains. It’s a vast, remote landscape, though as Alaskan national parks go, it’s fairly easy to reach. By “easy,” we mean Wrangell- St. Elias National Park and Preserve is about a three-hour drive from Anchorage to the closest entry point at Glennallen and upwards of five hours to other parts of the park.
Inside the park, you’ll find some of the most spectacular drives in North America, with no other car in sight. Stop by one of the ranger stations and get a CD to play in your car as you bump along the Nabesna and McCarthy Roads. This way you’ll get a little explanation of the lakes, towering volcanoes, and thick boreal forest passing by your window. Just remember that the roads aren’t exactly what you’d call “smooth,” and getting from one part of the park to another can take over three hours.
Nature aside, you’ll also want to hit the old mining town of Kennecott. Like a relic frozen in the Alaskan cold, this town of red façades is on the National Register of Historic Places and stands as the best preserved example of the state’s mining legacy. You can take guided tours of the town, and its 14-story mill, before heading out to hike the rest of the park.
6. Kobuk Valley National Park — Alaska
Photo: Northwest Arctic Heritage Center/Facebook
2020 visitors: 11,185
If you saw a picture of someone standing atop a sand dune well north of the Arctic Circle sweltering in 100-degree heat, you might think it’s some sort of scene of post-apocalyptic climate change. But that’s actually not at all uncommon in Kobuk Valley National Park, where glacially formed sand dunes shoot for 25 miles in different directions, and summer temps can reach into the triple digits.
If your desert trek through Alaska gets too taxing, you can always jump in the Kobuk and Salmon Rivers, both of which flow through the park. Much of the park is made up of the wetlands surrounding the rivers, and while you will see plenty of mountains in the Brooks Range, the valley itself is pretty flat. You’ll also definitely want to bring a guide with you as Kobuk Valley’s 1.7 million acres aren’t much for roads or signage. And if you get lost the only sign of civilization in the area are a handful of Indigenous Inupiat villages.
Getting here is no piece of cake either. No roads go here, and the only planes that fly to the park are air taxis from the thriving metropolises of Bettles and Kotzebue. Those cities are only accessible via flights from Fairbanks and Anchorage, respectively, and during summer it’s possible to be flown in with a packable boat and float your way through the park.
5. Isle Royale National Park — Michigan
Photo: Steven Schremp/Shutterstock
2020 visits: 6,493
Getting to Isle Royale National Park can be a little like living out Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, as the icy waters of Lake Superior often make for a cold and tumbling ride. Of course, this park off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is closed during the coldest months of the year, so your odds of getting caught in an ice storm are minimal. Still, the trip to this isolated patch of Michigan wilderness won’t be easy, with three-hour boat rides leaving from towns four hours north of Green Bay.
The island may be hard to reach, but unlike some of these seldom-visited parks, it offers a full-service lodge at the Rock Harbour Lodge where you can cook in your cabin or eat at the restaurant. If you’d prefer to spend time in the wilderness, you’ll likely have to contend with the abundance of moose who call the island home. Interestingly, they are part of the longest-running predator-prey study in America, examining their relationships with the island’s wolves.
You’ll also be right next to one of the greatest collections of wreck dives in America as 10 major wrecks sit right off the coast of Isle Royale. The cold waters have kept them better preserved than the wrecks you’d find in the Caribbean, and some date back to the 19th century. If you’d rather not bring a wetsuit, you can stay on top of the water and fish to your heart’s content.
4. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve — Alaska
Photo: Paulina Rosales/Shutterstock
2020 visits: 5,748
Take one look at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and you’ll understand why it ranks among the country’s least-visited national parks. A rugged expanse of icy waters, soaring peaks, craggy glaciers, imposing fjords, this formidable national park lets visitors know that it’s not for the faint of heart. Take a closer look at Glacier Bay, however, and you’ll start to wonder why one of the country’s wildest and most dramatic landscapes doesn’t attract more travelers.
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve spans 3.3 million acres of southeastern Alaska’s coastline, roughly 93 miles west of Juneau and just 15 miles south of the Canadian border. It’s only accessible by boat or plane. Despite the challenges that getting there poses, the park is worth the effort to visit, rewarding travelers with both outdoor opportunities such as boating and sea lion spotting and the cultural education that comes with touring sites like the Huna Tribal House, which memorializes the bay’s Indigenous inhabitants.
Guided tours and ranger-led activities, which run the gamut from full-on hikes to gentle walks, make Glacier Bay National Park surprisingly accessible for any traveler. However, the park also delivers on the ruggedness its panoramas promise. For the truly intrepid, nothing beats epic backcountry camping beside alpine lakes after tackling more than 700 miles of trails.
3. Lake Clark National Park and Preserve — Alaska
Photo: Danita Delimont/Shutterstock
2020 visits: 4,948
Interestingly, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, the second least-visited national park in America is only about a hundred miles from Anchorage, making it much easier to reach than some other parks lower down on this list. A short drive from Anchorage to Iliamna and an air taxi later, you’re right in the thick of some of Alaska’s most glorious wilderness, where the Chigmit Mountains stand watch over 6,300 square miles of untamed backcountry.
The coolest adventure in the park is a seaplane flight to Turquoise Lake, which, as the name might imply, shines a bright blue-green in the shadow of the mountains. You can spend a couple of days camping here if you like, where typically your neighbors will only be moose, birds, and the occasional bear. If you need something more than a tent, you can spend the night at the Silver Salmon Lodge, which offers fully furnished guest cabins and a full-service restaurant.
You’ll also find rugged Alaskan tundra at the Turquoise-Telaquana Plateau, thick forests along the coast, and miles of designated Wild and Scenic Rivers. If you’re looking to experience Alaskan wilderness in all of its grey-skied glory, you’ll get the best of it here. And best of all, it won’t take you days to reach.
2. National Park of American Samoa — American Samoa
Photo: Danita Delimont/Shutterstock
2020 visits: 4,819
We can forgive people for never having visited this park in far-flung American Samoa, as even when you account for Alaskan bush flights it’s still the longest to reach. At minimum, you’ll have 13.5 hours of flying from the West Coast, traveling a full 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii. But great things aren’t often gained easily, and such is the case with visits to the National Park of American Samoa.
Of the five islands that make up America’s southernmost territory, three of them — Tutuila, Ta’u, and Ofu — are part of this national park. The scenery looks nothing like the rest of America, including Hawaii, where sheer rock islands covered in tropical plants drop straight into turquoise water. The waters off Ta’u and Ofu offer clear access to coral reefs and over 900 species of tropical fish swimming around you. Or you can climb to the top of Mt. Alava, a relatively easy 7.4-mile trek that rewards you with a panoramic view of the islands.
Lodging is sparse here, and American Samoa offers the unique experience of a local homestay if you opt to spend the night on Ta’u. It’s the best way to learn about the oldest culture in Polynesia and will also involve a boat ride from a local fisherman. A visit is an almost surreal experience, planting yourself square in a foreign land that’s still somehow a US territory.
1. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve — Alaska
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/GatesOfTheArcticNPS/photos/a.394784753872758/5666167260067788/?type=1&theater/Facebook
2020 visitors: 2,872
To put this into perspective, Great Smoky Mountain National Park got 12.1 million visitors in 2020 — which means it got about 4,000 times more visitors than the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Its sparse visitation is understandable, though; Gates of the Arctic requires flying from Fairbanks to Bettles, Alaska, then taking an air taxi into the park. Once you’re there, you won’t find much in the way of amenities. And by that we mean no roads or toilets.
That said, if you’re looking to unplug and disconnect, this is about the ultimate place. Spread across the park’s 8.5 million acres, you won’t find more than about 50 people, and needless to say you won’t find cell service or WiFi either. You will, however, find adventures like kayaking down the Noatak River, where you’ll truly get the feeling you were the first person to ever explore the area. Hikes along the Central and Eastern Brooks mountain ranges — effectively the northern terminus of the Rocky Mountains — are equally awe-inspiring. You can summit the highest ones at about 9,000 feet and many at 3,000. No matter how high you are, gazing out at the park will give you the feeling that the land around is all yours. Or better, belongs to no one at all.
The National Parks Service doesn’t give recommendations on what to do at Gates of the Arctic because everything here is dependent on your skill level.You’re best advised to take a guide along with you and learn how to traverse the most untamed national park in America somewhere other than the internet.
A version of this article was previously published on January 6, 2020, and was updated on July 2, 2021, with more information.
More like thisParks + WildernessThe best uncrowded state parks near the five busiest national parksThe post The 10 least-visited national parks in the US, and why you should go appeared first on Matador Network.
You can finally offset your travel emissions accurately and watch the trees grow
This is The Climate Win, the most positive sustainability news around the world every week.
For a few years now, travelers worried about the environmental impact of their vagabonding ways have turned to carbon offset programs promising to neutralize the negative impact of all those flights and Uber rides. Travel companies have done the same in an effort to gain the business of an increasingly concerned public. But are these offsets making a difference, or is it just “greenwashing?”
Pachama is a company founded by a pair of Argentinians on a quest to make the vetting process for carbon offsets easier to understand. And, to ensure that the dollars invested by its users actually make it to vetted projects. Often, it turns out, many offset programs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
When you contribute to a traditional carbon offset program, your donation typically goes to an environmental nonprofit in an amount intended to offset the carbon footprint of a specific activity you’ve undertaken — like a flight or road trip. Most major US airlines offer offset programs that calculate the total per-person emissions of your flight, and allow you to make a donation to offset that, directly through the airline’s website when you purchase your plane tickets or after you fly. Sometimes, a company whose employees travel will make large contributions in an effort to offset the emissions of all that travel.
The money often goes to tree planting and reforestation initiatives, or to the building of renewable energy infrastructure such as a solar farm. Some scientists and activists, however, have raised alarms about the “additionality” of these offsets — meaning, would they take place regardless of a vetted offset partner’s involvement? In other words, are the donations being made actually furthering an effort, or would that solar farm or reforestation have occurred even without them through, say, grants, government funding, or private investment?
Environmental groups including Greenpeace also argue that offsets, even if they do pull carbon from the atmosphere, are not a viable alternative to cutting emissions in the first place. What motivation does an airline have to move to cleaner jet fuel when the option is there to simply “offset” the pollution of its traditional fuel? A ProPublica report found that two major global offset initiatives dating back to the 1990s failed to produce anywhere close to the impact each had promised, and that buyers had thought they were contributing to, for reasons including a lack of sufficient initial funding from offsetters to create scaled impact and unforeseen policy issues that halted or reversed progress after it had begun.
Pachama aims to fill the gap between carbon offset donation and follow-through by using a technology it developed to measure the carbon sequestration of an area of forest, identify what needs to be done to protect or grow it, and create vetted offset credits in the form of an donation investment portfolio to do just that. It puts conservation and reforestation efforts into these “portfolios” based on location and lets users choose which portfolio to support. It then measures the impact of each portfolio on an ongoing basis, providing reports to donors about the specific impact their money has made.
Let’s say you are a resident of New England, or are a visitor who just completed a trip there. You may elect to donate to Pachama’s Northern Atlantic portfolio, currently working to protect forested areas surrounding the Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes and to improve management on a large-scale farming operation. Worried about deforestation in South America rainforests? You might consider a donation to the Amazon portfolio, fighting three deforestation efforts in Brazil and two in Peru.
To date, Pachama users have helped protect four million acres of forest in 12 countries. Companies can buy offsets for the organization or allow individual team members to contribute, and you could also create an account and track your impact on your own. The result is a more effective way to offset at least part of your carbon footprint — with the perk of being kept in the loop about what your money is doing.
More climate wins this weekThe US Environmental Protection Agency has pledged $50 million toward environmental justice under the American Rescue Plan, announced on June 25. This money is designated to be distributed as “grants, contracts, and other agency activities that identify and address disproportionate environmental or public health harms and risks in underserved communities through a range of local initiatives” in underserved communities around the country, the EPA noted in the news release.
Oregon’s House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would require 100 percent clean energy by 2040, with interim goals of 80 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 2035. The bill is expected to pass in the state’s senate and be signed by Governor Kate Brown.
In a good read on reducing the carbon footprint of our food systems, Dezeen reported this week on a company called Solar Foods, which is making a protein powder out of microbes that metabolize carbon dioxide. The result is a new meatless protein that uses less land to produce than traditional agriculture, including vegan proteins like farmed soy and nuts.
The post You can finally offset your travel emissions accurately and watch the trees grow appeared first on Matador Network.
July 1, 2021
TikTok star Kallmekris nails 25 accents in 5 minutes
TikTok star from British Columbia, Canada, who goes by Kallmekris, is trending on YouTube for her “25 Accents in Five Minutes” video, a hilarious take on English accents around the world.
Glistening with sweat from the British Columbia’s unprecedented heat wave, Kris kept her cool and her smile in the 113-degree heat to offer up whimsical accents from across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, and Scotland. She even threw in English accents from French, German, and Russian speakers.
Kris’ video amassed hundreds of thousands of views overnight. In it, she admits that Canadians really do say “Eh” a lot, US Midwesterners could say anything at all and still sound friendly, and that Californians lengthen the last word of every sentence.
Her TikTok channel’s popularity soared during the pandemic, earning her nearly 32 million viewers and over 1.4 billion likes. One of Kris’ specialties is impressions from popular TV and movie characters, some of them animated and many from other countries, so it was a natural move for Kris to take on how real people speak.
In nice Canadian fashion, Kris is careful to say that she knows not everyone from these regions sounds this way and she means no offense to anyone. She seems genuinely inspired by each of these English accents — be it from Brooklyn or Boston, Quebec or California. In her comments, she also invites viewers to offer corrections and to suggest other accents they’d like to hear.
The post TikTok star Kallmekris nails 25 accents in 5 minutes appeared first on Matador Network.
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