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Best tiny houses on the East Coast

Tiny houses are all the rage on the West Coast right now, especially throughout the Pacific Northwest where millennials and other young people are rethinking how to live a more modest, scaled-back, and environmentally friendly lifestyle — plus, how cute are those tiny abodes that you can just hook up to your car and move somewhere else?

The tiny house fever is spreading and has now reached the East Coast. From the mountain wildernesses and dense forests of the far north to subtropical southern climes, tiny house culture is taking root, connecting people with nature and reminding them to value the simple things. With spots all along the eastern seaboard, these are the best tiny houses to rent in the eastern United States.

1. Getaway — various locations on the East Coast

Photo: Getaway/Facebook

Getaway’s minimalist tiny cabins, with light-filled interiors of tawny wood and jet-black exteriors, have been taking social media by storm lately. With locations all over the US, Getaway’s modern cabins sit tucked away on private lots inside quiet forests near major cities, with no Wi-Fi, patchy cell service, and zero real-world distractions so its guests can really unplug and reconnect with nature. All the cabins come equipped with a queen bed or bunks, private bathroom, hot water, AC, kitchenette, utensils, outdoor picnic area with fire grill, and purchasable provisions; there’s no need to pack a ton of supplies, making it perfect for people who love getting outdoors but hate the hassle of camping or RVing. Getaway’s East Coast outposts include locations in the Catskills near New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, and Washington, DC, with prices starting at $119. Prices vary depending on location, season, and weekday or weekend booking.

2. A Tiny House Resort — Catskill Mountains, New York

Photo: Think Big A Tiny House Resort/Facebook

For city-slickers eager to get away from NYC, A Tiny House Resort, located in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, is the perfect retreat. Featuring trendy contemporary design and minimalist interiors, each of the tiny houses, which come with amenities like a kitchenette, full bathroom, Wi-Fi, TV, and private patio, have their own unique design with neutral colors. Several, like the Vista, feature wrap-around windows for panoramic views of the forest and river. The site also has a heated pool, rentable outdoor equipment like kayaks and rafts, easy access to nearby rivers and hiking trails, and its own cute animal menagerie, including a herd of goats you can do yoga with. Located in South Cairo near the Hudson River, prices vary depending on the season and house.

3. The Glass House — Hudson Valley, New York

Photo: Airbnb

The tiny house lifestyle is about embracing simplicity, needing and wanting very little. The Glass House is the perfect embodiment of those ideals: a sleek, compact tiny home of gleaming amber wood, with floor-to-ceiling windows for guests to gaze out onto 30 acres of serene meadows, orchards, vineyards, and forests. Entirely off the grid, the house is powered by built-in rooftop solar panels, with portable gas for hot water and heating. Featuring a kitchenette, bathroom, and outdoor sitting area, the bed is surrounded by wrap-around windows, so you can sleep and wake up with the most peaceful views ever. Available for rental on Airbnb, rates start at $174 a night.

4. Tiny House Siesta — Sarasota, Florida

Photo: Tiny House Beach Resort/Facebook

The brightly painted tiny houses of Tiny House Siesta are just steps from the quartz-sand beaches, warm water, and never-ending fun of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Located just a short drive from Sarasota and the famous Siesta Key Beach, Tiny House Siesta is a collection of 11 spic-and-span tiny houses, each with its own theme. There’s the Lifeguard Stand, with an entrance that looks like a lifeguard tower and maritime decor like a surfboard breakfast bar, or the Sea Turtle, featuring a vibrant painting of a sea turtle on the outside. The houses are all stylish and clean, with the laid-back, inviting vibe of oceanside rentals, and come with bedrooms/sleeping areas, kitchenettes, bathrooms, living room, and outdoor sitting areas. They’re also pet-friendly, so your furry friend can come along.

5. Silo Studio — Massachusetts

Photo: Airbnb

This tiny house is like something straight out of a fairy tale. While the Silo Studio may not fit the traditional profile of a tiny house, it still makes for a magical getaway. Constructed like a two-story silo building, the outside is whimsically adorned with a castle turret and a medieval door. Inside, the ground floor has a sitting area with a rustic wood stove, dining table, mini-fridge, microwave, TV, and bathroom. Ascending the winding staircases leads to the second-floor bedroom, with an elaborate canopy bed, vaulted ceiling, and mill windows looking out onto the pastoral garden with manicured lawns, footpaths, ponds, crooks, and stone bridges. Open year-round, rates start at $225 a night.

6. Crooked River Tiny House — Maine

Photo: Airbnb

Surrounded by the peaceful woods of western Maine, this cutesy Crooked River Tiny House is part of an off-the-grid eco-retreat with no electricity, sitting on 480 secluded acres by the Crooked River. The exterior of the tiny house is covered in uneven wood shingles, creating a fantastical, cascading effect. Orange trim and a navy blue door create a charming contrast to the rustic wood. The ground floor includes a cozy sitting area, wood stove, dining area, kitchenette, and bathroom. Upstairs, the loft bedroom is nestled under a peaked ceiling with a window looking out onto the woods. As cozy as can be, it’s a steal on Airbnb at just $100 a night.

7. Live A Little Chatt — Georgia

Photo: Live A Little Chatt

Good, old-fashioned Southern charm comes in tiny packages at Live A Little Chatt, a tiny house getaway a short drive from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Perched on the side of Lookout Mountain, the sites’ three tiny houses have unobstructed views over the forest valley below, with added touches like built-in patios and rooftop decks for guests to truly soak up the vista or enjoy pristine stargazing at night. Each house has its own unique character, like the Old Blue Chair Tiny House with its stylized wood panels, white-washed interior, and classic blue Dutch door, or the Shangri-La, with its rustic, homey interior of warm wood and vintage decor. Each tiny home has everything its guests could need, including a bed with linens, kitchenette, and bathroom, with rates starting at $139.

8. The Cedar House Rules — Charleston, South Carolina

Photo: Airbnb

Elegant and refined, the Cedar House Rules (a riff on the popular John Irving novel, The Cider House Rules) is the essence of Charleston captured in tiny house form. Inside, white walls and minimal decor makes the small space feel expansive and full of light, with the lower level housing the kitchenette, bathroom, and living area, and a stepladder leading to the upper loft bedroom area with a queen bed. Accents of cedar in the form of siding and furniture pay tribute to the tiny house’s namesake, a mighty cedar tree hovering overhead. An outdoor patio with a hammock allows guests to relax outside and listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, where the real world feels miles away but in reality, is just a quick drive away from the best parts of Charleston. A certified Airbnb Plus property, all this is available for just $115 a night.


More like this: 7 of the coolest-looking traditional houses around the world

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Why you should always check a bag

This is the Travel Take, where Matador’s writers and editors make the case for their favorite travel hacks, tips, and personal tics.

I never understand people who say, “I only do carry-on.”

Sure, I get it. Nobody particularly enjoys standing around the baggage claim watching a “Welcome to Fort Wayne” video while their bag is unloaded. And, yes, checking a bag can cost money. But I find checking bags makes traveling far less stressful and packing blissfully easy. That’s why any time I go somewhere for more than a day or two, I always check a bag.

I understand this puts me in the same minority as my penchant for well-done steak and my Android cellphone. It’s not a popular opinion, but unlike those other two things, this isn’t a matter of personal preference. It’s a practice that makes life easier on everyone. Though, somehow, it’s still a debate I get into with other frequent travelers who swear by carry-on only since checking bags is “a pain in the ass.”

A pain in the ass? Really?

A pain in the ass is having to roll 10 days worth of clothes like a Marine grunt on a field mission so it all fits into a TSA-approved roller bag. Then finding someone to sit on your bag while you try and zip it.

A pain is having to buy a whole new set of toiletries in three-ounce containers and stressing out over whether the TSA will confiscate your $65 Kiehl’s scrub. A pain is crowding around the gate before boarding like the plane will leave you at the airport, lest you board last and it runs out of overhead space. A pain is having to walk back to row 29 to get your bag when you’re sitting in the fifth row.

What is not a pain is throwing whatever you feel like in your suitcase, provided it’s not a lithium battery or a Schedule I narcotic. It’s looking at your black pants and your gray pants and saying, “What the hell, I’ll take them both!” It’s going to a winery that has the best Cabernet Sauvignon you’ve ever tasted and being able to buy a bottle for yourself and simultaneously buying Christmas presents for all of your single aunts, because limits on the amount of liquid you can bring don’t apply when you check your suitcase.

What’s not a pain is carrying only a laptop bag when you have to break into a full sprint to make it from Gate A2 to F67 in 12 minutes. I’ve probably made at least four tight connections thanks to traveling heavy and checking my bag. Granted, sometimes your suitcase misses the connection and has to go on the next flight, but that delay is negligible compared to the delay you’d incur by missing the connection. It’s a lot easier to get a suitcase on a plane than a person.

Some complain of the pain of waiting around in baggage claim, saying it feels like it’s wasted time. Maybe, but like so many things in life, it’s a matter of how you look at it. Rather than wasted time, I use baggage claim time to finish work I didn’t on the plane. Or read a book. Or just sit back and people watch. At the very worst, I see it as the price I pay for having the freedom to pack whatever I want, however I want.

The average wait time for a bag is about 20 minutes, which seems fair. According to the US Department of Transportation, an average of 4.7 bags are lost or mishandled for every 1,000 passengers, despite some people’s anecdotal claims of “they ALWAYS lose my luggage.” That means if you fly fewer than 100 flights per year, your bag is statistically almost guaranteed to be there as promised. And if it’s not, that’s just a chance for you to go out and buy some new clothes, on them.

Beyond all this, checking a bag makes you a better citizen of the skies. It allows the plane to board faster, keeps boarding areas clearer, and makes for one less person crowding the gate. Though my goals here aren’t even a little altruistic, it is still nice to think I’m making flying better for everyone.

Between the ease of walking through the airport and the peace of mind of never thinking about how much I’m packing, checking a bag is a no-brainer. If you’re worried about fees, there are literally dozens of credit cards that include free bags as part of the benefits. And there’s always Southwest. The debate may rage on, and I’ve come to an agreement with many that while carry-on bags may be more efficient, checking a bag is easier. And in my book, that will always win out.


More like this: Domestic and international budget airlines, ranked by baggage fees

The post I fly 200 times a year. Here’s why I always check a bag. appeared first on Matador Network.

Three cows survived Hurricane Dorian

During Hurricane Dorian, which hit North Carolina on September 6, a group of wild horses and cows were swept out from Cedar Island into the ocean by an eight-foot surge of water. Exactly 28 horses of a herd of 49 and 17 cows of a group of 20 were thought dead until three cows were found at the Cape Lookout National Seashore on the Outer Banks.

Photo: Google Maps

The first cow was spotted by Cape Lookout National Seashore staff only a day after the storm, with the other two, both no older than 2 years old, found four weeks later.

Presumably, the bovines swam four miles across the Core Sound. Although cows can swim, doing so for so long during a storm is certainly a feat.

They are now peacefully hanging out together in the park but plans to remove them will have to be ready in the next 30 days. Cape Lookout Spokesperson B. G. Horvat explained to the Charlotte Observer that the animals may need to be sedated and ferried back to Cedar Island.


More like this: Traveling during hurricane season? Here’s everything you need to know

The post Three cows found alive after Hurricane Dorian swept them out to sea appeared first on Matador Network.

Faroe Islands closes for two days

The Faroe Islands will be closed to tourists in 2020, but don’t worry — it’s only for two days. The Denmark-owned archipelago between Norway and Iceland will still be open for flights and hotel stays, but 14 of its most-visited spots will be closed to the public. That is, unless you’re a volunteer. According to a notice on its tourism website, the Faroe Islands will be “closed for maintenance, open for voluntourism” on April 16 and 17.

Photo: Visit Faroe Islands/Facebook

During those two days, 100 selected volunteers from around the world will be working on maintenance projects at 14 sites around the islands. The job will include creating walking paths, building viewpoints, setting up signage, and the like. Volunteers will be provided with accommodation in local villages, food shared with the residents, and transportation during the maintenance period.

Photo: Visit Faroe Islands/Facebook

This is the second year in a row that this project has been organized — 2019 was such a success that the Faroe Islands’ tourism bureau decided to roll it out again in 2020.

Although the Faroe Islands only have a population of around 50,000, annual tourism is nearly double that figure, which puts a heavy strain on the island’s infrastructure.

Applications to participate in the volunteer program closed on November 14 — the 100 spaces available were snatched up quickly — but you can still subscribe for notifications about the 2021 initiative.


More like this: Island hopping by car in the wild Faroe Islands

The post The Faroe Islands will close to tourists for two days in 2020 appeared first on Matador Network.

Children’s book inspires young girls

Women have always been globetrotting badasses. The fact that you may only be able to recall the names of Amelia Earhart, Sacagawea, and a cartoon Mulan has nothing to do with history and all to do with its authors — they seem to have conveniently left out the stories of women climbing Everest, riding sharks, defeating ancient Rome, and even living underwater. However, a Scottish writer is out to make sure young women hear those stories.

The Girl Who Rode a Shark: And Other Stories of Daring Women, written by Ailsa Ross and illustrated by Amy Blackwell, tells the story of 52 women throughout history — from 231 BC to present-day teenagers — and their adventures beyond limitations. Because of the hand wrapped so tightly around history’s pen, these globetrotting women have done something else in their adventures, something far more important than an individual’s journey itself: They’ve changed the world. It just took longer for the world to notice.

Inspiration for everyone — not just young girls

Photo: Ailsa Ross

The book is geared toward young girls, so at 31, I’m a bit aged out — but by a few pages in, you would’ve caught me reaching for the Kleenex. This book contains the opposite of everything I’ve ever been taught, from my school days studying Christopher Columbus — I went to Columbus High School, actually — to reading pieces like The New York Times’ viral and contentious “Adventurous. Alone. Attacked.” You know the story as well as I do: Men adventure. Women do not. Men are meant for the world. Women are not.

This book blasts that narrative to shreds. Women do adventure. Women are meant for the world. They always have and they always were. So if a wide-eyed youngster you know, or even you yourself, feel the need to adventure beyond limitations, only look over your shoulder to see who’s globetrotting behind you. As this book shows, she might change the world, too.

Built from the legacy of Alexandra David-Néel

Photo: Amy Blackwell

I got a chance to ask Ross about her favorite story in the book, and she didn’t hesitate.

“Well, I really like ‘The Seekers’ section — that’s how I travel. I’m in love with Alexandra David-Néel, this Parisian opera singer who decided to become this anarchist, Buddhist Lama and cross into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, disguised as a beggar. She was wild. She lived so many lives — she cycled alone through France and Spain, then became one of the world’s best opera singers, and then abandoned it all to spend a few years meditating in a cave in the Himalayas. There she learned how to warm her body with breathing techniques.”

Pick up the book, and you’ll find out that that’s just half the story. The others are just as wild: Josephine Baker wasn’t just a sexy cabaret singer — she was a spy. Teuta, a pirate queen, stood up to Rome. Ada Blackjack outlived her expedition’s party and survived alone on an Arctic island for two months. Queen Nzinga, who lived in present-day Angola, fought back against the Portuguese colonizers attempting to enslave her people, and she won.

“How many of us were taught that colonialism was exciting?” Ross asks. “We’re taught that this is exploration, this is adventure. But what about stories like Queen Nzinga’s? Is that not adventure, too? There’s another side to the stories we’ve been taught, and that’s the side I want to know.”

Photo: Amy Blackwell

Of course, the stories above may feel like epic, imaginary fairy tales. None of us is going to go out and defeat colonial generals, but the book doesn’t stop at pirate ships and African armies. It’s also full of girls and women you could follow on Twitter. If stories like Queen Nzinga’s feel too far-fetched, let these shift your perspective.

“Take Mira Rai,” Ross points out, when the conversation moves to the present day. “She accidentally became one of the best trail runners in the world.” At just 31, Rai has won premier races all over the globe. You’ll learn in the book that at 14, she ran away from home — where she was working the fields because her family couldn’t afford school — to join the Maoist guerrilla army. “In Nepal, she’s a celebrity now. She genuinely is changing the landscape there, making traditional parents and grandparents open their minds about what girls and women can and should do. Women like Mira Rai really do make a change.”

But beyond changing the concept of what women are believed to be capable of, imperative though that may be, the real takeaway from the book is this: knowing these stories changes what women feel capable of themselves. If a 14-year-old girl can run away to become National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year, you can take on that marathon. If a 15-year-old Australian can complete the 342-mile crossing over the Greenland icecap, you can ask for that raise. (Or you can go out and cross Greenland yourself. Just train like Jade Hameister.)

The stories help young girls think beyond limitation

Photo: Ailsa Ross

After all this, I asked Ross what could certainly be interpreted as an impossible question: What’s your way into a bigger world than society wants to give you?

“Hmm.”

For the first time, she takes a moment. “You have to emancipate yourself as an individual. Read the story of Isabelle Eberhardt. You emancipate yourself and make your own reality, because no one else will.”

As for Ross herself, she just arrived in the Yukon, up in Dawson City. “If I were to do anything wild, I would go to Skagway. I want to do the Chilkoot Pass; I want to make a canoe out of logs and ride the rapids from Whitehorse to Dawson City. But I’m trying to fly less and feel less like I need to go on epic adventures to be a whole person. Lately, I’m more inspired by Greta Thunberg,” she says.

It got me thinking about what I would do with enough self-emancipation. Like Ross says, it doesn’t have to be something grand. “Go out and do whatever you want to do. Go outside as much as possible; go explore; excite yourself. If I were a parent, I’d say, ‘After being a rubbish teenager, come back to all the things you found out you loved before.’”

But before you set out on a cross-continental expedition, let’s back up and take this one step at a time. Read the book, regardless of your age. Google the women who are still living. They are very real. Their accomplishments are very real. This isn’t just a storybook — this is the big, beautiful world you live in today. Go out and explore it. And then, if you want, go change it.

Editor’s Note: Ailsa Ross is a former editor at Matador Network.


More like this: Adventure is not reserved for highly skilled rugged men

The post When women adventure, they change the world. This children’s book proves it. appeared first on Matador Network.

Where to go wine tasting in Idaho

When I told a family friend that I was going to Idaho to tour the state’s wine regions, he responded with a snarky quip: “I didn’t know they make potato wine.” After a weekend filled with tastings at nine wineries, I never did find that potato wine. I did, however, get a taste of why local winemakers swear that one of the best burgeoning wine regions in America is adjacent to the country’s potato basket.

Like many wine regions, Idaho’s wineries are best seen firsthand. It’s closing in on 6:00 PM, and Telaya Wine Co. in Garden City, Idaho, is quickly filling up for Thirsty Thursday. Earl Sullivan, the owner and winemaker at Telaya, points me toward a map of the microclimates and soil types of the Snake River Valley, where he sources some of his grapes. If you squint, it’s not all that dissimilar to maps winemakers have shown me in France’s Loire Valley or Northern California’s Russian River Valley.

Sullivan pulled out bottles of varietal grenache blanc, petite verdot, and mourvedre wines. He poured a glass of Turas, Telaya’s signature blend using grapes from both Washington and Idaho. Like many new wine regions in the United States, Idaho isn’t defined by a single grape. But unlike many new wine regions in the US, the experimentation here is leading to interesting, balanced, and, most importantly, delicious wine.

A new wine region, sort of

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

While Idaho’s modern wine industry is new, it’d be a slap in the face to early American history to say it lacks lineage. The first wine grapes were planted by French and German immigrants in Lewiston, Idaho, in 1864. They were the first in the northwestern part of the country. For a short time, Idaho’s wines were sent around the country prior to Prohibition, but all that ended when the state outlawed alcohol in 1916. Prohibition played out here like it played out elsewhere: Vines were ripped up, people with winemaking know-how abandoned the area, and the desire for local wine dried up.

It wasn’t until 1970 that wine grapes were once again planted in Idaho. The focus this time was on the Snake River Valley in the south. In 1976, Ste. Chappelle, Idaho’s largest winery to date, opened. The Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission began operations in 1984. By 2002, 11 wineries had popped up all over Idaho.

Then, in 2007, the state got its first official American Viticultural Area (AVA): Snake River Valley. It sits near a similar latitude to France’s Rhone Valley and Spain’s Rioja, and at 8,000 square miles, Snake River Valley is as large as Idaho’s wine-making ambitions. Today, there are three AVAs in the state, more than 55 wineries, and the potential for greatness. Idaho winemakers envision a time when they’ll pass more rows of grapevines than corn or potatoes.

That dream is still far off in the future. For now, visiting wine enthusiasts should set their sights on Sunnyslope, one of Idaho’s notable wine regions. Getting there involves plenty of driving past tight-knit rows of the heartland’s signature plants. Yet the future is quickly coming, and few places see that as much as Sunnyslope’s Williamson Orchards and Vineyards.

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Williamson started in 1909 as a homestead, which is land granted by the government in exchange for developing agriculture. Initially, the business cultivated fruit trees, which remained the most vital part of the family business for the first three generations. The fourth and current generation running the business has seen a shifting focus to one crop in particular: wine grapes.

Though Williamson once served as a haven for all agricultural products in Sunnyslope, it’s now the grape basket for wine brands in Idaho (though fields of grain are still the first thing you see when you approach the vineyards). Williamson’s first vineyards were planted in 1998 when Ste. Chappelle needed more grapes. The family grew cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and riesling for the brand but had excess. So they brought in an excellent winemaker to see what could be done with some unproven grapes, says Mike Williamson, the general manager of the orchard. The company’s first vintage of cabernet sauvignon, in 2001, won a gold medal at Idaho’s annual wine competition.

Williamson Orchards and Vineyards has focused more and more on grapes since then. Beverly Williamson, who runs the farm with her brother Mike and cousin Patrick, ran the family fruit stand for years. Wine eventually eclipsed the fruit business, and they closed the stand, which was “like a death in the family for me,” she says. But, she adds, “you have to change with the times to adapt so you can stay in business.”

And staying in business these days means making world-class wine.

A wine region on the way to other wine regions

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Idaho’s location as a relatively remote state in terms of population distribution is a benefit and a downside. The latter is obvious: Fewer people means less business. But for people in the northern part of the US, Idaho’s wine country is perfectly placed as a middle point on the way to other wine regions in the Pacific Northwest. In that way, Idaho wineries extend the wine drinking and buying experience for people who already have a clear interest in wine.

Sunnyslope’s wineries take full advantage of this drive-through positioning. It’s easy to stop at five to six wineries without driving more than 15 minutes between each one. With everything so close, it’s like a big community, says Martin Fujishin, co-owner and winemaker at Fujishin.

Fujishin gained recognition for its wine in 2017 with a couple of awards, but it was also one of the first wineries in the area to build out a tasting room that’s “elevated like other wine regions,” Fujishin says. Today, it’s one of only a few in the area to offer free tastings seven days a week. The majority of customers fall into one of two categories: people on their way to the Oregon coast or locals buying bottles and filling growlers of wine for $14. Around 85 percent of sales comes from the tasting room. Fujishin doesn’t necessarily expect this to always be the case, though.

“[We’ve been] trying to figure out in the last year and a half what the future of Idaho wine is,” Fujishin says.

The food and wine scene in Sunnyslope has been rapidly growing, surprising even the people at the forefront of the changes.

“If you would have told me 10 years ago that I’d be having such a delicious meal and wine in Sunnyslope I’d have laughed you out of the building,” he says.

Experimentation at the heart of Idaho wine

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Walking into Split Rail, an urban garage winery in Garden City, is like walking into a wine nerd’s experimental dream. It’s located in an old car body shop with street art on the outside walls. Inside, you’ll find wines like a pet nat rosé (a naturally sparkling wine made in a similar method to Champagne) and a chardonnay mixed with a golden ale made with Brettanomyces yeast from a local brewery. There’s a foeder, a large wooden aging and blending vat most commonly seen in Europe, next to the register. A large concrete egg lies in the back, currently aging red wine (grenache at the time of my visit), and directly across is a chest-tall clay pot called an amphora used for aging wines as it’s commonly done in the country of Georgia. Acacia wood barrels sit among the racks of American and French oak barrels.

Split Rail started in a building shared with Telaya and Cinder wineries but recently moved to its very own space. Split Rail didn’t move far and is a short walk (and shorter after a couple tastings) from its original home. Its wine selections are a balance of what people in the region love, like a grenache-syrah-Mourvedre (GSM) blend, and wines designed for wine nerds, like anything aged in the amphora and concrete egg.

Idaho’s wineries are experimental in environment, as well. At nearby Cinder, the expansive warehouse has a similar vibe to a modern brewery with a large back bar, couches, and a concrete floor that children can draw on with chalk. The environmentally minded pack-in, pack-out culture of leaving zero waste is strong in outdoorsy Idaho, and it’s especially obvious at Cinder. The wine is served on tap, with options to fill growlers or refillable 750-milliliter bottles.

Cinder has been in the building since 2008. The winery attracts local but also people from Washington and those on their way to Washington, Oregon, and California from the Midwest, says assistant winemaker Hailey Alexander. The space is industrial without being impersonal, and it’s an easy rideshare from downtown Boise.

Out in Sunnyslope, Sawtoothf is pushing the envelope with a wide range of canned wines available on site and in grocery stores. Winemaker Meredith Smith has been continuously experimenting with new varieties and formats, and she regularly travels for inspiration to places like Rioja, Burgundy, and the Rhone valley. Smith says they get as close to natural as possible in the sometimes challenging conditions in the region. But she’s always looking for what’s next. Sawtooth currently works with 22 varietals, and there’s always room to take a chance on more.

Notable wines without the notable name

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Location matters, though it doesn’t always feel like it in Idaho. Hat Ranch winery describes itself as “pretty isolated” yet still manages to draw in visitors from all over the state — and beyond. Boise itself is also experiencing a boom in popularity as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the US. With that comes interest in locally produced goods.

Beverly Williamson has seen it firsthand through the generations of her family’s farm. She’s found there’s never a single reason for success, and that goes for wine, too. “I’d like to think it’s not just because of all the people moving to Idaho,” Williamson says, laughing. “I’d like to think it’s also because of [the winemakers].”

Idaho is also gaining recognition at the same time as the interest in wine in general, and regional wine in particular. You can now visit a winery in every state, and classic wineries in Napa that helped put the United States on the global wine map are just as much a draw as the upstarts.

In Idaho, however, things feel fast and loose. Few hang their hat entirely on the typical money-makers like chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. There’s always room for something new here, both from a grower perspective and a winemaker perspective.

When Smith started working with Sawtooth, and then Ste. Chappelle, she quickly learned how to approach Idaho wine: “Not to say Idaho does ‘this wine,’” Smith says. “We work with 19 varieties grown just in Idaho.”

At Telaya, Sullivan agrees, adding that he’s “always looking for some absurd wines because I’ve tasted enough cabernet sauvignon.”

Speaking with growers and producers, it’s clear that varietal experimentation is common practice across the board. For reds, favorites include grenache, syrah, petit verdot, and tempranillo. For whites, there’s viognier and gewurztraminer.

“I’ll drive through and be like that could be a great vineyard, that could be a great vineyard. There’s so much potential, we’re just getting started,” Cinder’s Alexander says. “Communication with vineyards and growers makes us confident enough to say that Snake River Valley is the next great American wine region.”

At Telaya on Thirsty Thursday, people quickly filter in as Sullivan’s wife and co-owner of Telaya, Carrie, shows me around while Earl leads a tasting in the back for an assisted living group home.

More than 85 percent of sales come from the winery, Sullivan says. Once people come, it’s easy to tempt them back. “The biggest success is having that ‘aha’ moment with people who don’t know Idaho wine,” Sullivan says.

When you go

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Where to stay: Make your basecamp in Boise. Hotel 43 is central and right next door to Chandlers Steakhouse, which is a fine-dining restaurant that promotes local wine alongside international selections. Thanks in part to being a college town, Airbnbs are easy to find — though prepare for higher prices and fewer availabilities on Saturdays in the fall when the hometown college, Boise State, plays football.

Where to drink near the city: Find Coiled Wines’ downtown tasting room for wines by the glass, bottle, and wine slushies. Boise’s main urban winery district is in nearby Garden City. Don’t miss Telaya right along the river, and make a point to stop by Cinder and Split Rail, which are both a five-minute walk from each other.

Where to drink near the vineyards: Drink closer to the vineyards in Sunnyslope, which is less than an hour’s drive from Boise. Notable stops include Sawtooth and Hat Ranch, along with Ste. Chappelle, which has a gorgeous tasting room and is just a short walk through the vines from Sawtooth. Along the highway, stop by Fujishin and Williamson Ranch for tastings and bottles to take home.


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Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park

If you do a search of where to travel in Kenya, Tsavo East National Park doesn’t appear at the top of the list. But a few months ago, my husband and I chose it over more famous Kenyan game parks, and it was worth the gamble. Tsavo East offers more affordable and intimate game drives, away from the most tourist-filled parks.

We currently live in Rwanda, but we move around a lot, so we want to make the most of the East African region while we can — which is made easier with RwandAir’s reach to 30 destinations. Last August, with plane tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, we had only two prerequisites for this trip: dip our toes in the ocean and see wild animals in their natural habitat. Deciding where specifically to go was a little more difficult since Kenya has more than 40 national parks and reserves, as well as a remarkable coastline that stretches over 800 miles along the Indian Ocean.

Choosing a lesser-known location

Whatever search you do about Kenya, the Masai Mara game reserve appears at the top of the list, especially between June and September. Those months are the dry season, when over two million wildebeest migrate from the northern Serengeti of Tanzania to the pastures of Masai Mara, risking their lives by crossing the crocodile-filled Mara River. The scene is said to be spectacular, and Masai Mara is undoubtedly an incredible place to glimpse cinematic wildlife escapades — especially because of the density of animals in a relatively small habitat.

However, in dire need of a restful holiday, my husband and I felt our FOMO thoughts dissipate — except for some unspoken doubts about whether this would be one of our biggest travel mistakes. On that note, we ditched the world-renowned Masai Mara to visit Tsavo East National Park. We were drawn to Tsavo East, as it’s fewer than 120 miles away from picturesque Diani Beach and Kenya’s coastal Mombasa city.

Tsavo is in the Coast Province, and for ease of administration, it’s split into two parks: Tsavo East and Tsavo West. Even though Tsavo East isn’t as well-known as the Maasai Mara, at 5,308 square miles, it’s 14 times bigger, comprising the biggest national park in Kenya.

Getting to Tsavo East National Park

Photo: Marius Dobilas/Shutterstock

Tsavo East can be accessed through four gates: Manyani, Voi, Buchuma, and Sala. If you’re coming from Mombasa by car, you drive 65 miles on the Nairobi-Mombasa Road (A109) to the Buchuma Gate. Most people coming from Nairobi enter through the Manyani Gate, driving 180 miles to get there. From the beach town of Malindi, it’s 66 miles until the Sala Gate.

Driving yourself isn’t recommended, especially if you are coming all the way from Nairobi, due to bad road signage, traffic loaded with heavy vehicles, and lack of car-breakdown services. Our guide service, KT & Safaris, was recommended to us by friends who had used them before. They offered a private safari tour (just me and my husband in the vehicle) at a very good price with accommodation, transport, and food included.

With thorough online research, you can find exactly what you are looking for depending on days available, budget, and location. Every hotel and Airbnb works with a different tour operator, and most will be happy to organize it for you.

As we were coming in from the coast, our driver, Suleiman, drove us in through the east side’s Buchuma Gate. Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was the limitless flat and dry earth. Within minutes, we had shifted from the traffic-infested A109 Road linking Mombasa to Nairobi to a vast and silent hideout.

Widely spaced trees and bushes will make you wonder how life exists here and, if it does, what it takes for it to adapt to water scarcity. Almost immediately, I reached out for my hat and sunscreen lotion while the hardy Land Rover was trundling on the arid terrain covered in phosphorescent red soil.

Seeing elephants going about their lives

Photo: kyslynskahal/Shutterstock

We stuck our heads out of the vehicle’s open roof and let the natural environment — and the blaring clutter of the 4×4’s engine — suffuse our senses. “In 1898, the maneless lions of Tsavo ate more than 100 railway workers who were building the single-track Mombasa-Kampala railway,” Suleiman informed us. And he continued, evidently pleased with the dramatic irony and his dark humor, “With God’s will, you will also see lions.”

After only a few minutes of driving, we stumbled across the first herds of elephants and zebras who were refreshing themselves around a shallow waterhole. Elephants are abundant in Tsavo, and during our two-day game drive, we caught them in different actions: families strolling, adults giving friendly taps to each other, and babies learning how to use their trunks. We also learned that an elephant’s trunk can weigh up to 400 pounds and has about 100,000 muscles and delicate finger-like endings. If you are a fan of elephants, Tsavo is the park to visit.

As we were driving deeper into the park, we encountered wild boars, which run so fast locals call them the “Kenya Express,” and ostriches. We also saw three kinds of antelope: the spiral-horned lesser kudus, the long-necked gerenuks, and the tiny and skittish dik-diks. Not far from our accommodation, we spotted a cheetah and her cub snuggling under a bone-dry tree. At this point, we wished we had packed a pair of binoculars, but we admitted our beginners’ mistakes and added “binoculars” to our list of lessons learned.

Gazing at zebras over lunch

Photo: Marius Dobilas/Shutterstock

Tsavo National Park offers a wide range of accommodation options, from budget to luxury and anything in between. KT & Safaris checked us in the mid-range Voi Safari Lodge, which neatly blends into the savannah scenery. Voi Safari Lodge is a retreat on top of a rocky hill above a permanent water source for the animals to quench their thirst, especially during the dry season.

The best time of the year to spot wildlife is during the arid months from June to September. The lack of verdant vegetation during this season makes spotting animals easier, and the waterholes become popular meeting points for mammals. Just keep in mind that during the dry season, the environment is very dusty. If you suffer from a respiratory condition, you should take preventive care. If you are an avid bird-watcher, however, the best time to visit is from November to May when the rain comes.

After our morning drive through the park, we dropped our stuff at our cozy room overlooking the plains of Tsavo and headed to the balcony restaurant for a lunch buffet of Kenyan dishes such as ugali (a firm maize porridge), savory pilau rice, nyama choma (grilled meat), and fresh fish.

While the hungry and justifiably worn-out expeditioners were exchanging impressions of the animals they had encountered, below us big mammals were living in peace with the tranquil environment. A herd of elephants was leaving the water source whereas another was just arriving. A bird was resting on a buffalo’s back, and a few zebras were gamboling around.

The second part of our ride through the savannah lasted from 4:00 PM until sunset, guaranteeing exceptional views of the boundless sky and the ever-present horizon. We drove along with a herd of hundreds of buffalos heading to a manmade lake to cool down before the night fell and saw up close loner Masai giraffes — the largest of their subspecies — munching on the sparse leaves of 17-foot-tall trees.

Spotting lionesses in the dark

Photo: Dan Rata/Shutterstock

Back at the lodge, and before dinner, we went down the stairs to an underground, barred room, used as a lookout point to observe the animals by the waterhole from very close. Irrefutably, the highlight of our safari experience was the glorious arrival of a pack of 12 tawny lionesses from the pitch-black fields. Even though we were all holding our breath, a few of the lionesses snapped their heads around trying to figure out who else was present but quickly lost interest and continued drinking water for minutes without pause.

The next day we had an early start so that we could fit in a few more hours of game drive and the three-hour journey back to Mombasa. We woke up in time for a dazzling sunrise and ate our breakfast at the sound of different bird songs. From our base on the coast, we’d only come to spend one night in Tsavo National Park. When we exited through the park’s gate, we were a bit heavy-hearted for not spotting a “king” as male lions are sometimes called. But then, this is part of Tsavo’s exceptional charm: There is a lot of suspense as to what you will encounter.


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Burning Man asks to stop burning

Burning Man wouldn’t be Burning Man without a few flames. But setting fire to artwork at the festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert is not without its issues.

In a Medium post from July 2019, festival organizers announced plans “to become carbon negative, sustainably manage waste, and be ecologically regenerative by 2030.” Although Burning Man already employs a “leave no trace” philosophy, wherein organizers and attendees remove all debris from the desert after the festival, there’s plenty more that the festival can do to be more sustainable. The festival has calculated that its carbon emissions are a staggering 100,000 tons for the seven-day event.

To reduce atmospheric pollution and advance toward the goal of being carbon negative by 2030, Burning Man is asking artists to find alternatives to burning the artwork. Although a core value of the festival, “impermanence” is the cause of much waste and CO2 emissions. Organizers are asking that Burners be “thoughtful and intentional about how/when/where and why we burn art” until a solution is found. Guidelines for “burning stuff” is even available on the official website.


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Greta Thunberg to cross Atlantic

Climate activist Greta Thunberg’s determination to boycott airplanes has inspired millions around the world, but unfortunately, it also makes it difficult for her to travel. To reach the US, she traveled from Sweden by yacht and has since used trains and an electric car. After speaking in the US, Thunberg had intended to continue on to Chile for the UN climate change conference, but the location was switched to Madrid after the unrest in Chile. So to reach Spain, she put out a call for assistance.

“Now I need to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November,” she said. “If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful.”

Luckily, her calls have been answered. Vloggers Roley Whitlum and Elayna Carausu, and professional yachtswoman Nikki Henderson, have volunteered to transport Thunberg across the Atlantic on their 48-foot catamaran. The boat, which has solar panels and hydro-generators for power, leaves almost zero carbon footprint.

The vloggers post weekly videos of their travels around the world with their 11-month-old son and are YouTube’s most popular sailing vloggers with over one million subscribers.

Thunberg will depart immediately for Madrid and has until December 2 to reach the conference. As she always seems to do, it’s likely she’ll make it just in the nick of time.


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The post Australian vloggers will escort Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic in a yacht appeared first on Matador Network.

Best street art in Amsterdam

There are many things we associate with Amsterdam: the tiny canal houses, the sheer number of bikes and tourists, the lingering smell of marijuana hanging in the air. Another defining characteristic of the Dutch capital is its street art. Explore beyond the confines of the immediate city center, and you’ll find random letters scrawled across brand new bridges and walls along the highway painted in vibrant colors. Amsterdam is full of artists who create murals with thought-provoking messages and political statements that take up entire buildings. Whether you love graffiti and consider it a true artform or hate it and call it vandalism, there is no doubt that in Amsterdam, it offers a unique way to take in the local culture. So, check out the following locations to get a whole new perspective on the city.

The lowdown on Amsterdam street art

Photo: Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock

The current fine for getting caught spraying graffiti in Amsterdam is 140 euros, or about $155. Beyond the cost, the police will generally confiscate materials, like spray cans, found on site. However, the ever-pragmatic Dutch have taken steps to decriminalize the act by promoting the people who are brilliant in their craft. As attitudes have shifted, the municipality has given graffiti sprayers commissions, sponsored them, and even created exhibitions featuring their work.

Some very talented artists have come out of the Amsterdam street art scene, with many now showing their work in exhibitions all over the world. Boris Tellegen, who creates 3D imagery under the name Delta, showcased 30 years of his work at the MIMA in Brussels in 2017. He also picked up the award for Best Street Artist during the Dutch Street Art Awards. Another artist rising from the Amsterdam scene is Hugo Kaagman, who has been creating stencil art since 1978. He became popular enough that he was commissioned to paint more than 10 Boeing airplanes for British Airways.

1. De Wallen

Photo: Sarah Veldman

The Red Light District is one of the most-visited areas of Amsterdam, with tourists desperate for a glance at the sex workers in the windows and the chance to say they’ve been there. However, for the sex workers themselves, the era of the smartphone is making their lives exceptionally difficult. Tourists walk by, gawking at the girls in the windows, laughing and pointing, many of them on a walking tour of the area. They pull out their phones to snap photos to send to friends back home or to post on Instagram. For the women behind the windows, this is an exhausting part of their daily life.

On Trompettersteeg, known as Amsterdam’s narrowest alleyway, you will find street art with a message. Initiated by Rondom de Oudekerk, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Street Art Foundation, the #nofuckingphotos campaign was started. All along the alleyway you will find graffiti with #nofuckingphotos in hopes that tourists will either take pictures of this and post it to Instagram, or at least see it and remember to respect the human beings behind the windows. The project also features art by Beazarility and Sjem Bakkus.

2. Space Invaders

Photo: Sarah Veldman

In 1988, the French artist Invader began creating pictures of Space Invaders with ceramic tiles in urban areas. The artist remains currently active, though much like Banksy, nobody knows his real identity. He has placed these Space Invaders in over 30 countries worldwide, and you can see some in Amsterdam as well as Paris, which has over 1,000.

The artist writes on his website, “In my own eyes, they are the perfect icons of our time, a time where digital technologies are the heartbeat of our world. As these creatures are made of pixels they are in some sorts ready-made for tile reproduction. Finally, their names are literally predestined for the project I have pioneered: they are Space Invaders!”

Invader came to Amsterdam in 1999 and placed 26 of the ceramic tiled art throughout the city. However, much to the dismay of people who enjoyed spotting them, the municipality had many of them taken down in 2013, and now only 11 of the originals still remain. A copycat artist called AmsterInvader came along in 2005 and placed 145 Space Invaders throughout the city, with some in other Dutch cities like Groningen and Rotterdam, so many of the invaders you spot now will probably be his. If you really want to make a game out of spotting these Space Invaders, you can download the Flash Invaders app — for every Space Invader you spot, you get points.

3. If Walls Could Speak

Photo: Lewis Duncan

From May 13 to 19, 2019, the Amsterdam Street Art Foundation organized a street art festival called “If Walls Could Speak” in which 10 murals were created along housing blocks in Amsterdam Oost. Selected artists, including DANK, Studio Giftig, and Julieta XLF were chosen to create the murals for the event, built around the theme of “Amsterdam For Everybody.”

Housing cooperation Stadgenoot is “progressive in the field of developing creative and togetherness living environments where everybody feels at home,” according to its website. The collective partnered with Amsterdam Street Art to create murals that carry their own individual message. The most memorable of which was painted by the artist Herakut, who embedded calligraphy in hers that says, “When it comes to settling disputes, patience and compassion are often more useful than magic.” To view these murals in Amsterdam Oost, visit Platanenweg, which is easy to get to by tram from the city center.

4. The London Police

Photo: The London Police

English duo Chaz and Bob Gibson began creating street art in Amsterdam in 1998 under the name The London Police. Today, a huge mural depicting their iconic black-and-white characters is featured on the side of a building on Prinsengracht. The duo was shut down by authorities while creating the mural, an event that triggered some local outrage following a message posted to the group’s website in 2009:

“How pleasing it was when the seemingly nice bloke who lives at Prinsengracht No.70 allowed TLP to adorn the facade of his building with a choice black and white image of a totem pole lad being constructed by a Bob Gibson robot. How displeasing then, when on the fourth day, the Amsterdam Gemeente (city council) officials arrived and politely told us we needed extra permission to paint any building in the city centre. They kindly allowed us to finish the characters but we were not allowed to make a start on any further background etc. The case is currently under review with the city council whether to keep the painting. They must decide whether normal everyday human beings would prefer to see an art mural or a banal grey wall which serves as a breeding ground for weak graffiti and posters advertising drug-fuelled house music events where DJs spin other people’s shit records.”

After persistent rallying from the local residents and positive support in the Dutch press, the piece was deemed to possess artistic merit and cultural significance, a happy day for the artistic community in Amsterdam.

5. The Blue Violin Player

Photo: Sarah Veldman

This unassuming blue statue sits in front of a park on Tweede Marnixplantsoen, and nobody knows who created it. It was placed there anonymously in 1982 and has taken on a life of its own within the Jordaan area. At one point, a few years after its creation, the municipality planned to take it down. However, an outcry from the residents in the area saw the statue keep its place. Locals have called it various things, like “Man Attempting To Catch Tram 10,” and even put a scarf around his neck on cold days in winter.

6. NDSM Shipyard

Photo: fokke baarssen/Shutterstock

If you’re looking for a break from the busy, crowded streets of Amsterdam Centrum, head to NDSM Werf. At one time, this area was one of the world’s largest maritime shipyards, but it was taken over by squatters after being abandoned in 1984. It has since become the world’s biggest street art museum, with over 100 murals from artists like Icy and Sot, Logan Hicks, Karski, and Beyond. One of the most famous pieces is a tall mural of Anne Frank titled, “Let Me Be Myself,” created by Eduardo Kobra. The whole area is a cultural center with a unique artistic community and a collection of restaurants and bars for visitors. One of the largest buildings in the shipyard, Lasloods, is now home to artist studios and galleries and is also used for concerts and photoshoots.


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