Travels

Looking for a place to stay in Timbuktu? Planning your next transcontinental overland trek? Want to know what winter is like in Mongolia, or Paris in the spring? Here are some people who can help you out, and a general information on places that Williams students typically go, rarely go, and are proud to have been the only ones among us to go to.

Perennial destinations

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Beyond what could be called the Williamstown area of North Adams, Pittsfield, and the like, there lie somewhat more distant lands that exert their various pulls on Williams students, and draw groups of us each year. The stories of these, that we could perhaps call traditional destinations, are told here.

Montreal is a popular destination for Williams students for a few-days trip, especially during reading periods and dead week. ACE has organized trips there in the past, but more often entries and small groups of friends make plans to visit, often motivated by the drinking age, strip clubs, and the city's culture.

Hiltonhead is the traditional destination of a plurality of the outoing senior class during senior dead week. Typical activities include golf, beach activities, and strippers and other debacuhery that you do and don't hear about afterwards.

Study Abroad

See study abroad for information on destinations and programs frequented by Williams students.

Unusual Destinations

Here are some places we've visited that we'd call "unusual." It's a qualitative, subjective term, but certainly tourist spots don't belong here. If the name doesn't say it all, make your case below, and celebrate your globetrotting to the rest of us.

Canada

• Sudbury, Halifax, Gaspe, Calgary, Banff Morgan Goodwin
• Nova Scotia, Vancouver, Whistler (I don't think Toronto counts) Helen Selonick
• Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kuujjuaq Toby Hall

Chile

• Atacama Desert: Joseph Gangestad, Jessie Kerr ,Cat Vielma

China

• Xinjiang: (Mainly Urumqi, Turpan, and Kashgar) Jason Law
• Yunnan: (Mainly Kunming, Zhongdian, Shangri'La, Xi'An, Beijing, Dali, Ruili, and Lijiang) Andres Schabelman
• Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'An, Hong Kong, Dunhuang, Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert: Philip Arnolds
• Xi'an, Huashan, Beijing, Shenzhen, HongKong, Tianjin: Morgan Goodwin

Czech Republic

• Harrachov: Morgan Goodwin
• Ceske Krumlov: Liz Pierce
• Prague, Ceske Krumlov: Jim Prevas

Dominican Republic

• La Romana Helen Selonick

• David Rodriguez doesn't think the country with over 700,000 foreign-born immigrants in the U.S. is an obscure place, but he's been to Santiago, Santo Domingo, La Romana, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Higuey, Juan Dolio, Boca Chica, San José de las Matas, Jánico, La Vega, Jarabacoa, Bonao, and Moca, just to name a few major places.

Egypt

• Students who have studied at AUC
• Philip Arnolds

Finland

• Rovaniemi (Santa's village and Arctic Cirle), Turku, Helsinki: Ersen Bilgin and Grace Song
• Voukatti (year round indoor ski tunnel) Morgan Goodwin

Germany

• Kernen-Im-Remstal Elizabeth Pasipanodya

Georgia

• Students who went on the Georgia Winter Study class
• Philip Arnolds
• Jason Ren -2006

Greece

• Athens, Santorini, Crete, Mykonos, Patmos, Rhodes Andres Schabelman
• Athens, Sparti, Corinth, Mycenae, Mykonos, Patmos, Rhodes, Santorini, Chania (Crete), Heraklion (Crete), Jim Prevas

India

• Srinagar, Leh, Kargil, Manali - know most of these towns, Rahul Shah
• Mahabaleshwar, Panchgini - know like the back of my hand, Rahul Shah

Kyrgyzstan

• Lilia Kadyrberdieva

Lebanon

• Beirut Kathryn Lindsey

Mexico

• Chihuahua: Alan Cordova
• Jalisco, Oaxaca, Sonora, Chihuahua, Michoacan, Durango, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Colima, Baja California, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes Noemi Fernandez
• Colonia Azucenas, Oaxaca Andres Schabelman

Mongolia

• Gana Badamgarav
• Ulaanbaatar:Alan Cordova, Stephen Wills

Morocco

• Ryan Carollo, students who went on the '05 Winter Study trip
• Tangier Helen Selonick
• David Rodriguez crossed the Strait of Gibraltar for an overnighter in Tangier
• Lindsey Corbin

New Zealand

• South Island (Christchurch, Wanaka, Franz Josef, Queenstown) Helen Selonick

• Christchurch, Dunedin Ruth Aronoff '09

North Korea

• Roy Liu
• Ji Ae Rhee

Norway

• Trondhiem Morgan Goodwin

Russia

• Irkutsk: Sara Beach '06, Jack Nelson '07, Emily Button '07, Casey Drosehn '07
• Ulan-Ude: Sara Beach '06, Emily Button '07, Casey Drosehn '07

Sweden

• Solleftea Morgan Goodwin
• Picked up our Volvo in Goteborg and drove all over (even to Legoland in Denmark) Helen Selonick

Switzerland

• Lötschental, Emmental, Diemtigtal, Lower Engadin, Appenzell, Gersau, etc.: Jono Dowse; proof in PDF form

Turkey

• Kucukkabaca, Isparta, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Istanbul, Antalya, Denizli: Grace Song
• Goreme, Istanbul, Pamukkale, Cappadocia Andres Schabelman
• Ephesus Jim Prevas

Uzbekistan

• Zakhidjon Ishmukhamedov and Akhadbek Khaydarov

United States

• Alaska (Fairbanks, Prudhoe Bay Oil Field): Mary Haas
• Alaska (Kupreanof Island, Kake): Danny Fischler
• Hawaii (Honolulu) Helen Selonick
• Evan Miller once asked for directions to a nearby campsite at a gas/lotto station in Uniontown, Kansas (population 283) [1]. The overalled, bug-eyed proprietor with a John Deere hat perched on his head told him, "Oh it's real easy to get there. Go over the hill right here and take a left at the church, and then take your first right, then left-right-left-right-left-right, and it'll be there on your left. Can't miss it." And he didn't. You can verify the directions from Uniontown to the camp entrance for yourself:

<googlemap zoom="12" width="500" height="400" type="normal" lat="37.814937" lon="-95.01646"> 37.79812,-95.062637,Bourbon County State Park </googlemap>

• Wall Drug (of "450 miles to Wall Drug" fame) Diana Davis

• Nevada (Highway 50, The Loneliest Road in America) Jay Cox-Chapman

• Colorado to Vermont one month by bike. (Kansas is as flat as they say it is) Alex Ambros

Obscure places

This is a special section. Getting in here is kind of like getting a point in Boggle -- your destination can only be on this list if no one else has been here. If you see a place you've been to here, make an edit and move that person and place to "Unusual places" (and add yourself). Please choose to add destinations of a reasonable size, so that they will be a meaningful achievement. No restaurants and the like, however good, but the jury's still out on whether something like "Lindsay Lohan's bedroom" should count.

Antarctica: Andres Schabelman

Argentina: Andres Schabelman (San Juan, Ushuaia, and Buenos Aires)

Austria: Joe McDonough (Kalwang)

Bolivia: Concert Choir, 2005 (Urubicha, The World's Most Dangerous Road)

Colombia: Andres Schabelman (Medellin, Cartagena, Bogota, Cali)

Croatia: Noemi Fernandez (Zagreb, Opatija)

Hungary: Elizabeth Pasipanodya (Dombovar)

Kenya: Andres Schabelman (Nairobi, Mt. Kenya, Samburu, Masai Mara)

Tajikistan: Alan Cordova (Dushanbe)

Northern Ireland: Helen Selonick (Belfast)

South Africa: Elizabeth Pasipanodya

Space: Jonathan Ohueri. His father is an astronaut for NASA and took him into orbit around the Earth as a young child.

Zambia: Elizabeth Pasipanodya

Zimbabwe: Elizabeth Pasipanodya