Hostel Guide Feature Story
My buddy Logan Lamphere and I teamed up to write The Complete Hostel Guide Book. You can check it out by visiting www.completehostelguide.com
I’ve known Logan since preschool. After graduating from college he has traveled to over 45 countries. Think about that! It’s pretty amazing…45 countries.
The Rapid City Journal did a nice feature story on Logan and the guide earlier this year… Thanks Crystal!
You can check out the article by clicking here:
I’m also pasting it below. Let me know what you think!
Authors urge hostel stays to cut costs
By Crystal Hohenthaner, Journal staff
Two Sturgis natives recently published an e-book in an effort to encourage “quarterlifers” to travel and to inform them about hostels.
“The Complete Hostel Guide Book” is not the first collaboration of Sturgis Brown High School graduates Logan Lamphere and Jason C. Steinle.
“Jason had previously written a book for quarterlifers — people in their late teens, 20s and 30s — advising them on careers, finance and life. I had helped him write a small travel section,” Lamphere said. “We decided to combine his experience of writing a book and helping young adults with my travel knowledge to produce a book to encourage young people to travel.”
Lamphere had been thinking about writing a book for a couple of years, and when he decided to collaborate with Steinle, he already was working on a general book about travel. After doing some research, the men found that young people were most interested in learning about hostels and decided to focus on hostels for the book.
“It makes sense because hostels offer a very affordable way to travel,” Lamphere said.
Hostels cost from $5 to $25 a night, according to Lamphere, as opposed to up to $200 dollars a night for a hotel room.
One of the greatest reasons for the difference in price between hostels and hotels is the accommodations. Lamphere said he feels the service and quality hostels provide is almost as good as a hotel. Although hostels are improving accommodations, those staying at hostels should expect to share.
“Traditionally, if you stay at a hostel, you will have to share rooms and the rooms are usually co-ed,” Lamphere said. “There are more choices nowadays. In some hostels you can find private rooms, but they cost more. Four-person rooms are the most common, but I’ve also stayed in rooms with 10 to 20 beds in them.”
Even those who shell out the extra money for private rooms will have to share and deal with a lack of extras.
“There’s no TVs, no phone and no private baths,” he said.
The style and feel of hostels varies greatly, according to Lamphere, which is one of the things he likes about them.
“Some are converted warehouses or old dorms,” he said. “One of my favorite hostels is one in Marseilles. It was an old home. It was really interesting because each room was different. I’ve even seen hostels in old barns.”
Lamphere started writing the book in April of 2006 and it took him about a year and a half to complete it. Soon after he began writing, he took a three-month backpacking trip through Morocco, Spain and France to research elements of the guidebook.
“While on the trip, I interviewed people and took photos for the book,” Lamphere said. “So, mostly the book is written from my point of view and acquired travel expertise.”
In his 31 years, Lamphere has traveled to more than 45 countries for both business and recreation.
“Summer ’95 was my first trip to Europe, and I sort of caught the travel bug,” he said.
Because the primary audience for the book is young adults, Lamphere and Steinle decided to publish “The Complete Hostel Guide Book” as an e-book
“It’s just a new format to experiment with,” Lamphere said. “My co-author had written a previous e-book for quarterlifers and had success with it.”
Steinle also has written an e-book guide for visitors of the Sturgis Rally.
“It’s a convenient format for young people,” Lamphere said. “You can save the book to a PDA and access it while traveling around.”
The book recently has been launched on a secure Web site, www.completehostelguide.com, and costs $19.95 to download. Lamphere and Steinle have reduced the price of the book in an effort to make it a little more affordable for students
“My goal wasn’t to make money, but to encourage young people to travel,” said Lamphere.
The electronic format of the book also gave Lamphere and Steinle a chance to publish in full color, include interactive chapters and utilize live links to informative Web sites.
For example, while the e-book doesn’t include listings of hostels, section 11 in the book, “Picking a Hostel,” includes Web sites that have hostel directories and a short tutorial on how to use the sites.
The e-format also allows the authors to get feedback from readers, and because the book is electronic, it is easy to re-edit it to include new information, if necessary.
Beyond information on hostels, the guidebook also includes checklists, tips on packing, information on acquiring passports and visas and ways to stay in touch with friends and family while traveling.
The book also features profiles of travelers who have stayed in hostels as well as profiles of people who work in hostels. The profiles offer perspectives from other travelers that include fun information like worst travel experience, weirdest food eaten and most/least useful travel items.
Although the book’s format and content originally were planned to encourage young people to travel, Lamphere stressed the fact that hostels are not just for youth.
“The hostel scene is changing,” he said. “Services are improving. The hostels used to have a lot of rules; now they are more flexible. And very few have any kind of age limit.”
Lamphere is considering writing another travel book and Steinle has produced an entire line of Upload Experience products available at www.uploadexperience.com.
Contact Crystal Hohenthaner at 394-8463 or crystal.hohenthaner@rapidcityjournal.com.
to learn more about Sid’s book. You may also visit Sid’s website 
