Backpacking: Budget Independent Travel - Advice, guide packing help

Time 2020-12-22 12:03:47

Web Name: Backpacking: Budget Independent Travel - Advice, guide packing help

WebSite: http://www.travelindependent.info

ID:142599

Keywords:

Independent,Travel,Backpacking,

Description:

Travel Independent . info Everything you need to know about budget independent travel (aka. backpacking). If you are rich or poor, young or old and are curious about traveling independently - we probably have an answer. Hello. Coronavirus blues got you pining for a trip? Pleased you found us. You have come to the right place. There is shall a thing as a post-Covid world to explore. Enough of reading blogs. Need real help? Travel Independent .info is an independent, non-commercial site by travellers for travellers to encourage everyone to travel independently and give them the information they need to feel confident about it. It is not a blog full of ramblings or selfies. No self-promotion, no sponsored content, unrealistic claims or e-books/tours for sale. Around since 2002, updated monthly. You ll find balanced, comparative, simple advice for 110+ countries, 7 continent - everything important to get you on the road . There is simply no other travel site with a broader scope, wider range of countries covered or experience. No idea where to start? Start here: If you are totally new to travel or starting to plan a trip and simply have no idea where to start - this one page guide is probably the place for you. Know roughly what you are looking for? Follow the chapter links below: What to Pack What do you really need to pack for travel? Explained from A to Z. Seen enough packing lists to make you sick? Confused on what to pack for travel / backpacking trip? Take it from those who have learnt the hard way and are not selling or promoting anything other than the concept of travelling light. What you pack can really make a difference to your trip: packing tips and advice on everything you need. Where to Go So many choices. Here s some guidance Where to travel to? Good question. How to pick a route, our country/sight recommendation and why you might have already decided. - the real planning is up to you with some hard choices to be made. Global highlights and lowlights - a few ideas of the good, the bad and the ugly! Before You Go Don t panic, but you need to get a few things sorted before you go Unsure as to malaria prophylaxis, jabs, how much will you send, how to carry money, insurance or visas you need?. The before you go bit is tougher than the trip itself and can seem like an administrative nightmare. It is all covered from money to buying air tickets and travelling alone. Travel insurance is a particular minefield. Found out exactly what you need, what you don t and who the best providers are. On the Road Everything you need to know about what lies in wait on the road . On the road a comprehensive guide to some of the things that you need to face and deal with whilst travelling and how to deal with them, such as food poisoning and bus travel. It is all covered from getting ill and staying healthy, moving around, sleeping, looking after your things/avoiding crime to dealing with beggars and hassle. If you are interested in using any of the material in this site, would like extra material for commercial purposes or would like to support the site with a paid link, then please get in touch. Read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Support us. Please note this site is kept up-to-date and current with a lot of hard work, miles and (where you can help) even simple reader contributions. As for getting something for nothing: this site doesn t pay for itself, hosting and bandwidth particularly, cost money. This site is kept banner ad free by readers using Amazon links and other recommended products/services. What did you think? We try hard to provide independent travellers with the latest information, but things are always changing. As you might expect, up-dates, corrections and new information are always sought. Even a simple thought shared can help build the site s content for all who love travel. A few lines is all it takes to help keep info fresh and provide for future travellers. It s also a big thank you. It goes without saying that the majority of the information on this site is subjective at the very least. Read more Furthermore attempting to write something to cover all eventualities within the budget / independent travel context would be impossible. However, many a long hour has been spent (you have no idea!) constructing these pages in order to try and help and enlighten others. We are sure more experienced travellers will find some information a little patronising, but no one is really putting anything new out here - it s just how it is. Just a reminder... This is a personal website/blog, and not an agency or a business. No one receives any commission for any advice. Only a few recommended links pay for bandwidth. We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring, Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time T.S. Eliot By the way if you are a returning user, you will notice a totally new look site. Don t worry we are the same authors, only now we look sexier and with more/updated content. This intro has been included as one of first thing you might read so it may perhaps provide inspiration and so I /we may communicate the motives for creating this site. That I word is used a few times in this intro, but nowhere else. The rest of the site is not about personal travels or inflating a sense of achievement. It s created with contributions from many, grows weekly and is about sharing knowledge that makes any trip achievable and enjoyable. If you are planning to go travelling independently (short or long term) and are perhaps a little apprehensive, this site is for you. So please read on through this section as something to bear in mind when looking at the following pages. Everything you need to know (about independent travel, aka. backpacking)? That s what we came up with... Read more Everything you need to know (about independent travel, aka. backpacking)? That s what we came up with, to the ends of sharing everything learnt from thousands of accumulated very busy days travelling in more than two-thirds of the world s countries spread across the globe. Also it sums up the whole site when it comes to independent travel and backpacking. This site is about sharing all the information that is so very obvious to anyone who has experienced it, but can be so frightening to a first timer and a real inhibitor to good planning in the way of time, money and what you carry on your back. It s hoped the site fills a gap encountered when I tried to research this information on the Internet myself before setting out for the first time (loads of travelogues, but no real information). You won t find this site treading around any issues. For example most travellers come across contraband, vice or beggars while abroad and wonder about toilets - that s covered. More questions? Is Colombia/Iran safe? Should I go to Timbuktu? Is Angkor really that great? It s all here and a lot more besides. Maybe the title should be: here are the mistakes I made and what it s like - learn from them/it. Why the budget travel thing? Because most don t have unlimited funds, but maybe affordable is a better term. Far from being the only choice available to the typical adventurous traveller, it is a sacred doctrine for many: to get the most out of what they have. Understand that no one is advocating hardcore $10-a-day travel; there are times when splashing out and/or taking a local tour is appropriate. Independent travel allows you to do more and see more, since it puts you in direct contact with locals and offers greater challenges. Any suffering on bumpy buses or in the odd crappy hotel room will only make your experience seem more real and give you that extra sense of achievement and personal satisfaction (every pleasure has got to have an inch of pain - so buy your ticket and don t complain!). The number one thing conveyed is that backpacking travel is in no way esoteric, and in pretty much all countries, very easy. It is not really difficult at all. Frustrating at times, yes - difficult, no. All you really need is a measure of gumption and you are away. Of course travelling and place names like Lhasa and Istanbul, sound adventurous, but my grandmother could find her way round most of them (backpackers don t have to be young) and would not be alone in doing so. Tourism is the world s biggest industry and all but a very, very few places (normally the ones of no real interest or recently struck by war or a natural disaster) are well on the beaten track with the subsequent support industries plentiful. The information on this site is not what you would normally come across in often ambiguous guidebooks. It consists mainly of tips, backpacker relevant information and details on more alternative subjects avoided by published guides. Anyway, trying to duplicate information that is found easily in guidebooks would be rather pointless. Second to that, demonstrated is just how accessible the world has become - perhaps heading solely to Australia/Europe to work for a year with a stop-off in Thailand or America on the way back is not exactly travelling and a little bit of a cop-out. It s your choice but those who do so are missing out on so much. Let s face it - how often in your life are you going to have the chance, time or money to do this? Did you want to travel or have a holiday? Please, please, still do that (Oz, Thailand et al. are great places) but be aware that so much more is available to you and there is no reason why you should not give it a go. Even if it is not for you, at least try getting to some interesting places, talk to some interesting people and do some interesting things. At worst you will save some money and leave early. The world really is your oyster: you can go pretty much anywhere you like. Try to understand that repeatedly the less appealing a place seems at home, the more appealing it often is there - because you are doing something unique for yourself and have limited expectations. And the independent thing? So often abroad, you see groups on tours - and they are always a certain type of people - sure China sounded really exotic at home, but now you re here its not exactly the wilderness. Well the succinct answer is either that a tour really is right for them (for whatever reason), that they are a little lazy or that they didn t know what is being shared here! (don t take my word for it - readers comments). This is the essential, no holds barred information you need to get going - so hit the subject title links to the left, read on and be enlightened.... or in the words of Mark Twain: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover Come on let us know about your trip. If you have been or are going somewhere - tell us if we have all the facts correct. Get in touch here. (Ella Bowden) - "FANTASTIC SITE! Easy to use, really to the point. I ve wanted to plan travelling for ages and haven t known where to start, all the books I ve read don t want to commit to giving you the details you really want to know. I don t think I could have been confident in planning my travelling without this site, you have positively influenced my life in a huge way. Many thanks". (Nate) - "Love the site and use it for almost all my travel planning. It s the best unbiased and accurate evaluation of destinations I ve found anywhere on the web" This is by the far the most comprehensive and well put together independent travel resource in the world, Great job!" See all comments and feedback in the site guestbook. Illustration by Jerry Swaffield - taken from First-Time Asia: the Rough Guide This site was created out of 100% recycled electrons and has been officially copyrighted. If you are planning a trip, a little nervous or just looking for inspiration. You have come to the right place. Please let us know if we left anything out and please support the site. About us What s important for a travel advice website? What can you trust? We.... are around since 2002, non-commercial and independent; cover 135 countries covered (repeatably visited), updated regularly; have multiple experienced authors and a lot of reader input! Find out more. In the FAQ and about this site pages Much imitated Travelindependent . info, unlike many similar sites calls on repeated trips over a +ten year period to every major region of the globe (around two/thirds of the world s nations at last count - not just one RTW trip). After every trip the site is updated and revised and has been slowly shaped in this fashion since early 2002 when the first version was posted. Please help! We need your input.Did you spot a mistake or error? Found something incorrect? Can you contribute information? GET IN TOUCH SEND FEEDBACK We don t sell ads or employ staff travellers/writers. We try and cover a huge range of countries, changing all the time. If it has helped you, please help us to help others!

TAGS:Independent Travel Backpacking 

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