Backpack Travel

Backpack Travel info, ideas, and photos

Asa & Channing at the Tower of Pisa
Photo: Lindyy, through a Creative Commons Attribution License

Backpack Travel is a form of international travel that is closely associated with independent travel and budget travel, and related in many ways to adventure travel. Backpack travel is characterized by the desire to keep costs low, travel for months at a time, and gain a deeper understanding of different cultures. An entire worldwide industry of backpacker lodges, guesthouses, restaurants, transportation, and side tour operators serving backpack travelers has emerged in many third world cities.

Backpack travel and independent travel are in many ways synonymous, except that as the industry matures, more and more backpack travel is done in the form of small group travel tours. Backpack travel and adventure travel are closely related in that many backpack travelers are seeking adventure, but not all adventure travel is of the budget backpack travel variety.

Backpack Travel's roots go back to the time of Marco Polo on the Silk Road to Asia, but it was the Hippie trail Movement of the 1960's and 1970's that ushered in the backpack travel era. The Hippie Trail, originated as an overland road and train crossing from Western Europe to the Southeast Asia. While it followed part of the Silk Road, political expedience meant that travelers headed south of the true Silk Road. Important backpack travel stops on the Hippie trail included Istanbul, Teheran, Kabul, Varanasi, Kathmandu, Bangkok, and Denpassar. Hippies on the Hippie Trail were indeed the earliest backpack travelers. Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet Guidebooks, were among the early backpack travelers on the Hippie Trail.

By 1980, with the Soviet invasion of and guerilla war in Afghanistan and the Iranian revolution, the Hippie trail was dead. In its place, what many refer to as the Banana Pancake trail, became the de facto rite of passage for backpack travelers. Fueled by higher disposable incomes and lower international airfares, backpack travel in Southeast Asia became a major phenomenon in the 1980's. As more and more travelers came, more and more guesthouses and lodges and infrastructure emerged. Some good, some bad. Backpack travel ghettos with guesthouse, lodges, restaurants, and souvenir shops catering to those on a budget, sprang up in places like Thamel in Kathmandu, Jalan Jaksa in Jakarta, Kuta in Bali, and of course the infamous Khao San Road in Bangkok. Throughout the 1980's and 1990's, the Banana Pancake trail pressed out in multiple directions, down into Goa, India, up into Lhasa, Tibet, and over to Dali Lake and Chengdu in China.

Today, spurred on by the availability of cheap, round the world airline tickets, the spirit of the Hippie Trail lives on, with the banana pancake trail metastasizing into backpack travel circuits that have now developed worldwide. Here are a few of the most popular routes:

East Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa

Beijing to Hanoi: Beijing, Great Wall, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hanoi

Silk Road: Beijing, Great Wall, Xi'an, Urmuqi, Hotan, Kashgar, Karakoram Highway, Peshawar, Islamabad

Indochina Loop: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos

Kathmandu to Beijing: Nepal, Tibet, China

South India Circuit: Delhi, Udaipur, Taj Mahal, Varanasi, Chennai, Mamallapuram, Kerala, Mysore, Hampi, Goa

Central America: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica

South America Circuit: Buenos Ares, Santiago, La Paz, Titticaca, Machu Picchu, Rio

North America: San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Zion, Moab, Mesa Verde

Paris to Marrakech: France, Spain, Morocco

Europe Circuit (popular with Americans): London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Athens, Venice, Rome

Backpack travel has become very mainstream, and with that most of the formerly great backpack travel destinations have one by one started to lose their authenticity. This is inevitable. Don't complain. By going there, you're part of the problem. While almost everywhere on the backpackers circuit is still worth going to, don't be surprised by backpacker ghettos with hoards of souvenir shops, run down guesthouses, and prostitution-- use them as bases to find those still untouched places with real authenticity. Definitely go to Angkor Wat with it's hordes of tour groups, buy some souvenirs, and eat a few banana pancakes in Siem Reap, but by all means, take the time to see the real Cambodia and find a village off the beaten track to see real Cambodian life.

Be especially wary of small group travel companies selling "off-the-beaten-track" cultural adventures. Ask a lot of questions about itineraries- some itineraries are good, and some are not so good. In some locations they are pulling an elaborate charade on clients making them think they are going someplace "real" when in reality, you're the fourth group of tourists those monks at that perfect temple have seen that day from your company.

Europe from a Backpack: Real Stories from Young Travelers Abroad (From a Backpack series) by Mark Pearson, Martin Westerman, and Nicolay Thomassen

Alone, but Never Lonely: A Year of Borders, Beds, and Backpacks by Suzanne Anthony

Travel Junkies: An Older Couple from Georgia Explores the World with Backpack and Canoe by Henry Intili

A Frog in My Backpack: Stories from a World Adventure by Janet Anderson

A Sarong in My Backpack: Adventures from Munich to Pushkar by Ayun Halliday

Princess with a Backpack by Lauren Resnick

Don't Worry, be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack by Jim Ford

The Beach by Alex Garland

Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story by Tony Wheeler and Maureen Wheeler

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List by Patricia Schultz

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts

Thorn Tree Travel Forum - Lonely Planet

WorldHum - Travel Dispatches from a Shrinking Planet

Backpack Travel Europe

My Travel Backpack - Blog

How to Buy a Travel Backpack

How to Travel the World and Backpack on a Budget

Your Travel Backpack - What to Take

Journey Woman - Travel 101 - I Packed My Backpack . . .

Backpack Travel New Zealand

Bed & backpack: 10 unusual travel hostels around the world - LA Times

Storming the Beach - Salon.com

Alternative Backpack Travel - Focus: The South Seas tribe - The Times

Bangkok bombs cast shadow over Thai tourism - Washington Post - Backpack Travel Impact post 9/11

Must the Backpackers Stay Home - Time Magazine - Backpack Travel Impact post 9/11

Backpacking Across India - Forbes - - Backpack Travel in India

Adventurous young Chinese hit backpacking trail alone - Washington Post - Chinese Starting to do Backpack Travel

Backpacking: How safe is your trip? - The Independent - Backpack Travel Safety

Backpacker's Beware - BBC - Backpack Travel Safety