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May 11, 2008

How To Score The Best Free Accommodation Around The World: Tips From A Couchsurfer

November 8th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

You’ve heard of Couchsurfing.com, right? Right? Free accommodation, provided by locals, all over the world?

Any self-respecting backpacker with an eye for the freebies that stretch ye budget should definitely have cottoned on to it by now…

But, if you haven’t yet encountered it, Couchsurfing is an online travel community wherein backpackers can find locals willing to give them a place to stay for a night or two, free of charge. The theory being that, one day, you’ll be in a position to do the same for travellers like yourself.

Sound interesting? If so, definitely check out these great tips from regular couchsurfer, Eva Holland (Vagabonding), on ‘how to score some sweet couch‘. She’ll also reassure you about any security concerns you might have (staying with a complete stranger can be daunting, until you know what precautions have been put in place).

Posted in Destinations, General Travel, Hostels, Travel Community, Travel Tools | No Comments »

Adventure Travel & Backpackers Expo On In Sydney This Weekend

November 5th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Every November, a group of around 200 adventure- and backpacker-style travel experts gather at Sydney’s Exhibition & Convention Centre (Darling Harbour) for the Adventure Travel & Backpackers Expo – a chance to share their extensive travel know-how and give potential travellers a taste of what’s over the seas.

The Expo is the fun and festive way to find out where to go for the time of your life -around Australia and overseas, the best, friendliest places to stay, what to do, how to get there and how to get jobs.

Whether you enjoy adrenaline-charged super activities or quietly experiencing the indigenous cultures of remote tribes, night-life festivities or the art galleries of the world, don’t miss your annual opportunity to cut through the information overload and get personal answers to your interests from nearly 200 exhibitors.

Awesome.

This year’s event kicks off at midday this coming Friday (9 November), finishing up at 4pm on Sunday (11 November). Tickets normally cost AU$7, but backpackers can download and print a free entry voucher here.

Posted in General Travel, Travel Community, Travel Guides, Travel News, Travel Tips & Planning | 1 Comment »

Using Facebook For Your Travels

July 16th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Nice little article posted today on The Lost Globe, all about using social networking site Facebook on your travels.

If you haven’t delved into Facebook as yet you’re probably in the minority. I quite like Dan’s description, and comparison to MySpace:

Facebook is yet another designed to connect friends although unlike the MySpace popularity contest Facebook prefers that you actually know your friends. When you add a friend it will ask you how you know the person, are they related, a schoolmate, co worker, teammate, partner? Or for travelers, did you travel together and if so where to?

Check out the article for some insight into the various Facebook applications available for travellers.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels worldwide – find and book your hostel online at special discounted rates
Airtreks Travel Planner – plan your round the world trip with Airtreks
Backpackers Travel Gear – buy backpacks and other travel gear
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in General Travel, Staying In Touch, Travel Community, Travel Tools | No Comments »

Social Networking Sites For Backpackers

June 28th, 2007 by The Backpackers Team

Mashable, a site dedicated to ‘social networking news’, has published a fantastic list of what they call ‘Essential Sites for Summer Travelers’.

It’s one of the most comprehensive lists of travel-orientated social networking sites that we’ve seen so far, and backpackers on the road, or those thinking about going would do well to take a looksee.

Some, like TripUp (formerly TripMates), and Travelistic, we’ve mentioned before, but there are a bunch of other ones backpackers are likely to find rather useful.

Go check it out.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
XE.com – online currency converter
Cheap hostels – choose from over 12,000 hostels worldwide and book them online!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in General Travel, Staying In Touch, Travel Community | 1 Comment »

Backpackers Bookmarks: TravelDodo - Sharing Your Travel Do’s And Don’ts

June 11th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

We just found a new travel website that we think is worth adding to our list of backpackers bookmarks.

It has the catchy (we know not exactly why catchy but we embrace it all the same) name of TravelDodo and it’s your guide to travel ‘do’s and don’ts’ for a growing number of destinations.

Driven by participation from the travel community (or people who happen to live in the places they’re reviewing), it can, of course, be very subjective.

Take this guy’s unusual opinion about visiting the Colosseum in Rome, for example:

To me it is a half broken down old Stadium,where animals and innocent people used to get killed on a daily basis a long time ago. Luckily these times are over (in most parts of the world), so now we should break it down and move on.

Interesting view… And the joy is that if you disagree (we certainly do), you can have your say by creating a ‘do’ to balance the ‘don’t’ (you have to create an account first, though).

The fact that there wasn’t a ‘do’ for the Colosseum at the time of writing this shows the content is a little on the light side at the moment, but hopefully that’ll soon change. If they manage to get the momentum going, this could turn into quite a useful resource for backpackers seeking the inside track on places they’re visiting.

A handy feature on TravelDodo is the use of Google Maps, making it easier to locate the the landmark/destination/hotel being reviewed.

Oh, if you’re going to sign up, a word of warning: be sure to include at least one digit in your password (not specified on the sign up page) or you’ll be pulling your hair out wondering what on earth you’re doing wrong.

Found via Travel Rants – thanks, Darren!

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Backpackers Bookmarks, Destinations, Travel Community, Travel Tools | No Comments »

Become a Global Roamer - You Might Even Make Money Doing It!

May 31st, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Whilst ambling through our rather abundant and sometimes overwhelming RSS feeds, this post on TheLostGlobe.com caught my travel-obsessed eye.

It’s about Globe Roamer TV, an exciting new concept that aims to see six backpackers roaming the globe for 212 days, each day documented on camera and the Globe Roamer blog.

What’s most interesting is the collaborative nature of the project:

ALL travelers take ownership of the project. This means you help plan, promote, market, contact prospect sponsors, and put together the master plan. And guess what? If a mack daddy corporation decides to PAY for our show when we’re all finished, you get an EQUAL share of the profit. That’s right, EVERYONE, including ME, gets an equal share.

Nice.

So, the question is:

If you could circle the globe for 7 months and only have to pay for your own spending money, would you do it? If your flight, ground transport, and hostels were paid for would you pack up and go?

If you’re saying ‘hell-yeah’ and you happen to have light-coloured hair (!), and 7 months to spare (starting September 2008) you might just be in luck – they’re still looking to fill two of the six places on the trip.

Posted in Cool Travel Blogs, Destinations, General Travel, Travel Community, Travel News | 2 Comments »

From Volcanic-Black Beaches In Guatemala To Powder-White Mountains: We Find Out What’s New At Travelistic

April 5th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

We check in at Travelistic now and again to see what’s new. Travelistic, in case you missed it, is a kind of YouTube for travellers – a place for people to submit videos of their travels and watch everyone else’s.

Ratings from the Travelistic community mean that the cream of the crop will always rise to the top, so to speak.

A few recently uploaded videos caught our eye this time around:

Guate Uno

Ryan and Jeff get themselves into all sorts of interesting situations while trekking through beautiful Guatemala. From hitchhiking with farmers, running up and down volcanoes, dive bombing beaches and meeting their fate at the blade of a machete, this trip has it all.

Les ‘Rochers-de-Naye’ – Montreux

Ride down the mountain with unbeatable views over the whole Lake Geneva… Absolutely amazing conditions for wild backcountry freeriding when some consequent snow fell down..

These are just a tiny selection of the excellent videos worth watching. Check out the top ranked and most viewed for more travel inspiration.

Useful travel resources for backpackers:
Book hostels – choose from over 12,000 hostels worldwide!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Travel Community | No Comments »

Travel Buddies: Do We Want Them, Really?

March 7th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Backpacking

Finding a travel partner isn’t always easy. Friends may not always want to go where you want to go (and vice versa), or for as long as you want to go.

If you are travelling solo, hooking up with people you meet on the way can be an option (it can get lonely on the road, and it’s more expensive), but that too has its dangers and potential hitches.

Timen of travel blog In My All Stars wrote a great article recently about the pros and cons of travel with partners, surmising that the benefits of travelling with partners generally outweigh the negatives, but that there are, nonetheless, some things to look out for.

He also links to Rolf Pott’s take on the matter (always enlightening is Mr Potts).

Ultimately, it comes down to personal choice, but because travelling in pairs (or more) often works out to be less expensive (shared rooms etc), for purely economical reasons even hardened loners might ultimately soften to the idea of a travel buddy or two.

In My All Stars is worth bookmarking, by the way. Some excellent articles and useful travel tips for backpackers from this ‘experience traveller’.

Useful resources for backpackers:
Cheap hostels – find and book cheap hostels online
Travel Buddy Forums – find a travel buddy if you haven’t got one already

Posted in Cool Travel Blogs, General Travel, Solo Travel, Travel Community, Travel Tips & Planning | No Comments »

My Travel Backpack Photo Contest: You And Your Backpack, Somewhere Cool On The Planet

February 22nd, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Been somewhere interesting with your trusty backpack?

Sure you have, but did you stop to take a photo of you, your backpack, and the interesting somewhere?

Yes? Then head on over to a new site called My Travel Backpack and enter the mytravelbackpack.com Photo Contest.

The prize: 3 books from Europe From a Backpack.

If, however, you haven’t got any snaps of “You and your backpack somewhere cool on the planet!�?, you can always make yourself insanely jealous by browsing through the photos of those cooler and more fortunate than we.

Useful resources for backpackers:
Cheap Hostels – find and book cheap hostels all over the planet
eBags – get your own backpack and start finding cool places for narcissistic photo opportunities

Posted in Backpackers Bookmarks, Competitions & Giveaways, General Travel, Travel Community, Travel Gear | 2 Comments »

New In Travel Forums: Student Travel Writers Wanted

February 20th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Travel Journal

Every now and again something pops up in our travel forums that we think needs a bit of extra attention (or something we’re sure you’ll want to hear about as soon as possible).

Yesterday, Adam posted a topic entitled ‘Student Travel Writers Wanted’.

Here’s what he had to say:

Contra Magazine, a new London-wide, cross university student magazine, is looking for fresh contributions for the travel section of the next edition out on 1st April. We’re looking for your exciting travel stories.

Whether you know a great weekend escape from London, have
crossed the Himalayas on a yak or have just sailed the Atlantic, we’d like to hear from you. If you’d like to contribute go to www.contramagazine.com to find out more, and if you have an idea or article you think other students would find interesting and inspiring please get in touch.

Everybody at Contra works for free so we unfortunately can’t offer you money for your work, just creative gratification and a chance to get your work seen.

The deadline for submissions for the next edition is 1st March.

Ideas/Submissions to – travel@contramagazine.com

Link to original topic here.

(Photo: Everett Guerny/SXC)

Posted in General Travel, Travel Community, Travel News | No Comments »

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