Sidenote: Practical travel tips

Here is a collection of tips and other things I learned and found to be useful over the course of my travels. My hope is that they may be helpful/useful for anyone else considering traveling! The focus of this list is on long term backpacking travel, but many of the items may be useful for any kind of trip. I plan to add more items to this post as I think of them.

First, some general tips:

• Don't feel like you need to plan every little detail in advance, it's impossible to do this for long term travel in fact. It's good to do a bit of planning in advance and cover the basics (your general route considering local seasons, travel health considerations, etc.), but you will learn so much as you go along, and can adapt your trip to however you see fit. You will learn to overcome challenges and find out how naturally resourceful you can be when circumstances require it, you may even surprise yourself! I listed some planning resources that I found very helpful in this post. I think the BootsnAll Gap Year Planning 30-Day Email Series is particularly great. At the outset of my trip, I had a general plan of countries I intended to visit and the number of days I wanted to spend in each country. I did all of my detailed planning (hostels, transportation, etc.) as I went, generally about one or two weeks out. You can book hostels the day of. I used Google Flights for searching and selecting my flights. For the longer flights, I would check prices several weeks in advance, searching for the day with the cheapest price. Sometimes I would monitor flight prices to see if they would go up or down before I booked. In any case, changing the selection from a round trip flight to one way and seeing the price instantly cut in half is awesome!
• You need to find the travel pace that's right for you, and that will come with time and experience as you travel. I don't think it's anything you really need to preplan for, it just kind of happens and evolves as you go.
• Make sure you give yourself time to rest, especially after a long flight or overland journey reaching a new region. It's good to have a few days sprinkled in throughout your trip where you do nothing too!
• Try to arrive in a new place before late at night so you can figure out how to get where you need to go in the light of day. It's just much easier and safer if people are around, you can ask questions, take public transportation, etc.
• The hostel experience took a little bit of getting used to at first, but once I became more familiar with it, I really enjoyed this style of accommodation and it led to some of the greatest experiences on my trip. Hostels are a great way to connect with the local area. In my experience they were often run by local people or those who are very knowledgeable about the place, who could recommend all the best things to do and see. It's like you were "tapped in" to the goings-on of the place right away. It's also a great way to meet people to do stuff with as a solo traveler. I found that when I stayed in Airbnbs I had a totally different travel experience. I felt much more cut off from the goings-on of the place, it was harder to figure out what to do and see and how to get places, it was much more of a solo experience. Airbnbs also had their great benefits too, primarily providing the opportunity for rest, relaxation, and recharging. After staying in hostels for weeks straight it was so nice to be able to unpack my things and have my own space for a little while in my own Airbnb. For me, getting the balance right between hostel and Airbnb accommodation was a key part of the overall enjoyment of my trip.
• Volunteering through Worldpackers was also an excellent way to connect with locals and have a genuine experience. I called my volunteer experiences “anchor activities” because they gave me something solid to look forward to and do. There were times during my trip where I felt like I was drifting, but the volunteer experiences made me feel productive and like I was part of a team.
• I found it was hard to eat healthy at times, you don't have control over your food options like you do at home. If you are just eating street food or at inexpensive restaurants it can be hard to get the food variety and nutrition you normally do, depending on the typical local diet. I found that in most places I could always find fresh fruits and veggies, and if I felt like I wasn't getting enough nutrition in my diet I would just buy and eat some of these, like an all raw veggie and fruit meal here and there. An inexpensive and easy healthy snack that I had many times was raw veggies and hummus. I am also BIG on red bell peppers, I would buy one, rinse it, and eat it just like an apple, sweet and crunchy and healthy and delicious, my favorite breakfast sometimes!
• It was comforting to have my little first aid kit with things familiar to me like ibuprofun and Neosporin. You aren't guaranteed to be able to find these common things in pharmacies around the world. When I got little cuts or scrapes on my trip from hiking, volunteer farm work, or other activities, it might sound silly but it was very comforting for me to be able to put some Neosporin on it.

Useful apps that I utilized during my trip.

Here are some of the apps I used during my travels:

• Google Translate was super useful when facing a language barrier. In general, I didn't have many problems with communication throughout my whole trip, body language, facial expressions, and knowing some basic words in the local language can get you a long way, and in most of the places I visited most people knew at least some English. But when I needed to communicate or understand something specific, Google Translate came to the rescue. You can either type what you want to say and it will translate, or you can speak into your phone and it will translate, in a nice split screen presentation, showing both the English text and the translated text. Sometimes I would record the person speaking to me in say Polish, then would have an instant translation of what they said, and I could respond back through the app, it worked surprisingly well, and people were often well accustomed to it. Or I would have the person type what they were trying to say on my phone and then they would hand the phone back to me so I could read the translation, and then I would type my response and show them the phone so they could read my response translated to their language. It’s actually quite fun to have a quick exchange like this when otherwise you would not have been able to communicate! It was also a good way for me to practice speaking foreign languages, I could type a greeting or other simple phrase in English, then hear the translation and I could then practice saying it. Oh and there’s a feature where you can focus your camera on something with text in it (like a menu, or ingredient list on an item in a foreign grocery store) and it will translate all the text for you, very useful!
• ChatGPT was great for itinerary and food ideas. I used it in several different ways, here are some example prompts – "I am in Sibiu, Romania for three days, give me recommendations for what I should do and see, I prefer outdoor activities, and things that are low-cost or free", or "what are the must-try foods in Sibiu, Romania, please give me recommendations for places to eat, I prefer low-cost options", or “I have 2 days in Florence give me an itinerary of must do things, including must eat foods, I prefer free or inexpensive options”. So you can use it for this daily type of planning, it will map out your whole day for you hour-by-hour if you want it to, I wouldn't necessarily follow everything it said, but it was great for ideas on things to do. In addition to daily planning assistance, I also used it for big itinerary planning like "I plan to visit South America for 8 weeks, the countries I plan to visit are Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, please give me a sample itinerary for this trip, including transportation details and approximate costs". I would also list out my itinerary day-by-day, plug it into ChatGPT and ask if it was a good plan or if there were any improvements that could be made. I also used if for a guided tour of museums/art galleries, like "give me a guided tour and must-see pieces at the Uffizi Galleries”. It is quite amazing how useful this tool can be! I would also look at backpacker websites/blogs to help in my planning, like I would search in Google "Patagonia backpacking". Google searching is helpful, but the real benefit of ChatGPT is that it distills huge amounts of information across the whole internet, giving you a simple, straightforward response.
• Organic Maps was my map app of choice. As long as you download the map of the place you are in (or are heading to) when you have Wi-Fi access, you don't need cellular service to use the app, all it needs is GPS which is always available on your phone. Organic Maps is a free and open source initiative, which is awesome, there are no ads in the app and it is a simple, easy to use interface. It's also great because it shows hiking trails in it. I could also download navigation files for hikes online and load them into the app, this made it possible for my hike from Albania to Montenegro, without it I would have had no way of knowing where I was going.
• SafetyWing app to keep track of my travel insurance. SafetyWing worked well for me, they were very responsive whenever I had a question about something and asked in the chat window. I never had to make a claim though so that’s probably when you find out how good a travel insurance company really is.
• Standard Notes for taking all my notes and making plans, noting people I met—everything—foods I liked, ideas I had, journaling, I keep a LOT of notes on my phone and note things down regularly throughout the day. I started with a physical journal but quickly switched to writing everything on my phone because it was always on me and carrying a physical journal around everywhere is a hassle, I also made audio recordings (particularly of my trek in Nepal).
• Spotify for downloading music so I could listen without internet. Listening to my favorite music and playlists made me feel at home again, even in the most remote of locations, I had some really nice euphoric feelings just relaxing on a bus or train and listening to all my favorite songs.
• Uber was present in many places and offered a safe, reliable option for transportation without the worry of getting scammed on the price. Uber isn’t everywhere though so look up what other services may be in its place (functions like Uber but is a different company name) at your destination.
• WhatsApp was the main app I used for keeping in touch with people I met and messaging around the world, nearly all other backpackers I met had WhatsApp. The QR code feature for adding a contact makes the process of exchanging numbers super easy.
• PolarSteps for documenting trip. I didn’t use this one but I noticed a lot of other backpackers did as a way to share their trip with family and friends back home. I think it's good for posting photos but also adding some text describing experiences.

Some key items I had with me:

• The single most essential key item was my phone. Without it my trip would not have been possible. My phone was everything information wise. It was key key key to all the planning, navigating, communicating, journaling, etc. that I did on a daily basis. Having a phone with a good camera is a plus too.
• A rechargeable battery pack to keep said phone going whenever I needed it was also an incredibly useful item. Some days I used my phone very heavily throughout the day, for example navigating around a new city, and being able to recharge towards the end of the day when it was low on juice and I was still away from my accommodation was key.
• Ear plugs and eye mask (I used a BUFF Merino wool neck gaiter as my eye mask) for sleeping in hostel dorms, I also made good use of a portable clothesline (Sea to Summit Lite Line Clothesline) which I would string up along my bed and hang a towel over to act as a privacy curtain if there weren't any curtains already installed around the bed. I’ve tried lots of different ear plugs including custom made ones that I went to an audiologist to have done (and they were pricey!). My favorite though are the moldeable silicone ear plugs that you can find at most drugstores.
• Here is a list of everything I was carrying with me at the beginning of my trip. Most of these things I kept and used throughout my whole trip. There were a few things that I didn't end up using such as the GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) travel router, this is probably more useful for a digital nomad type arrangement where you are using your laptop on a regular basis for working. Don't feel like you need to pack everything you could possibly need during your whole trip, you can always buy stuff on the road, I regularly bought soap, tubes of sunscreen, etc.
• One item I didn't have with me but I would add to my gear if I were to do it all again is the Katadyn Steripen Ultra UV Water Purifier. I visited many places where the tapwater was not drinkable and so I bought bottled water. Having the Steripen would have saved me using lots of plastic bottles. Of all the water purification options, this one makes the most sense to me as long as the tapwater is visibly clear. While trekking in Nepal I used water purification tablets. I like the idea of the Steripen better, you're not adding any chemicals to your water and it treats within minutes, whereas the purification tablets take about 30 minutes before you can drink the treated water. I think physical filters are good too, but mainly to remove larger debris in the water.

And lastly some fun ideas I picked up from fellow travelers:

• An around the world Spotify playlist. I got this idea from Martin from Switzerland who I met in Bariloche, Argentina. I found a hiking group in my hostel and while on our hike Martin passed his phone around where he had a note open and asked us all to put down our name, where we're from, and a song we like. He did this with people he met all around the world and I think it's super cool! It's a great way to remember everyone you meet, and have a special song to remember them by. And it's a great way to hear music from all around the world.