A nonprofit hostel would bring
international visitors to Louisville, travelers that could not
otherwise afford to visit Kentucky, and travelers that look for
nonprofit hostels that are members of
Hosteling
International specifically because of the kind of culture
and authentic traveling experience they represent.
The hostel would promote an image of Louisville to travelers as a
welcoming place where local culture is unique and accessible, and put
Louisville in the league of other USA cities that have hostels and are
high on the list of places to visit for adventure travelers, budget
travelers and international travelers: Austin, Texas;
Portland,
Oregon (has two!);
Nashville,
Tennessee (has two!); Madison, Wisconsin; Seattle, Washington;
and Boston, Massachusetts, among just a few others.
The hostel would also provide people in Louisville the opportunity to
interact with adventure travelers and international travelers that
they might not have otherwise, and create a local network of people
who want to share travel stories and tips and learn more about various
kinds of travel (adventure traveling, travel to developing countries,
voluntourism, etc.)
Louisville and the surrounding areas of Kentucky have a lot to offer
adventure travelers, international travelers and those looking
for unique, authentic, unique American experiences: the bars and
restaurants and shops of Bardstown Road, the
Louisville
Slugger Museum & Factory, the
Muhammad
Ali Center, the
Speed
Art Museum, the
Zip
Line Tours at the Louisville Mega Cavern and
Actors
Theater of Louisville, to name but a few.
In addition, Bardstown, Mammoth Cave National Park, the Corvette
Museum in Bowling Green, the Maker's Mark Distillery, and various
Civil War sites provide just some of the many day trips possible to do
by car from Louisville.
The successful launch and maintenance of a nonprofit hostel in
Louisville could lead to creation of another hostel - or more - in
Kentucky, or in surrounding states (see a
list
of hostels in the USA). And more hostels might even help boost
the struggling efforts in Kentucky to build long distance hike and
bike trails.
Maybe a flagship hostel in Louisville
could lead to my other dream:
a wilderness hostel in Kentucky,
in Mammoth Cave National Park, Daniel Boone National Forest,
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Land Between the Lakes or
Otter Creek Recreation Area. A wilderness hostel is much more
primitive than a regular hostel: it has a pit toilet rather than flush
toilets, its water source is a well or nearby river or creek, the
stove is gas, lights are powered by solar panels and a backup
generator and the barracks are thickly insulated because there is no
heat. There is a common area for cooking, eating, dish-washing and
talking together. There's often a common area outdoors for a large
campfire. The
Rampart
Wilderness Hostel in Banff, BC, Canada even has a wood-burning
sauna! People go to a wilderness hostel because of immediate
access to hiking/snow-shoeing trails, rock climbing and scenic views
that cannot be reached by a car.
