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Why you must do a backpacking trip once in a lifetime?

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Estimated read time 2 minutes Published on 10^th Feb 2020

Backpacking has become one of the trendiest terms amongst the millennium. What does backpacking mean; well, it refers to a type of travel plan where you live out of your backpack. You learn to live with minimal things, go low on luxuries, and dive into the local food. While backpacking, you also got to be ready to hitchhike, walk long distances and take local vehicles to manage transfers from one place to another. Indians have now started showing an inclination towards budget travel or backpacking. It was seen that while 31% of the people were willing to spend over Rs 50,000 on a trip, the preferred choice of accommodation remains budget hotels, which reveals that travellers prefer experiences over comfort.

What makes backpacking so popular?

It’s cost-effective

Let’s face it. Cost is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of planning a trip. With backpacking that could be the last thing on your mind. Because backpacking involves local indulgence, which means you can spend a night or two in a homestay or carry your tent and pitch it at safe locations. Transfers can be done seamlessly by hitchhiking or by booking local trains, metros or by merely walking.

Explore the unexplored

You will leave the well-laid trail and see beyond the mapped destinations. As a backpacker, you will also be keen to see what others missed out on or find the most beautiful point to witness the northern lights or sunset. You aren’t bound to follow any fixed plan or time routine. Hence you can explore all the possible destinations that will intrigue the traveller within you.

Makes you flexible

Leave behind those fixed itineraries and explore the destination just as you feel like. Wander around the lanes in Turkey and try local ice cream or take a sauna bath in the blue waters of Ice land. Do just as you feel. Spend an entire evening sitting on the beach promenade, and nobody taps your back and tells you Times up! That’s what backpacking is about. You do whatever you feel like, just follow your mood. You will realize that it wasn’t necessary to shop around the Thailand market. Instead, it was worthwhile to try local cuisine.

Make more friends

People often feel backpacking is meant to be solo, well it’s a commonly misunderstood term. You can backpack with likeminded friends. But, backpacking solo is one of a kind experience that you must try. While chilling at the Café near Amsterdam, you may meet people worldwide and strike several conversations. You may end up making really good friends and cherish memories for a lifetime.

Teaches you to be free and independent

You tend to become more responsible. While making a backpack trip plan, you will end up making all the bookings on your own. Be it booking flights, choosing accommodation or buying travel insurance online, you become your own travel planner. With time you will master the art of travel planning. You won’t wait for the hotel staff to carry your luggage or the driver to take you to places. With detailed research, you can do it all in an instant. Many international destinations have hostels where you can cook your food, so you can also try your hands on some Italian pasta or rum cakes. In short, you learn to live life on your terms and also become more alert even when you’re back to your daily grind.

What to keep in mind while backpacking?

While backpacking is all about indulging into new experiences and travelling on a shoe-string budget, do not forget to insure your trips. Mostly when you backpack across European countries, which has some of the most backpacking friendly stay options, you have already gone low on budget and high on experiences, hence missing out on travel insurance may take a toll over your trip budget as a single incident of a delayed flight or loss luggage is enough to spoil your international backpacking trip. Do not forget to buy the best travel insurance plan while planning your backpacking trip and trust us; it’s affordable too.

Look below to understand the possible circumstances which may take place. Simultaneously, backpacking or travelling internationally is a great ideal with a good travel insurance plan as it safeguards you against the below-depicted circumstances.

As a backpacker, be better prepared to tackle such surprises with a proper travel insurance plan.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.