Fifteen Reasons why You should Backpack

For many, backpacking around the globe is a liberating experience. For others, it’s a chance to find themselves in a maze of busy schedules, work, and technology. Not having to deal with conventional experiences when staying in a hotel is far more appealing to many who prefer hands-on experiences with culture, local communities, and customs. Being a backpacker is a trademark of an explorer’s spirit that thrives in the spontaneous and unfamiliar. If you are looking for motivation to get you started, here are fifteen reasons that can jumpstart your thirst for adventure.

1. Making New Friends from Around the World

This goes without saying – travel will always open up avenues to build friendships with people around the world. Spirited travellers swap stories, rely on know-how, and each others’ wisdom when they build acquaintances. They understand that the most rewarding aspect of backpacking is forging lifelong friendships with the prospect of backpacking together in the future.

2. Less is More

This adage can be applied to most experiences in life, especially travelling. You will be surprised how leaving behind clutter and packing just the essentials that can be carried on your shoulders can change your perspective. Whether you choose to camp outdoors, trailing mountains, or traverse towns in your adventure, your backpack can get you settled anywhere in no time at all. Not forgetting that your backpack can double as a pillow for spontaneous nights out. Knowing that all you’ll need is right there on your shoulders gives you an incredible sense of freedom!

3. Sample the Exotic

While conventional hotels can provide you with the comforts of home, no one explored exotic cultures, nature, and food while staying in one. Authenticity is found in the roots, away from and structure. You learn to rely on a community when sampling food that cannot be pronounced, or travelling through winding roads leading to untouched beauty right at the root.

4. Fall in Love with Novelty

When you travel seeking adventure, it meets you half way. Each day is a story that’s waiting to the told, sought, and learned when you backpack. Whether it’s learning to rely on a map, or trying out a new language, there’s always something new waiting around the corner for you. It also teaches you new things about yourself that might come as a surprise.

5. Keeping Fit while you Travel

This is fitness that extends to your body, mind, and soul. Travelling with your backpack is no doubt going to make you physically stronger, but having to rely on instinct and challenging yourself with new opportunities feeds your soul and mind like nothing else.

6. No Demanding Schedules

Imagine doing everything when you are doing nothing. When you backpack, there are no restrictions – you set your rules. Recharge, rejuvenate, and experience freedom from a life that hands you a schedule for everything.

7. Your Fashion Choices

Did we mention that Boho-chic is a style that never runs out? Whether you’re in dreadlocks or ridiculous clothes, your personal choices are not judged. Anything and everything is fashion when you backpack.

8. Travel Companions

If you don’t like your travel companions you have the freedom to go wherever you want. Opt for solo adventures, put yourself to the test to hike up mountain trails, and talk to locals or take strolls with your group.

9. It’s a Party Somewhere

You are bound to get invited to home parties with the new friends you make or find local raves almost every day – for those who imagine that backpacking is skimming on lifestyle, this could not be further from the truth.

10. Homely Accommodation

Backpackers are presented with an array of accommodation options. Most often they are former homes that have been converted into hostels – this is largely beneficial because you enjoy the privacy, comfort, and ambience of a home without the blandness of stereotypical hotels. Open spaces, community rooms, and the outdoors are perfect to meditate, plan a barbecue, or start conversations with other travellers. What’s more, hostels can be booked for a fraction of the cost of a hotel.

11. Be a Part of Larger Cause

You become a part of a greater community of backpackers. Only the adventurous souls stumble upon the Instagram-worthy waterfalls, narrow paths, or vibrant local cuisine bursting in colour – this is something you will always have in common.

12. Move away from Conventional Hotspots

When you backpack you are treated to experiences that regular travellers do not encounter. It allows you to move away from clichéd hotspots in search of unique, sometimes undocumented treasures.

13. Education beyond Books

When you learn to rely on instinct and survival skills, your learning is at its optimum. The experiences you gain aren’t found in self-help books and can be lifelong lessons. Soak in cultures unexplored and learn fascinating lifestyles different to yours. If you wish to understand a country better, there’s no better way than through spending time in its local communities.

14. Support Local Businesses

Backpackers are more likely to support local businesses flourish. While hotels most often belong to chains, hostels are locally owned. Adventure will nudge backpackers to try local cuisine prepared by locals in open bodegas and even make purchases from boutiques, as opposed to groceries, while it may budget-friendly for travellers, it also boosts local businesses.

15. Being Grateful for Every Day

Each day, you will realise just how fortunate you are. Time alone away from usual distractions and technology can divert your attention to reflect on your blessings. Every opportunity presents a chance to get know yourself better. Your time alone can help you reconnect with your soul, and this quality time away from the city can help you come home happier, rested, and grateful.

Backpacking allows you to reinvent who you are almost every day. You choose whom you want to be. Each day presents itself to explore your inner adventure seeker, taking on fresh culture, diversity, food, and a way of life. While backpackers pay a fraction of the cost for these unusual experiences, they have stories that last a lifetime. When you travel to seek adventure, you immediately push yourself out of your comfort zone. It might be swimming with sharks, diving off a ten-meter waterfall, or learning to say ‘thank you' in a foreign language, your adventure is just one click away.