Drop the Package and Pick Up Your Backpack — by Oliver Mitchell, February 2009
With the global economy apparently facing its worst crisis since the Wall Street Crash, money is tighter than in recent years and for many people their holidays and travel plans are amongst the first items to be shelved in order to prioritise other, more pressing, financial commitments. It is a shame but obviously seven days in the sun is going to find itself lower down the list than gas and heating. However, it need not be the end to all your dreams to getting away from your home town and experiencing another country. Independent travel in the right regions, with the right knowledge, can stretch your budget much further than you would ever think, so drop the package and pick up your pack because its time to see the world.
In Europe and the USA alike, holiday companies have responded to the economic slide by reducing their prices for package tours to the most popular travel destinations. However appealing they seem to appear I implore you do not be seduced by the slick return of the ‘cheap package holiday’. The price drop is simply an affirmation of the information that many independent travellers have known for some time; We were paying too much before. A rough example; a 10 day trip to Mexico staying at a hotel in ONE place for the entire time would cost roughly the same as 5 weeks (35 days) travelling all over the region or country if you picked up your backpack and did it yourself – as the idiom goes, ‘you do the math‘.
Freedom of movement as well as freedom of decision is what rewards the independent traveller or tourist, its possible to fly into one airport and out from another, visiting the sights in-between and seeing far more than is possible if you are based in just one area for the entire trip. It is even possible, especially so in Europe, to visit multiple nations in a single trip, although its most likely impossible to take three trips in a year at least you could visit three countries and three different cultures. The increased ability to witness first hand other cultures from your own is perhaps the most rewarding experience of independent travel, and one that cannot possibly be matched by the over sanitised and highly regulated package deals or pre-arranged tours. Certainly locals have a lot more respect for an individual who comes to respectfully explore a region and its offerings than for the tourists who think because they spend their money in a certain location they can treat the area as if it were their own private land, abusing and disrespecting at will.
Freedom also comes from the fact that it is easy to travel alone if you book your own trip and stay away from fixed program tours, so no need to find friends who have the money, time and inclination to travel with you. In fact most independent travellers deliberately journey alone and endeavour to make friends when they are abroad. Ironically, travelling alone can be the most social thing you could ever do, either you make friends or get lonely quick. Its easy to work out which leads to the best trip. From my own experience you can meet some phenomenally interesting individuals in backpacker retreats, hostels and campsites, and because of the ethos of the independent traveller there is less importance placed on the social barriers and restraints which exist in ‘polite company‘, meaning that you can forge rewarding relationships in hours and days rather than the months it would take back home.
I believe that if I am travelling hundreds or thousands of miles to another part of the globe then I want to get all I can from the experience and from my money. Ergo, I feel that it is of paramount importance to really try to get into the region I am visiting, from learning some basic language and talking to everyone I meet, to visiting not just the places in the guide books but also those which are a bit less well known. This all contributes to a holiday or journey that is rewarding in multiple ways rather than just being relaxed or furnishing my body with a healthy tan. Independent travel is much more satisfying than the package deal, it might be a little more difficult to arrange and maybe more things can go wrong, but the amount you will learn about your destination, and yourself, far outweigh all the superficially scary aspects of going it alone and doing it yourself. So drop the package and pick up a backpack. Its time to explore the world, and explore yourself.
Travel packages in the mainstream ‘travel industry’ have advantages for a specific target market. A separate group of travellers is the ‘budget traveller’ as some call it. If you’re the type of person that likes to make their own way and improvise, forget about these worthless package deals! It may take a few extra hours or even days of research to pin down your ideal travel plans, but it’s well worth the savings to spend the extra time prior to your trip, or even during the trek! Improvise and adapt, and in my experience you’ll have more memorable and unique experiences than those that use the cookie cutter route!
You make some great points, Oliver, independent travel is the way to go! Package tours are for people without imagination.