New Guide to Hostels Shows Explosion in Quntity & Qality--They Aren’t Just for Youth Anymore

Jan. 7, 2013 - PRLog -- “Backpackers and Flashpackers in Western Europe: 500 Hostels in 100 Cities in 25 Countries,” (ISBN 978-0988490505, Hypertravel Books) is available now at www.amazon.com, and elsewhere online.  The first book to document and catalog the recent dramatic increase in the number of hostels, and their evolution and acceptance worldwide, “Backpackers and Flashpackers” is more than just a guide to hostels for backpackers.   For one thing, it’s aimed at any and all independent travelers, not just backpackers, since many backpackers have now upgraded to “flashpackers,” a more modern and more tech-savvy version of the original concept.  For another, it also combines the directory with “how-to” information and geographical/historical abstracts of all the places where hostels are found, which is a LOT… and this is just the beginning.  

“Travel widely and travel wisely,” Karges advises, and that’s his travel philosophy in a nutshell.  That’s what he’s done, in one hundred fifty countries over the course of forty years, much of it described in intimate detail and vivid prose in his previous travel book, “Hypertravel: 100 Countries in 2 Years,” which got good reviews among the online travel community.  He knows his stuff, and he writes it up concisely, with a mind informed by a degree in philosophy, and feet informed by a million-plus miles of travel.  “A happy accident of this book is that it suggests a new paradigm for travel guides, one that I would use—just the facts, and just the best places,” says Karges.  After all, these books are at their best when used in advance, to facilitate a hostel-based trip.  If there aren’t any hostels there, then a place just may not be worth visiting.  “These are all ‘real’ hostels, too,” Karges emphasizes, “not just cheap rooms.”  There’s a difference, and that’s a difference most booking sites don’t make.  

There’s more, too; more books, that is, first and foremost the companion guide to Europe’s other half, Eastern Europe, with exotic locales and services similar to the West, all at half the price.  Yes, now you can travel by bus, train and plane all over Eastern Europe with scarcely so much as an entry stamp to clutter up your passport, and even fewer visas; there will be hostels to stay in once you get there.  The second book of the series is named and patterned after the first: “Backpackers and Flashpackers in Eastern Europe: 500 Hostels in 100 Cities in 25 Countries.”  The book is currently being finalized for publication.

Hypertravel Books is a newly formed imprint in Los Angeles, CA, with the mission to promote smart travel.  

Karges can be contacted at hyper.travel@aol.com and 1-323-366-2017 Pacific Time when he’s in the US, jack1free@gmail.com and +44-7525-546907 when not.