When To Go Backpacking
"Things To Consider..."
It is easy to get a carried away when planning a backpacking trip. Ideally you want to see as much as you can for the lowest price possible but this cannot always be done. You will not be able to see everything you want to in a single trip due to the geographical location of sights, costs, flight routes, weather patterns or a combination of these factors and so you will have to make compromises.
Factors Driving Your Decision Of Where To GoTime: The length of time you are away for can depend on your budget or desire to see the world.
Budget: Can influence heavily the length of your trip and the things you see and do.
Desire: If you are adventurous and want to see a lot, you may choose to go for longer, to more locations and increase your budget.
Seasons: Can affect the amount of time you wish to stay somewhere and your desire to do activities.
These factors are evidently dependant on each other and therefore it is essential to get a balance which is right for you. To determine the weather patterns driving the seasons, what a country has to offer and the cost of living, please visit our country guides. Choose either South America, Australasia, Asia, Europe or North America to get you started.
When In My Life Should I Consider Backpacking?It is popular to go backpacking when you are young because you are more outgoing, have fewer commitments and more disposable money. Many people decide to go either during a gap year before university, or in between graduating and perhaps starting a masters. It can be difficult to raise the funds at this time but students generally raise a little bit of cash to do some form of backpacking. Not only do you make great friends, have an amazing time but you also gain valuable life experience whilst on the road which is attractive to potential employers.
Big companies are also very lenient nowadays of employees taking a few months off whilst you go travelling and ensure you of a job when you return. This is popular amongst young professionals aged between 23 and 26 who have started a career, earnt some cash, and want to see the world before possible promotion or before getting too much responsibility.
However, saying that backpacking is popular with every age group because once you have caught the travel bug you will want to go again and again like many older backpackers do.
SeasonsWhen planning your trip away it is vital to make sure you visit in the season which suits you. Sometimes it is best to think of the activities in each country you would like to do and see if they are season dependant. After all, you would not like to arrive and find your tour is not running because of high winds or heavy rain. If there are many areas of the world you wish to cover in one trip it is even more important to get your timings correct. Research what you want to do, when it is best or possible to do it, and then start mapping a route and a rough time plan for each location.
Everyone knows that the summers and winters are the opposite in the north and southern hemispheres so it is possible to follow the summer sun around the world. To do this you could of course spend May to September in the northern hemisphere travelling Europe and the USA, and the months of October to April in Australasia and South America. However, you must also account for wet and dry seasons in each region you visit. These can be dependant on the time of year or purely regional. Around the equator and South East Asia for example, there is a definite monsoon season but it is not clear cut. For instance if you visited Malaysia, the rainy season in the east is between November and February whereas the wettest time of year on the west coast is between September and December. Seasonal planning is essential. To help there is a location/weather checker in the top right of this page. Alternatively, visit our country guides for further weather information.