What: The Hostel in the Forest
Where: Brunswick, GA
Price: $25/night pp, 3 night max.
Reservations: Don’t bother emailing or looking at their website just call. 912-264-9738
Amenities: Treehouses (!!!), labyrinth, outdoor showers, ducks, lake, natural pool, sweat lodge, roosters & chickens, quiet paths, fresh air, camp fires. Bring your musical instruments, there’s almost always an after sunset jam followed by a group swim in the lake.
Other: Composting sawdust toilets, only to be used for “deposits”. If you have a shy bladder/bowels, IBS, or body shame, this isn’t the place for you.
Likelihood of a return visit: 100%
Distance from Atlanta: Approx 304 miles
Time to visit: Mid to late summer when the skeeters are dying down but it’s still warm enough to sleep without blankets and skinny-dip.
16 Jun 09
11:38 am
Great post, this place sounds amazing! I think I might recommend it to my parents, but did you see any active 60-somethings there? And, erm, I’m just wondering what you mean by “deposits”. Do you have to go elsewhere in a pan and dump the deposits onto the sawdust?
-heder
16 Jun 09
12:18 pm
Great questions! The place is run by a gentleman in his late 40′s/early 50′s (?) and there was a visitor I’d approximate in his 60′s, along with an unrelated woman in her early 50′s. It’s always a mix, which is part of the magic! If they’ve got the spirit for it, send ‘em down!
As for the potties, how to word delicately. Eh. They’re composting sawdust toilets, and the preference is that if you’re going #1 (was trying to avoid saying that and failed!) you just do it in the woods. The staff takes care of emptying the bin-o-deposits. The composting? Signs in the outhouses tell the story: “Your poo makes flowers!”
Oh, and if you’re a woman in a fragile state, there is a different series of guidelines to be followed…
16 Jun 09
12:21 pm
Ah, good to know, sorry I made you say it! Thanks for the info!
16 Jun 09
12:29 pm
Oh not at all! I suck for not explaining it well, always makes me feel like I’m about to have a 3rd grade laughter burst saying #1 or #2 (or #3 for that matter) but it’s still better than “bowel movement” which just makes me think of proctologists.
Need to find a new word for my vocabulary to replace it…”poopies?” Suggestions welcome!
16 Jun 09
12:35 pm
I’ve heard “stinkies” and “grumpies”, but that doesn’t really mature it up.
16 Jun 09
10:15 pm
Just read all the trip posts…sounds great. Looking forward to seeing you soon!