The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (13 page)

When it comes time to chow down, hit one of the popular
happy hour deals,
where you’ll find discounted drinks and eats from 4:30 or 5 p.m. to around 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Offers change regularly; see
http://washington.org/visiting/experience-dc/foodie-experience/
happy-hours-cheap-eats for an up-to-date list.

Now, about lodging. As in other business cities, you’ll often find the best hotel deals on weekends, especially during the winter. Laura Boyd, a frequent visitor, recommends the website bedand breakfast.com for well-located lodgings at value prices. For other alternatives, check out lodging across the Potomac River in historic Alexandria, Virginia (703-746-3301,
http://visitalexandriava.com
), a short Metro ride away.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

Destination D.C.,
901 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001, 202-789-7000,
www.washington.org
.

National Mall and Memorial Parks,
www.nps.gov/nama
.

Smithsonian Institution museums,
www.si.edu
.

learn the culture of the first americans

NATIONWIDE

Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.

—
HOPI PROVERB

14 |
It wasn’t so long ago that Native American “culture” was confined to the movies and Indian reservations. But in recent years, the artwork and traditions of America’s first peoples have become more appreciated—and more accessible. Pueblos once closed to outsiders now offer tours. Powwows showcasing drummers and dancers in traditional costumes draw thousands of non-Indian visitors. Major museums dedicated to the art of the First Americans have opened.

Tribes themselves have become major players on the national tourism scene, developing hotels decorated with traditional crafts and interpretive centers featuring storytellers and crafts. On some longer tours, tribal members escort visitors into Indian lands.

Attend a powwow.
A parade of tribal peoples in fringed and feathered dress starts the ceremonial gathering. But this is far more than movie-style spectacle; tribal gatherings often are a combination of heritage celebration, dance contest, drum competition, social get-together, and marketplace. They are also a sacred tradition. Dancers move in the clockwise pattern of the sun, their circle representing the unity of life. Ornaments and regalia may honor an event in the wearer’s life or a special religious tradition.

The Gathering of Nations
(505-836-2810,
www.gatheringofnations.com
) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of the largest and best known powwows. Each April, this three-day event draws 75,000 people to partake in dances, ceremonies, crafts, traditional foods, and the Miss Indian World Talent Presentation and Show. Tickets start at $19. Non-Indians are welcome, but you’ll want to know the etiquette: Stand for the entry of the eagle staff. Don’t point with your finger. Never touch any regalia or ornamentation.

Visit the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.
For more than 600 years, ancestral Puebloans—also called Anasazi—made their homes in what is now
Mesa Verde National Park
(www.nps.gov/meve, 970-529-4465). Simple shelters on mesa tops gave way to sometimes elaborate stone villages of a hundred-plus rooms carved into the sandstone cliffs below. By around 1300 these people moved away, but the 4,800 or so sites they left behind—including the 150-room Cliff Palace—can be seen by visitors to the Four Corners region, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet.

To do the place justice, you’ll want at least a couple of days. Your best bet is to visit between April and October. The park—an hour from Cortez, Colorado—is open year-round but some facilities are closed in winter, when tours are more limited. You can visit the archaeological museum and some sites on your own, but the Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Spruce Tree House can only be visited on a ranger-led tour (additional nominal fee).

Park entry costs $10–$15, depending on the time of year. Bare campsites and base camps outfitted with a canvas tent and cots are available at Morefield Campground. Far View Lodge is open late April to mid-October. All park lodging and dining facilities are run by
Aramark
(800-449-2288,
www.visitmesaverde.com
).

$PLURGE

TAKE A TRIBAL TOUR

Expert-led tours are rarely the least expensive way to visit any place, but seeing Native American sites through the eyes of a local tribesman may be worth the splurge.

 
Billie Swamp Safari, Florida Everglades
. Here, on the 2,200-acre Big Cypress Preserve, members of the Seminole Tribe offer tours by swamp buggy and airboat through the swamplands and hammocks. Overnight visitors get the full immersion, with campfire storytelling, an after-dark tour of the swamp, and a stay in a traditional open-air chickee, a thatched dwelling without running water or electricity.
Entrance to the Billie Swamp Safari is free. Daytime activities, including swamp buggy and airboat tours and wildlife shows, are ticketed à la carte at prices beginning at $8. Day packages including all activities start at $43 for adults. Overnight packages cost about $100 per person.
The tribe’s nearby Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum is home to more than 5,000 square feet of exhibits and artifacts.
Billie Swamp Safari, 800-949-6101,
www.swampsafari.net
.

 
Goulding’s Lodge, Monument Valley, Arizona
. From this lodge located 170 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, Navajo guides lead half-and full-day tours of Monument Valley that visit petroglyphs, hogans, stone arches, and Anasazi ruins. Tours start at around $40 per adult. An original trading post has been transformed into a museum. The restaurant serves Navajo and American dishes. Campsites are available from $25; cabins are also available.
Goulding’s Lodge, 435-727-3231,
www.gouldings.com
.

 
Lodgepole Gallery and Tipi Village, near Browning, Montana
. A half-day cultural history tour for four people with a historian and artist who is also a Blackfeet tribal member costs $100. The excursion includes stops at a medicine lodge, tipi ring, and buffalo jump. You can also spend the night in a tipi ($65 for two people; bring your own sleeping bag) and dine on traditional foods like elk and buffalo. Horseback riding, art workshops, and lectures are also offered.
Lodgepole Gallery and Tipi Village,
www.blackfeetculturecamp.com
.

The Mesa Verde area is a treasure trove of Native American sites, and if you’ve got time you may also want to visit the ruins of the Lowry Pueblo, which exhibits two cultural traditions; Ute Mountain Tribal Park, where tribe members guide all tours; the Anasazi Heritage Center, a museum that’s home to three million artifacts; the Cortez Cultural Center, an interpretive center with exhibits and gallery; and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, which offers one-day programs with a tour of an archaeological site.

You’ll find visitor information to all online at
www.swcolo.org
.

NATIVE AMERICAN MUSEUMS

The number of museums dedicated to Native American culture and those with significant collections have increased in recent years. The following are among the many worth visiting:

 
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
. Expansive historical exhibits plus a stunning selection of Kachina dolls.
Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., 602-252-8344,
www.heard.org
, $12.

 
Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, B.C
. Changing exhibits but a wide-ranging display of masks and objects from Canada’s First Peoples.
Museum of Anthropology, 6393 NW Marine Dr., 604-822-5087,
www.moa.ubc.ca
, $14.