pps. This will be a short and sweet review, the individual blog posts will go into much more detail
11th May - 1st June 2015 & 7th - 11th June 2015
Northern BLT & Las Vegas - Grand Canyon (Hotels):So, I couldn't let the end of 2015 go by without reviewing my epic six week summer adventure I undertook this year.
Trek America is right up there as undoubtedly one if the best things i've ever done. If you are thinking about undertaking a trip I implore you to go ahead and do it, you won't regret it!
I undertook 2 treks in the space of 6 weeks, the Northern BLT and the Las Vegas to Grand Canyon (Hotels) tour.
I would highly recommend the BLT (Budget Lodging Tour) versions for trek, I hadn't done much travelling before, except for regular style holidaying in hotels, and the quality of the budget hotels and hostels was high and much better than I expected. Even the cabins in more rural areas had plug sockets, pure luxury!
I'm so glad I combined two treks for my one trip. This would be one of my top tips, if you can, even if it means taking two shorter treks, I would suggest booking two (plus you can get a discount by doing this). Whilst I was fortunate enough to be able to book a long trek (3 weeks), with a shorter mini trek (4 days), the advantages of this were incredible. I got two very different but equally amazing experiences and had I just completed the three week trek I would have felt fairly differently at the end of my journey.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, although mostly it is, like anything in life there are upsides and downsides. This is one of those opportunities however, where the upsides far outweigh the down.
I'm going to start with a couple of downsides, so you know what you're letting yourself in for!
Theres only three really, you will be very…Tired! You might not click with everyone, but thats ok and longer treks mean you don't always appreciate everything it has to offer.
Now thats out of the way, onto the good stuff…
The six weeks for my trips went by so quickly, so you need to hit the ground running. I got as much sleep as I could by having early nights in quieter places and sleeping as much as possible in the van. A lot of people thought the van space was quite small, but it was absolutely fine for me, I took a small day backpack and travel pillow and i was good to go. By using the van to catch up on sleep, look out the window at the amazing scenery, keep up to date with people online and getting to know your fellow trekkers the endless miles driven will not be a drag but an additional benefit to seeing all these incredible places by road.
The upsides of Trek America are so numerous i'm sure I will miss loads out, but i will name as many as I can.
You see so many incredible places. The mixture of cities, national parks, rural areas and towns was amazing. I loved these trips as a way to explore America as you get to see and compare different types of places day to day, and you will find what you prefer most, informing you about where you want to go next! For me, I thought I would love the east coast of the USA most, as I had been here numerous times before but trek showed me so many amazing places I am now in love with the american west and all the national parks, whilst the cities are incredible, the scenery in america's national parks will take your breath away!
You get to see places regular tourists normally miss. The trek leaders are amazing for this, they take you to some amazing spots that are more known about by locals, whether its an amazing restaurant or cafe in a city or a hidden gem of a location in a national park you will see things off the beaten path. This was one of my favourite parts of the treks, I would never have found these on my own and mixed with the main sightseeing spots it made for one incredible mixture of experiences.
You get time to yourself to explore places you want to see. On the longer trek particularly, you get free days in parks and cities to explore, I went off with a few people from our group in different places and got to do things I wanted. Some people went off on their own if they had a certain shop they wanted to go to but there was also always someone to go and do something with. Splitting into smaller groups was great as you can go at your own pace and spend longer in some places, and less time in others.
You meet an amazing bunch of people. Trekkers, Trek Leaders, and had some of the most amazing conversations with americans I met along the way in different cities. An amazing experience.
You do things you didn't know you could. I am not the fittest I could be when I undertook trek but I was able to do some amazing hikes, which if you'd asked me before I didn't think I could do but the scenery and people push you on! The hike too and back from Ooh Ahh Point in the Grand Canyon was a particular highlight. Also made it most of the way to scouts landing on the trail to Angels Landing at Zion National Park, which was incredible, although the 40 degree + heat did stop me in my tracks in the end. I do plan on going back here one day with Trek to get further up this trail!!!
And much more, it was incredible. I will add more detail with the other blog posts but...
These treks have given me a new outlook, the world is an incredible place, and i most definitely want to see more of it with Trek America!!!
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