Have you heard of travel junkies travelling with their rucksacks scoring cheap options to travel around places? They are called “Backpackers” and their mode of travelling is called backpacking.
“Backpackers’ are bona fide light travellers who travel to remote locations on a budget. They skip the convenience of travel agencies who offer scheduled tours complete with tour guides and detailed itineraries.
Backpacking requires a lot of research. Backpackers do not depend on packaged tours from travel agents because they make their own itineraries. They look out for cheap but suitable hostels. They also research a lot about the local food fare and where to find them. Make a list of tourist spots to see and find a way to navigate from one point to another. Most importantly, it is advisable to calculate your budget for the trip in advance.
Most of the backpackers seek inspiration and ideas from travel websites and travel blogs. They often pattern their itineraries with other traveller’s journey or they make their own route.
Some people often wonder why some travellers love backpacking, instead of the conventional packaged tours that are usually more convenient. The answer is that backpacking has numerous benefits including the following:
1. Acquiring New Wisdom
One important thing about this humble way of travelling is that you get to learn something new along the way. You can also learn a lot about people, culture and ideas from your firsthand experiences. It’s also a good opportunity to learn something new about yourself.
2. The Sights
The sights are the main reasons why tourists visit a place and backpackers often see tourist spots in a different light. It is quite different with packaged tours where you are brought to a certain place and only allowed to visit certain sights with limited amount of time.
3. Your Personal Time to Reflect
Backpackers enjoy their personal time and they happen to experience that during their travel time – those long hours of bus rides going to a tourist spot, or their idle time on the hostel. Those are great times to marvel on the beauty of the scenery or even have enough time for personal reflection.
4. Get to Know the Person Travelling with you
Travelling strengthens bonds and relationships between companions, and a backpacker’s itinerary often entails a lot of teamwork and rapport. Problems and troubles will most likely arise along the journey and your response and attitude towards the situation will eventually surface. Based on such situations, you will learn something about one another and will also ascertain your compatibility with each other.
5. Meeting New People
Backpacking creates opportunities to meet other travellers and locals alike. It is a good way to socialize and share travel stories, and find new friends and future travel buddies.
6. The Weather
“Weather” is a good conversation starter and every place has different weather conditions. It’s something backpackers should consider since the weight of their backpacks depends on the weather condition of their destination.
7. The Food
Food is also a form of experience. Your food palate shouldn’t be limited to the food you are used to eat back home. Foods teach us a lot about a place’s culture and also broaden one’s culinary knowledge.
8. The Workout
Backpackers are no stranger to the strenuous amount of footwork experienced when travelling. The added weight of the backpack also gives an extra level of difficulty, which makes it seem like you are also working out.
9. Packing on Confidence
Backpacking is also a major confidence booster. Solo-backpackers find travelling alone as a life-altering experience because it helps them realize that they’re capable of becoming independent. Independence is very empowering. It gives people a more renewed perspective in life.
10. You’ll Live Longer
Travel somehow helps you detoxify from stress. Those ‘fatigues’ are repaired by nature through breathing fresh air, eating fresh organic products produced by the locals. Your newfound view of independence also makes you more optimistic. Those things defer your chances of getting sick and travelling has this healing component to it.
Considering those above mentioned points, backpacking is not really a bad idea. It’s definitely a great experience every traveller and adventurer should try even once in his lifetime.
