Your first backpacking holiday can be filled with excitement, a sense of adventure and even nervousness - a myriad feelings. One of the most pressing feelings might be of confusion. Where to start and what to do to make it happen. How can I make this work? But I can guarantee it does it get it easier the more backpacking you do. And for the experienced backpacker, there might be an element of complacency.
Importantly, set a date and don’t move it! Its sets YOUR goal. Work methodically towards the date, where are you travelling to, for how long, who with, where will you stay and the budget that you will need.
To help both the inexperience and experienced I have developed an essential backpackers checklist that has worked for me more many years of travelling the world through many and varied environments.
There is a real balancing act that needs to be performed from having a safe, exciting holiday as opposed to a dangerous and unforgettable backpacking holiday for the wrong reasons.
For the inexperienced traveler, you will need to be well prepared for the unexpected. Doing sufficient research is a real key tip for a backpacking trip. This will ensure that you get the most of your trip that will bring you with a lifetime of memories.
One of the best ways to learn about backpacking holidays is talk to people have done this before. Speaking to personal friends who has this before is a great source information. If this is not available there is a huge amount of information available on; via backpacking websites; backpacking chat rooms, read some backpacking books all have get ideas and support material for your backpacking trip.
Here are some of the most important things to prepare for the adventure of a lifetime.
- Where are you travelling, what visas do you need – do you need a flexible time frame? Best to organize this in advance, it is much easier to have a longer than needed visa than extending one when you are backpacking.
- Travel vaccines, relevant to the area if needed –
- Have a detailed personal health check making sure you know basic information about yourself including blood type, what you are allergic against etc. One example that impacts a lot people on holidays is getting ear infections, this most is cause because people ears have wax in it and when you swim the wax keeps the water in and you get an ear infection,
- Have the top cover Travel Insurance fund paid in advance. Don’t risk this! Check the fine print to what it includes and doesn’t from accident/health/theft/travel/excess. Be clear regarding keeping receipts etc.
- Register on the relevant Government web site regarding your travel plans,
- Have an up to date passport with a least one full year, there are counties that you cannot pass through customs without sufficient time left before you passport expires.
- Allow a couple hundred dollars a day. In some countries you may need it, in others you will need more. Plan what will work best for you regarding availability to your money, carry minimal cash.
- Have a rough schedule of where you want to go, the “must do”. Don’t over plan it and give yourself plenty of time for three reasons
- Make sure you have enough time to explore and not rush… In my view it is more fun to see less and experience the atmosphere
- Once there you will find heaps of other things that locals will tell you
- Backpacking takes longer than expected to get from A to B. As well, the locals will let you know of some
- Have your own web bulletin board – Facebook, MySpace to let people know where you are going and where you been. Also a great way to keep photos you take along the way.
- Know the local customs of the local countries, the do and don’t. Dress to local dress codes
- Learn some very basic words, such as hello, thank you, help please, train station, Bus Stop, beer.
- Inform your country of origin to where you are travelling and whether it is safe for you to travel in. (add links)
- Leave copies of all documentation at home with someone you care about.
- Have a packing list - this is a category all of its own and will be something I share my thoughts with you in my next entry……..
Next entry we will go into detail regarding what items have worked for me to be included in my backpacking check list from a packing perspective. Everything from the obvious – ultra lite weight water filter, I really like the SureAquaStraw and the SureAqua bottle (I will let you know why), to the consideration of how much clothing you REALLY need.
This backpacker checklist may seem over whelming. However, this check list will help you to make sure you minimize the chance of your experience being thrown a curve ball.
Hope this Backpacker Checklist helps towards making your backpacking adventure a memorable one.
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