Hyder Travel Guide

Most people come to HYDER (pop. 70), Stewart's oddball twin, simply to drink in one or both of its two bars. It's a ramshackle place - barely a settlement at all - 3km from Stewart across the border in Alaska with none of the usual formalities, there being nothing beyond the end of the road but 800km of wilderness. People use Canadian currency, the police are of the Mountie variety and the phone system and code - tel 250 - are also Canadian. At the Glacier Inn the tradition is to pin a dollar to the wall in case you return broke and need a drink, and then toss back a shot of hard liquor in one and receive an "I've Been Hyderized" card. The result is many thousands of tacked dollars and the "world's most expensive wallpaper". It sounds a bit of a tourist carry-on, but if you arrive out of season there's a genuine amiability about the place that warrants its claims to be the "The Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska". The town's two bars are often open 23 hours a day and a couple of motels are on hand if you literally can't stand any more: the Sealaska Inn , Premier Avenue (tel 636-9003; $60-80), and the preferable Grand View Inn (tel 636-9174; $60-80). They're both cheaper than their Stewart equivalents, and as you're in Alaska there's no room tax to pay on top. If you want something to soak up the alcohol, make for the Sealaska Inn Restaurant (tel 636-2486) for no-nonsense food. The community's little infocentre , if you need it, is on the right as you come into town (June to early Sept daily except Wed 9am-1pm).