UNIQUE TRAVEL Tips (You Haven't Heard a Million Times)
While traveling, experience starts to save you both money and headaches abroad. Looking back at our early months traveling we think (face-in-palm) of the costly mistakes we made. We wanted to share these tips to save you from the situations we put ourselves in.
Traveling around the world is one of the most freeing things you can do. While "winging-it" always works too, here are some backpacking tips we learned on the road on a year abroad.
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Only Book Your First Two Nights
"Are you kidding this place looks amazing!! For $40/night? Sign me up! Wait.... this is the SHARED living space??! No one mentioned that..."
...You did it. You found the perfect AirBnb to spend the next four weeks. The place looks spotless, modern, and it's even got free high speed wifi! Hold up two seconds before you commit to 7+ days though.
downside of a “good deal”
What you don't know is that the neighboring property is a farm, roosters don't wait until morning to crow, and there is a pig pen built right up next to the wall of your bungalow. Somehow all the reviews seemed to miss these details. That's why, unless you’re dealing with peak season or an exceptional value on a spot, you might be better served by only booking a couple days.
Booking two days gives you two specific advantages:
A great “homebase” to start with that you can count on sleeping at while you see if there is better accommodation or locations nearby.
A cheap start. Book somewhere SUPER cheap for the first 2 nights. It's only 2 nights. Then you can see where you want to be, and you might even stay!
If you do like the place you've booked, AirBnb owners and most small hotel owners are only too happy to deal in cash and cut out the middle man booking site. You can save quite a bit going this route.
#1: focus on value over deals
Know ahead of time that you won’t always get the very best deal on everything and that you should be completely okay with that. You should be less focused on the dollar price of something and more focused on the value.
It doesn’t make sense to book a $12 bed/person at a hostel in Europe if you’re traveling with a companion and can get an entire Airbnb for $30. For a few more dollars more, you have an entire apartment with an area to cook, guaranteed good night's sleep, and a secure location for your belongings.
--Want to see what a $12/night hotel looks like in Thailand? Check it out that blog HERE.
Walk 100 meters to save 50%
Pad Thai is better in paper than on a plate anyways
Walking by the beach in Krabi today, I was reminded how true this specific piece of advice is. Prices always seem to tumble after just a two block walk away from the central tourist area. Beers that cost $2.50 fell to $1. Sunscreen that one store was asking $19 for was only $10 a couple hundred feet away. The most obvious savings come out when it’s time to eat.
Almost without fail, when we find ourselves in a crowded attraction area, we hoof it two blocks away from the masses. Prices on food drop drastically and you will still find locals who speak some English. An additional bonus is that food tends to be better the further you are from main tourist attractions. Restaurants, street carts and cafes can’t get by alone on tourist traffic so they have to serve up a product of decent quality. Always looks for the restaurant that locals are eating at!
Buy expensive tours with caution
Most tour companies are COMPLETELY full of shit since they are working with people that they are never going to see again. The nicer someone selling tours is, the fuller of shit they probably are. To avoid disappointment, you need to know procurement when booking a tour.
What is procurement? It’s a fancy word for how businesses buy from other businesses. Procurement sets the business terms of transactions and decides who, how and what they’re buying. (The author of this article may have been a procurement manager at one time as well). Procurement is as boring as it sounds.
You'll have more fun with a local anyways. After chatting with our Tuk Tuk driver on the way back from Angkor Wat, we invited him to the hotel where he taught us how to make local cocktails. The next morning he gave us the best "tour" we had the whole trip: a sunrise view over local rice paddies then to the local market to pick up breakfast for his family.
How to buy a tour
What is the value of the tour?
If you’re doing a $30 booze cruise you probably don’t need to be as rigorous with the steps below. If you’re doing a two person Halong Bay cruise that's going to set you back $600 USD, you might want to put more effort into it.
What specifically are you buying?
A cabin on the cruise? Is it a shared bathroom or private? Size of bed? Oh, no bed, just a hammock? How big is the hammock? How many meals are included? Are drinks included? Are adult drinks included?
What is specifically NOT included on the tour?
Where does the tour start specifically, who is your contact, and what time should you be there.
Negotiate: once you have all this information, be brave and negotiate. Mention how you saw another tour for $X amount and are going to check them out. Watch the prices fall!
On high priced packages, make sure to look up the tour company on Tripadvisor for reviews first as well. Worse than wasting a little bit of money, is wasting your time.
#2: err on the side of kindness
When you leave your home turf, rules governing how to interact with strangers, personal space, and even how to form a line change drastically. Somewhere along the line you are going to deal with a rude person or two. Breathe deep, show some patience, and most importantly, don’t let one or two people affect your perspective of those people or that place. The world over, at least 98% of people are awesome (see above). Regardless of country, this leaves 2% of people as a vocal minority of raging douche bags.
Be prepared to post up and defend your spot in line with your life. You haven't known fear until an 80-year-old Chinese grandma starts throwing elbows.
More expensive food is rarely better food
Eat where the locals are eating and you'll be finding some of the best food on the planet. As a general rule of thumb, the $5 bowl of Pho Bo you’re buying in a sit down restaurant that caters to foreigners is going to be exactly the same as the $.75 cent bowl you would get from a street vendor (or worse because it sat in the kitchen overnight).
Here are the reasons people often cite for going to more traditional, expensive sit down places:
“Street food is dirty and I don’t want to get sick.”
If you think that the restaurant kitchen is any cleaner than the street cart you'd be buying from, you're sorely mistaken. If you're worried about food prep, especially in South East Asia, there is only so much that you can do to limit your risk. At least small restaurants and street food vendors have everything out in the open where you can get good eye at what’s going into the sausage.
“I want more than a few choices in what to eat."
Many overpriced restaurants that prey on tourists, especially in SEA, seem to offer a Cheesecake Factory worth of menu options. What that means is that they typically have a lot of old food sitting around frozen or refrigerated in the back. While street food and small restaurants have very few options they also are more reliably serving up fresh food daily. If you're looking for choice, just walk to the next food vendor. It may not all be under the same roof but the same diversity of food choices are there.
“Local food is weird and I don't want to eat it."
Stay home and eat at Applebees.
#3: Plan to spend some time on the potty
"Sir, our specials tonight are guaranteed to make you curse the day you were born while you lay in a fetal position on cold bathroom tile."
Just simply make peace with the fact, that somewhere in your extended travel, you will spend 48 hours of your life in which you cannot be further than 10 ft from a potty. You will eat/drink the wrong thing at some point and the gods will demand penance. Know you will owe these 48 hours as tribute to the Travel Gods and for the sake of your soul, don't try to man up and go out. Disaster will strike when you are furthest from a safe place. Get to that novel you've been wanting to read. Binge watch some Netflix. Or perhaps watch a funny video.
Bonus Bathroom Tip- If you see a good bathroom on your travels, use it! You will never be sorry you did.
Start with Europe and work East
You may have heard this tip before: avoid culture shock by starting with "easy" countries first. Before you grab your pitchfork and scream "Lies!", let me tell you all the reasoning behind it:
A.) Things get more interesting the further East you travel. London isn't nearly as interesting after Istanbul. Bangkok will rewrite your definition of what normal can be.
B.) Things also get cheaper the further East you travel (for the most part). If you don't do expensive Nordic/EU countries early on you may find your funds are a bit on the short toward the end of your trip.
C.) You're going to get travel fatigue on a long trip. I would argue that it takes more effort to get the most out of Europe compared to Asia, the Americas, etc. You can always grab a beach-day to rejuvenate in SEA.
#4: It’s ok to indulge in comforts from home.
Whether you’ve been on the road a few days or few months, it's okay to take a mini trip back home. You’ve likely been doing as the locals do 99% of the time. Don’t beat yourself up if you’re craving a Big Mac or a Budweiser. When you’re traveling, those tastes sate something aside from hunger- they can let some part of your brain breathe a sigh of relief while it tricks itself into thinking it's back home.
You will hit a day when you need to get takeout pizza, throw on a hoodie, and binge watch some reruns of The Office. If you're reading this and not American, that probably sounds like a terrible time to you. That's fine-make a little bubble of [INSERT YOUR COUNTRY HERE] when you need to and then come out of it the next day feeling refreshed and ready to explore again.
Anything you need to buy, you can buy abroad
Half the fun is the shopping experience abroad anyways... even if you don't like shopping! Believe it or not, outside of your home country there are literally billions of people who carry out their daily lives! When you plan long term or RTW travel, everything you pack into that backpack is not coming home with you. Every shirt or pair of pants you bring with you doesn't need to be super-fast dry, tactical, nano particle, 150 degrees- 40 rated apocalypse proof garment. You should have a moderate balance of travel mainstays, but otherwise, lighten up. Your suitcase is going to full of beer brand tank tops from South East Asia soon enough.
Beyond just clothing, you'll be able to get anything else you need almost anywhere you are.
Yes-even down to prescriptions and medical drugs. You should talk to your doctor ahead of time if you some more complex prescription needs so that you are able to either order enough drugs for your trip or know the generic name of your prescription to ask for at a pharmacy.
But there are some things you should buy on your home turf
Namely, expensive electronics should be purchased at home. Laptops, cameras, GoPros, even cheap tablets should all be purchased in your western home country. Why?
You can purchase with your credit card easily and will have credit card protection.
You can easily contact sellers whether they be online like Amazon or a retail chain like Best Buy in your native language.
Won’t have to deal with problems like knock offs. You'd be surprised how close to the real thing knock off Macs and iPhones can be until you use them for a while.
#5: Assume something will be stolen from you
Nothing screams "rob me" like two westerners taking pictures of fruit in a busy market. Buy travel insurance. Don't make yourself an easy target to pickpockets. Keep tabs on your bags. Don't smash 8 shots of Jaeger in a row trying to impress that Aussie chick, then stumble home through a dark alley so that you can get mugged while drunk. If you’re going to have something stolen, most likely, it's going to be a result of a pickpocket. Since this is the most likely scenario, why don’t we plan on it?
Easy ways to thwart a pickpocket:
Keep your wallet in a front pocket.
Buy travel pants/shorts that have zippered pocket. (They should not have zipper off legs because you shouldn't be a complete slob).
Be extra aware in crowds, markets, and tourist locations.
Minimize the damage-Know numbers to cancel your cards, keep a minimum of cash
But wait there's more
Sounds like you're getting ready for a trip! Whoo! Need help deciding what to pack? Check out 8 Backpacking Packing Essentials under $20 and our other packing guides.
The ultimate backpacking essential
Staying organized is crucial when traveling backpack style. The best way we found to stay organized? Utilize compression cubes! They not only save on space, but make staying organized so much easier. No more forgetting things under Airbnb beds or having to repack after ever move.
Check out these Tripped Travel Gear for compression cubes and more.
#7: pack and wear real shoes
You though were going to have an easy night of riding the ferry to Athens. Sorry bud-you're showing up at a filthy Athens seaport at 5:30 AM and you're flopping around like a bro at the SigPi Spring Luai while trying to find your Airbnb. When in doubt, skip the flippy floppies and put on your beat to hell, smelling-like-hot-garbage travel shoes. You know the shoes- the Goretex, heavy duty, waterproof, snake bite proof, guaranteed to last through a trek to Mordor shoes you just knew you needed? You were right. Now wear them.
Wearing shoes in unfamiliar territory will save you smashed toes, split toenails, and probably an infection. Hopping on a plane? The crew is doing their best to lose your luggage for you, so make sure you aren’t stuck in flip flops. If you’re flip flopping (HA!) between sandals and shoes before you go visit a waterfall, temple, or a local market, I promise you that you’ll never be upset that you wore shoes.
No more backpacking blunders
We have lived through the mistakes of backpacking so you don’t have to! Of course things will happen and lessons will be learned, but use these tips to make your trip much smoother.
Let us know if you’ve done a RTW backpack trip or if you’ve experienced these backpack blunders yourself. We’d love to hear from you!
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