Backpacking rocks! You can go to the most beautiful places in the World, expand your mind, meet some incredible people and try some amazing new things. But if you’ve never gone away before, or are planning a new trip, it could be a bit daunting - so I thought I’d offer some travel advice. Here are my top 5 tips for backpacking that I picked up after spending over 2 years on the road.

1. Don’t plan too much

It’s tempting to plan your trip or gap year down to the smallest detail. But as I see it, part of the fun of travelling is being flexible. You could be sitting on a beach chatting to someone who says “Hey, you’ve got to go here…” or “I’m going to check out wherever. Come along…”. It’s really cool to just change your plans and tag along. Spontaneity is the key. Of course, the degree of flexibility you’ll have depends on the amount of time you’re on holiday for. So that brings me on to…

2. Don’t try to do too much

I met a guy in Malaysia who was traveling for about 3 weeks. I met him after he’d been on the road for about 2 and a half weeks. During that time he’d visited Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. What’s the point? He was basically just collecting stamps in his passport. If you don’t have much time, just go to one or two places and get to know them, or go somewhere you can use as a base to do loads of things from. Otherwise you’ll just spend your time travelling, and never really experience anywhere.

3. Go local

I reckon you’ll get the most out of wherever you go if you ‘go local’. Eat in local restaurants, learn some of the lingo, and chat to the locals as much as you can. This last point is probably the most difficult thing to do when you’re on the road since you’ll probably socialise most in hostels and with other backpackers. That’s cool. I learnt more about Israel by going to Thailand and South America than I probably would by going to Israel itself…

But what’s the point in going to Asia and not eating local food with the locals? You might as well stay at home if you just want fish and chips. Another benefit of going local is it’s normally cheaper, so you can save money to splash out on other things later. A top money saving tip here is if you’re a student, get an ISIC card to get student discounts overseas. In fact, you can get a cheap ISIC card from STA Travel with us, or even get travel offers to your inbox.

4. Don’t get paranoid. Most people are nice!

It’s easy to get paranoid when you’re away. You can hear scare stories of people being robbed or scammed or whatever. But you’ve got to be careful to be balanced. Don’t automatically assume that everyone who talks to you wants to rob you, or you’ll just end up being rude to people and closing yourself off from some potentially very special moments. Overseas, a lot of people would just love the opportunity to practice their English.

I’ve travelled on every continent (well, except Antarctica) for about 2 and a half years in total. In that time, I was robbed very cleverly in South Africa, and might have paid a bit too much for the odd things here or there. So what? Things happen, and life goes on (I carried on travelling with my backup credit card and the bank reimbursed me when I got home, so there were no problems). Not bad if you ask me.

However, also in that time, I’ve hitched my way around several countries, been invited to family parties, been invited in to the homes of total strangers and been incredibly touched by their kindness. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

5. Make backup plans

It’s only sensible. Scan your vitals (passport, insurance, etc) and email them to yourself and a friend/relative. Use a scheme like CardGuard that will protect you if your cash card gets lost or stolen to make things easy for yourself. Keep a backup stash of cash somewhere. Take a padlock, and perhaps a pacsafe to lock up your bag if you’re on an overnight train. Also, if you’re in a poorer country, don’t flash valuables too obviously. I took a £1000 camera on the road with me and never had a problem, so I’m not saying don’t take things, just be a bit careful.

Make the most of it

Going out and getting lashed up can be good fun. But travelling is so cool and gives you the chance to try so many amazing things that I don’t really see the point of going away on gap years or whatever if you’re just going to get up at 2pm every day. But hey, what floats my boat might not float yours. Just keep an eye on whether you’re getting sucked in to being too chilled out, or whether you’re doing things on your holiday you’ll remember in a few years to come. Have an awesome time and enjoy it!

Tags: advice, backpacking, travelling

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 13:51 and is filed under advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.