Backpacking is a glorious and wonderful way to explore the world. All your worldly possessions in a teeny tiny pack as you stumble around new places. Meet new faces and generally create memories that will last you a life time. Even those memories that you’d rather forget like that one time in…. But how often are you making some very simple mistakes that could be entirely avoided? Some mistakes are meant to be made and certainly fall into the category of character building.
So whether you are off on a glorious gap year or a short shag & tag tour here are some of the biggest backpacker mistakes you are making.
Are You Even A Backpacker?
Now having a 70ltr backpack or one of those dreaded wheely things doesn’t necessarily make you are a backpacker. Neither does the lack of washing, your refusal to wear deoderant or brush your hair. The term backpacker for the sake of this article relates to a style of travel – with a backpack and being financially conscious. That’s the nicest way I can put it. Really you’re a tight ass when it comes to money. You’re making the dollar bills rain only a few at a time for that bed in a 20 bed dorm. You know the value, financially and nutritionally of instant noodles and you’re not afraid to barter your services to stop the dollar bills from raining.
Why? Most likely because you’re trying your very best to get your dollar bills to stretch further. And generally speaking there is absolutely nothing wrong with this! Just don’t be a dick and argue over what equates to 50c change when you’re at a group dinner. There’s penny pinching and then there’s being a social jerk.
FlashPacker
We kind of fall under this category of backpacking. We travel with backpacks, take adventures and generally have a grand ol’ time meeting new people on the road. We’re conscious of our money but not overly stressed. We don’t mind paying that little bit extra for a private room in a hostel, the extra leg room on the low cost carrier or even worry about getting that extra beer with dinner.
You Didn’t Buy Travel Insurance Before Leaving Home.
Or at all. Real travellers don’t need insurance they just need elbow grease and a trust fund. Or generous friends to turn into professional beggars when shit hits the fan and you need medical care in excess of your bank account. I’m one of those awful people who refuses to support your crowdfunding campaign for people who opted to travel without travel insurance.
It’s so easy and affordable to buy that I really don’t understand why you wouldn’t buy insurance. Life happens when you’re travelling. Flights get cancelled, bags get lost by airlines, cute kids steal your camera and you fall over whilst chasing them and break an ankle. It’s all apart of the fun of travelling and your insurance will help you in these situations.
Get A Travel Insurance Quote Today
Backpack Overload
Just because an airline gives you a 20kg checked in luggage allowance doesn’t mean that you need to take 20kgs of stuff with you. As well as that extra 7kg worth of stuff you just might need in transit. Firstly that’s a hell of a lotta crap to carry around with you. Secondly where are you going to put all the extra things you buy? Souvenirs you’ll never look at again, pub crawl tees or extra flipflops? More importantly the snacks. Then there is the comfort factor.
It’s really uncomfortable and difficult to waddle around with a huge backpack on. I know I’ve been there done that. Like that one time we went to Europe and I took all the books! And two litres of shampoo & conditioner. And I had to waddle around like a fat turtle for six weeks with 19kgs of gear. That was after giving away books, throwing away clothing that I no longer needed and eating all my snacks.
In the past two years I’ve been trying out a lot of different styles of backpacks.
- For longer term travel I use a 65ltr Berghaus Wilderness 60 + 15 ltr Gold Rucksack. The additional harness makes a huge difference to my turtle inspired lifestyle. With extra bits and pieces this pack is perfect for the avid adventurer who wants to go off the beaten path.
- For trips less then a week, especially press trips where time is limited and I don’t want to check in luggage, I use my Cabin Zero 44ltr backpack. It fits in enough stuff for James and I together. I love this bag so much that it’s now become my car camping adventure backpack too. If you’d like the ease of travelling with checked in only luggage go buy yourself a Cabin Zero bag today.
Buy A Cabin Zero Bag
Making It Rain Dollar Bills and Not Checking The Weather.
Also known as spending your money and ignoring the fact that you don’t have a bottomless account. It’s easy to spend a lot of money in a really short period of time. Certain backpacker favourite countries such as Australia and New Zealand aren’t backpacker budget friendly. Breakfast can easily set you back $50 for two. By the time you have a coffee or two and how could you possibly resist the triple stack pancakes with Persian fairy floss?
Even on the road you need to keep a track of what you are spending, how much you have left and how far this needs to go.
Going Commando Amongst The Common Folk
No undie Sunday is a glorious day in our house and in all honesty in 99% of situations I’m the last person to insist that you wear underwear. UNLESS you are in a shared dorm room. There’s nothing quite as eye opening as waking up and seeing a young lad pitching his own tent so speak. Or the bunny’s noise peaking out of the teeny tiny shorts as some young lass climbs up onto the top bunk. Now some people may not agree with me and are more then happy for a free peep show.
Please do everyone a favour. A shared room is not your own personal parlour of pleasure. Put some pants on. Don’t dick around.
You Didn’t Print That Really Important Thing.
Depending on where you are travelling in the world, some areas like Europe, require you to print your boarding pass. Certain airlines like Ryanair will charge you a small fortune to print this at the airport and IF you arrive four hours prior to check in closing. In saying that many airlines are now bringing in electronic boarding passes. Just check before you leave your hostel! Many hostels will allow you to print your boarding pass for a few dollars.
Things you should always have a printed copy of-
- Passport
- Insurance certificate & contact details
- Flight details – booking confirmation/boarding pass
- Tour/hire booking confirmations
You Suffer From FOMO
The Fear Of Missing Out and you end up doing too much. You are spending more time ticking things off your bucket list rather then enjoying what’s in the bucket. Rushing between countries, towns and popular sites. It’s not a race. Unless you’re on the Amazing Race then congratulations and say hi to Jeff for me! Slow down. Enjoy the city you are in. Go back and see the temples of Angkor Wat for another day.
Indulging your inner FOMO results in you seeing less, doing more travel and give you a good dose of backpacker burn out. Don’t be afraid to travel a little bit slower. Enjoy a few rest days along the way.
There’s So Many More Mistakes…
That we all make. It really is half the fun of travelling is making mistakes and learning from these experiences. Have you ever made a travel mistake? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclaimer:
This srticle contains affiliate links. If you do decide to purchase any items from the links above we receive a meagre sacrifice from the accounting gods. This is at no additional cost to you and your adventures. These funds help us continue to live, feed the dogs and go on cafe runs. Which Milly really does appreciate.
Any and all views and opinions expressed are entirely my own based on personal experiences when travelling and are honest and factual without any bias.
Jeanette
Founder, Principal Blogger & Coffee Drinker
Coffee Lover | Travel Blogger | Horse Rider | Adventure Racer | Donut Dame. Generally nice lady-enjoys wine, indie movies & random dance parties in my tent.
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Travellers are some of the most financially savvy people you will ever meet.
Travellers are some of the most financially savvy people you will ever meet. Have you ever wondered how people afford to travel, invest & drink take away coffee?
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At first thank you for these important points. I have bookmarked this page if i will not make mistakes those you mentioned. During traveling i don’t want to make any mistakes as i have to face any problem. Facing problem in traveling spoils the pleasure of tour.
Great post! And so true! I’ve made pretty much every mistake listed here and more. You never stop learning when you’re on he road… 😀
This was such a good and entertaining post! I realized when I trekked across SEA for a month that I’m not about the backpacker life. Maybe flashpacker, but even that’s a stretch. But, yep I agree with so much in this post!
I feel I’m more of a flash packer these days haha. But either way traveling without insurance is just plain silly. I learned the hard way after being hospitalized in Mongolia! Definitely suck it up and pay!
Oh wow what happened? Was that on a solo trip?
Loved reading this post. I recognized almost all the points instantly. Slowing down while traveling is one important thing that I keep on reminding myself.
I really had no idea that going commando was a common thing! I think I’d feel so self conscious if I did that!! Also, travel insurance is a huge thing, and I never thought about it much but now that I travel more often, travel insurance is SUPER important!
So true about the travel insurance!! I think so many people, especially young travelers, forget about this and only realize it after it’s too late. I know that was definitely the case for me in college!
This post made me giggle as a lot of it rang so true! Especially the bit about FOMO – I have that hugely!
Thanks for a light-hearted post! 🙂
Louise
I’m the furthest thing from a backpacker (at least for now! I need to find a good starting point) but now I know not to make such mistakes when I do! You’re training me, haha! I am totally with you though on the FOMO thing – I’m just starting to realize in most my travels it is OKAY to not get everything done. It gives you another reason to go back!
Best,
Rebecca
Lovely read! So recognizable. It brought back some embarrassing travel moments from a while back and a big smile on my face. Still love backpacking, it’s the whole experience that makes it worthwhile! And you get to tell the stories for years to come. 🙂
Great tips. Love one about not being a tight ass ha ha. I have met so many people like this and really frustrating. My biggest error is forgeting to tell my bank I was going away and getting cards blocked. Very stressful 😕
Oh no that’s no fun at all
PRINT THE THING! WHY DID I PRINT EVERYTHING EXCEPT THAT ONE THING I ACTUALLY NEED? My backpacker blunders include forgetting my passport and getting deported from Macau, not realising I needed a visa to visit Australia and spelling my name wrong on a flight ticket to the Philippines and having to blah my way onto the flight hoping no one will notice (damn autocorrect on my phone!). I’ve been living abroad and travelling for over five years, but I feel like I never learn!
It’s these things that turn out to be great stories! Yes the Visa for Australia captures so many people
Not that it’s important at all, but the Amazing Race is Phil. Survivor is Jeff. 😊
😂 that shows how much reality tv I watch
This made me chuckle! I’ve never backpacked – I’m more of a maximum weight limit suitcase girl – but I put off printing things till the last minute so I totally sympathise there!
Haha, oh the sights I’ve seen in hostels related to no underwear wearing! It’s suprising to realise that it’s ‘a thing.’
I’m definitely more conscious about not over packing for a trip these days and it actually makes me happy to whittle down my belongings to the essentials. I also wouldn’t dream of travelling without insurance. It’s one of those expenditures that get subsumed into the planning stage so you can forget about it until you (hopefully never) need it!
This was so relatable! The more I backpack, the lighter my pack gets. I am also in agreeance with the going commando statement. There is definitely a time and place for it. Haha
Haha, this is a hilarious post! I’ve definitely done a few of these… I think underwear should be optional depending on what else you’re wearing haha! Glad to say that I’m definitely past not buying travel insurance and lugging around 20kg of luggage, my cappuccino addiction is harder to kick though…
Never kick the coffee habit! I’m 100% there with you!
I’ve actually never backpacked, but great tips for if i do. The underwear wearing I would hope people are smart enough to consider…but these days nothing surprises me anymore!
Underwear is seemingly optional in hostels 😉
Such a great post — definitely guilty of some of these haha 😀
I’m not a backpacker, but this article reminded me that I need to get travel insurance ASAP!! What company would you recommend buying from?
It depends on where you are based. If you’re Australia 1Cover or internationall WorldNomads. Check out our resource for bloggers page at the top of the menu bar for more information.
Going commando, I haven’t seen it so far. But people having sex in the dorm, I’ve seen it. Shocking at first considering I am from the Philippines, known to be a “conservative” country. Everyone just left the room or ignored it.
I only travel with a 40L carry on going there for a month trip plus a small messenger bag that can carry my cam. Then have a checked in luggage coming back home (for all the things I might buy a long the way). but air Asia has a new policy now, two bags must be only 7kg.
And thanks for reminding me about travel insurance. I’ve got to get one before heading out soon.
Oh hearing other people have sex in dorm rooms is the worst!
This is awesome.. Such good advice and so funny to boot. I’m going to look at getting one of those 44L cabin bags though.. such a good idea for shorter trips. I also had the experience of not printing my Vietnamese visa information until the last minute and when I did realising we put a date too early on it, having to get another letter urgently and wasting $40 usd. Life ay… lol.
Oh no!! How frustrating. At least it was a simple fix
Haha, I always regret overpacking my bag so much! good advice here, especially making sure everything important is printed!
Back pack overload…won’t do that again. It didn’t take long to figure out what I could do without 🙂
Then there’s all the fun of throwing things away
Haha very funny, yet informative post. I didn’t realize commando was such a common thing among backpackers. I love my undies haha. True about money though. Money can go faster than you think, but I am down for spending on a little extra comfort.
I’m all for the comfort in all areas 😉
A cookie?! Great! No, seriously, I have made the vast majority of these mistakes. The printing important things one is always a nightmare…
It really is. Cookies do make things better