Trek America

...had advertised a company called Trek America. It is a touring company that offers treks in the USA, Canada and various South American countries such as Mexico. It has an age limit of 18 to 38 years of age (although they offer a pricier, premium trekking experience for all ages with their sister company 'Footloose). My trek was called the 'Atlantic Dream' which began in the New York area and covered Washington D.C, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, ...
...a pre-trek hotel. The trek departure location is generally at a hotel and the company offers to book a room for you for the night before, taking away the hassle of having to travel to the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Call it stupidity but I thought that I was booking it for around a $100 for that night alone - I was not aware that it was in fact over the region of £100 for a single room as no shared rooms were available. This leaves me ... more

For the past three months I sunk into obscurity on this site having embarked on my own little American adventure - and what an adventure! For two and a half months, I worked in Ohio and became acquainted with all the quirks of American culture. I developed an unhealthy love of Lucky Charms cereal and Reese's Cups; an ardent Republican taught me how to shoot a hand gun (scary!); I taught several kids how to ride horses Western-style and I made a few of the best friends of my life. How could I possibly top this experience?
None of my friends were able to travel with me post-camp and so I was pretty much on my own and desperate to visit a number of locations to the east of the States. My work agency, Camp Leaders, had advertised a company called Trek America. It is a touring company that offers treks in the USA, Canada and various South American countries such as Mexico. It has an age limit of 18 to 38 years of age (although they offer a pricier, premium trekking experience for all ages with their sister company 'Footloose). My trek was called the 'Atlantic Dream' which began in the New York area and covered Washington D.C, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, New Orleans, Panama City Beach and finally, Miami. This was to last for 2 weeks but there are other treks available of varying lengths from 7 days to a massive 64 days.

*~PRE-TREK BOOKING EXPERIENCE~*

I'd love to say that the booking experience was completely fuss-free. I mean, it was until it came to booking a pre-trek hotel. The trek departure location is generally at a hotel and the company offers to book a room for you for the night before, taking away the hassle of having to travel to the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Call it stupidity but I thought that I was booking it for around a $100 for that night alone - I was not aware that it was in fact over the region of £100 for a single room as no shared rooms were available. This leaves me to propose that Trek America change their hotel departures to somewhere more affordable - it is a budget trek after all! (Next time I would book a cheaper hotel nearby).

*~THE DREAM MACHINE SETS OFF~*

Nice and early on Sunday morning, numerous trek groups met up in the hotel lobby. We were met by a friendly, if slightly eccentric looking guy in his late 20s (a little square of blue facial hair to go with his nice pair of mutton chops). Once we got to our van, he introduced us to an additional trek member who'd gotten a little tied up from before - Seamus the pirate monkey, stretched out on the front grate of the van. It was clear we were in for an interesting fortnight.
Eighteen people signed up for the Atlantic Dream trek and so we had been split into two groups, leaving a comfortable number of 10 in each. This was pretty cool as it meant more space in the van and in the trailer. We got to know each other pretty quick. There were two Australians, two Scots (including me) and four English people (Not a very diverse group I'll admit but at least we spoke the same language). I gradually found that there is one downside to this set up. You are pretty much stuck with the same people, often whom you've never met before, for a whole 2 weeks. Now these girls and the one guy (yes a distinct lack of male company) were essentially lovely people. I just came away from the trek with the feeling there was not really anyone I truly bonded with. Anyhow, most of us were recovering camp counsellors up for an amazing time. And despite my own personal reservations, our trek leader seemed to love us and over time, considered us one of his best groups of the summer. He was pretty much one of the gang - He seemed pretty caring and even though he acted like one of us he still held on to his leadership responsibilities (mostly ^_^)
He was very informative throughout the whole trek and had everything well-planned. After leaving our New Jersey hotel, we headed for our beautiful camp ground and spent a rather 'conservative' day in Washington D.C. Our day in Washington provided a perfect example of the flexibility of the trek. Just because the trek leader has something on an itinerary, doesn't mean you have to do it. You can opt out of an activity and he definitely gave us the opportunity to question his plans but we pretty much loved what he had set out for us. In Washington, we all split up to go see different parts of the city - whether we wished to go to a certain Smithsonian museum or few or to just go shopping. Later on we were given the option to go to a baseball game (which two girls from the other group actually opted out of). We were given the chance to have the real American experience and getting steadily drunker with overpriced venue food watching the worst team in the country was actually better than I expected.

After Washington, we spent a night in Virginia before heading to Tennessee to climb Chimney Tops, party of the Smoky Mountains range. This was a rather exhausting climb followed by a nerve-wracking ascent to the top where a fall could potentially be severely injurious or fatal. However, the view was definitely worth it when we got up there.
After Chimney Tops it was a quick descent into debauchery as we travelled further south. After our sojourn in the Bible belt, the party part, of what our tour leader described as the 'party' trek, had essentially begun. The great thing about our trek was that were came across other trek groups on our travels and there were at least 3 other groups staying at the same campsites as us up until New Orleans. At our new campsite our trek leaders had quite wonderfully arranged for us a belated 4th July party for every group and they went all out on it. We had fireworks, got a giant keg of beer and generally had a riotous time (Thankfully, we were pretty much the only campers there). Nursing a hangover, it probably wasn't the best thing that we were white-water rafting the next day. However, the water was rather refreshing and it was, quite simply, great fun.

We then hit New Orleans which definitely exceeded my expectations. So much happened there that there is possibly too much to write about. However, we stayed in a beautiful apartment-style hotel with the comfiest beds and pretty furnishings for a cheap $90 for two nights. Despite the hurricane, New Orleans is probably my favourite city in the US - The French Quarter looks amazing and our nights out in Bourbon Street were legendary. We sampled some Creole cuisine; we tried a yummy 'Hurricane' (the rather ironically titled cocktail drink invented long before Katrina) and wandered about in a few of the tacky Voodoo shops. This was a city not to be missed!

After New Orleans we had some close encounters with some gators on a swamp tour and then headed down to sunny Florida. Ok, so it was not so sunny considering it was Hurricane season but the weather held up when we reached Panama City Beach. This was our first beach stop and it was largely spent relaxing and hanging out by the beach at night. It was also the place where we took revenge upon the other Atlantic Dream group for stealing our beloved Seamus (Revenge = Their van, their trailer, cling-film and some rather 'dirty' materials). However, the best experience of the beach was definitely jet-skiing, with dolphin encounters. Amazing!

After Panama Beach, we headed for Orlando. When we reached our campsite we were pretty upset as there was a loud, heavy storm going on and at least two of the girls had already contemplated paying for a hotel room. However, our trek leader surprised us with quaint little holiday cottages. The joy of this discovery was overwhelming. The next day we spent a day in the Magic Kingdom of Disneyworld. Even though it was still a bit wet we most of us regressed and became 10 year olds for the day and had such a brilliant time.
However, I'm really glad that we didn't spend another day in Orlando, even if part of me really wanted to. Our trek leader had tweaked the standard trek itinerary and had made our final camp stop Key West in the Florida Keys. I'm so glad that he made that change. Key West, the home of Ernest Hemingway, is a paradise and provided us with the perfect finale to our trip. Our trek leader cooked us a delicious seafood and steak BBQ on the beach on our last night and waking up on a camp spot looking out on to the waterfront was an experience not to be missed.

'*~FOOD, ACCOMMODATION & UTILITIES~*'

On top of the general brilliance of my trek experience, I thought that the other aspects of the trek were well above average.
Accommodation was pretty good. The tents were spacious and clean and we were given good instruction in how to put them up. As I have already mentioned, the hotel was very comfortable holiday cottage was only $1.50 extra for 2 nights. I should also note that camping mats all other camping equipment but sleeping bags are provided for you. Accommodation is pretty much the big disclaimer about this trip - Don't go if you hate camping and can't deal with the outdoors.
The van was well-cleaned and in a good condition with outlets for charging phones, cameras, etc and we had facility for playing I-pods.
Meals cost a mere $10 a day which we gave to the trek leader up front on the first couple of days creating a large food kitty which was not only used for food but for other little bits and bobs like bin bags, a Frisbee, etc. You also are entitled to a share of this back if there's any cash left over at the end. Not much remained but I'm sure I got about $30 back which was pretty cool.
People were designated specific roles when it came to cooking, cleaning and loading the van and it mostly operated on a rotation system. This was no problem at all. I was chosen to be one of the cooks for three of the nights there and I was glad to say that all the food our designated cooks came up with was pretty tasty.

'*~OVERALL COST~*

I will admit that this trek is not cheap. I paid approximately £1000 for my two week trek and pre-trek hotel night and that was with my camp leaders 10% discount. On top of this, there was the cost of the food kitty and additional activities such as the jet-skiing and white-water rafting - and there are a lot of these additional activities (and the temptation to do them all is pretty great). In addition to this, you are in America and that means that tipping is in order. Your trek leader isn't paid very much and if he/she was good you are expected to tip him/her at the end. This was between the region of $3 and $5 a day depending on how generous you wished to be. You then need to add on your own personal expenses for meals in cities, snacks at service stops and gifts, etc. Overall, it's a pretty pricey holiday.

'*~TREK OF A LIFETIME~*'

Whether I was just lucky to be blessed with a fantastic trek leader I'm not sure but I had the time of my life visiting the East Coast. I would actually propose that they extend this trek for a couple of days to include another day in Orlando AND a couple of days in Key West. The Florida Keys were beautiful but part of me would have loved to have seen Universal Studios.
All in all, deciding to book a Trek America trip was the icing on the cake of a very rich and worthwhile experience and is perfect for the solo traveller or indeed, any travelling group. It may be somewhat pricey but (apart from the pre-trek hotel night) I have not regretted spending any of my hard-earned pennies on it. It was a valuable experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Also published under Renza_e on Dooyoo - October 2009.
 

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