Budget-Friendly San Diego Guide

Budget travelers planning to visit the San Diego area can get information in the free 1998 edition of the “Budget Traveler’s Guide to San Diego.”

The 12-page annual guide is produced by the San Diego Council of American Youth Hostels. Naturally, you’re only going to hear about the council’s facilities, but there’s lots of other helpful information and ideas for backpacking-style visitors, ranging from surfing to biking, whale watching, night life and visiting local tourist sites. This sixth annual edition of the publication highlights opportunities from the beach to the back country, including information about getting around without a car, visiting Mexico and how to hike sections of the 2,638-mile Pacific Crest Trail.

The publication suggests travelers stay at hostels in Point Loma or the historic Gaslamp Quarter where beds are available for as little as $12 per night. In 1997, the San Diego Hostelling International hostel had 35,000 guests, which they estimate to have brought $1.8 million into the local community.

“Budget Traveler’s Guide to San Diego” is available at local tourist information services. You also can get a copy by contacting HI-San Diego at 655 4th Ave., Suite 46, San Diego, CA 92101; tel. (619) 3389981. You also can find the complete guide posted on the HI-San Diego Internet site at https://www.hostelweb.com/sandiego, along with a list of 101 things to do in San Diego.

*

Anyone can get scammed, even the experts. When exchanging money abroad, read the fine print, warns travel author and broadcaster Rick Steves in a recent edition of his free “Europe Through the Back Door” newsletter. Steves tells the story of how he was taken recently by a currency exchange scam in London. He noticed a money exchanger advertising that their fee was only 1%, the same as banks, so he changed $300. Then he noticed the fine print. The 1% fee was for buying pounds, but their fee for selling pounds was a whopping 10%.

Steves is a guidebook author and host of the “Travels in Europe” TV series that appears on public television stations in North America Free sample copies of his 64-page newsletter or his “Guide to European Railpasses” are available from ETBD, 120 4th Ave. N., P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, WA 98020-2009; tel. (425) 771-8303, fax (425) 771-0833. Steves also offers tips, information and current dispatches from locations he’s researching abroad (this spring and summer he’s in Britain, Germany, the Alps Spain and Portugal).

In San Francisco, in another scam that hostel guests should be aware of, a person is posing as a traveler and offering other hostel guests cheap concert tickets. The scam artist takes the money, says he will run to his locker to get the tickets and is never seen again. The scam artist is never a hostel guest.

*

For 23 years Green Tortoise sleeper coaches have been taking travelers across the U.S., along the West Coast, up to Alaska, down to Mexico and Central America. Passengers contribute to a food kitty that covers most of meals. Trips depart from the Green Tortoise Hostel and Adventure Travel Office at 494 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133, tel. (800) TORTOISE, or (415) 956-7500.

The Green Tortoise shuttle, which runs between Seattle and Los Angeles, is $79 one way, and segment tickets are available. This summer a two-day weekend trip to Yosemite is $69 plus $16 for food. The three-day visit is $119, plus $31 for food. A nine-day tour to the Grand Canyon is $329 plus $81 for food ( a stop for Southern California passengers is made in Bakersfield).

Sixteen-day national parks tours, costing $499 plus $141 for the food kitty, visit Yellowstone and the Grand Teton area, the Snake River (for an opportunity to raft on the river ), Dinosaur National Monument and the Colorado River. The tours also enable you to hike in Canyonlands National Park, take a guided tour of Monument Valley and visit Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks.

New this year is the 16-day “Southern Parks Loop” tour which heads out Sept. 11 and visits Death Valley, Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, Santa Fe, Taos, White Sands and Saguaro. The cost is $999 plus $141 for food.

Izon is a Toronto-based freelance writer. She can be reached at https://www.izon.com.