Backpackers.com

Roomorama an alternative to hostels?

Backpackers looking for an alternative to hostels (or who’ve left things a bit late for booking a hostel, and really need a place to lay their weary heads) now have a new option: Roomorama.

Recently launched in New York, Roomorama is a ‘peer-to-peer short-term rental marketplace’ which allows members to list rooms for rent in their own homes.

Travellers search for available rooms, or submit a ‘shout out’ for their exact requirements.

Once they find something they like, they pay Roomorama via Paypal for their stay, along with an 8 percent transaction fee. In exchange, they get a payment code to be used upon checkin. Only when they’ve checked in and approved the accommodations does the guest give that payment code to the host, thereby releasing the transfer of the funds to the host via check or Paypal. User profiles, feedback history and post-stay reviews on the site create a transparent environment for both hosts and guests. (via)

Pretty cool, and you’ll even potentially meet new locals and make new friends into the bargain! The service currently focuses around New York, but is likely to expand at speed.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Destinations, Hostels | 6 Comments »

Where to stay for Oktoberfest 2008

Oktoberfest might seem a long long way away, but if you take into consideration the fact that two of the three weekends on which the world’s most famous Bavarian beer fest takes place are actually in September (them crazy Germans!), it’s not really that distant at all.

Even this far in advance, accommodation in Munich, where Oktoberfest is held, is not only getting harder to find, but is also generally a great deal more expensive than normal, especially over weekends.

So, if you’re thinking about going, make sure your hostels are booked, and soon. Many hostels will have set aside space for walkins, but you’re likely to pay a premium, and even those will fill up fast.

Plus, you’ll probably spend all your time walking the streets trying to find a space, when you could be down in the beer tents, sampling the fine Bavarian brews!

But, hostels aren’t the only place backpackers can stay if they want to get to Oktoberfest.

An option that’s quite a bit easier on the budget is hiring a tent at the Wies’n-Camp, available from 19 September to 6 October this year.

Each tent costs between 52 € (Sunday-Thursday) and 62 € (Friday-Saturday), per night and can hold up to four people. The price includes access to restrooms and hot showers, and there will be places to buy food and drink.

Something to remember here, though, is that single travellers cannot share a tent with other single travellers met on the camping ground, so hook up before you get there. Bookings can be made here.

If you have your own tent, though, and don’t mind staying outside Munich, you could stay at the Campground Obermenzing (prices here), or the Campground Thalkirchen.

And, finally, the cheapest option – sign up on the Couchsurfing website and see if you can find a willing Bavarian to allow you to stay at their place, for free!

Related entries:
Munich Oktoberfest: The Final Tally
Oktoberfest Brawl: When Flirting Fails, Hurl A Stein
Oktoberfest Chat Up Lines: Bavarian Flirting Made Easy
Packed Mag: A Backpackers’ Guide To The Oktoberfest

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels in Munich – find and book your hostel online at special discounted rates
Oktoberfest.de – official Oktoberfest website
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | No Comments »

Wies’n'Camp: Oktoberfest accommodation for budget-watching backpackers

One of the best ways to save on your accommodation costs at Oktoberfest this year (hostels can be rather pricey at this time of year): gather 3 friends and rent a tent at Wies’n Camp.

During Munich’s famous beer festival the folks at Wies’n Camp will be setting up tents at the Olympic Horse Stadium München-Riem (just 10 minutes from Oktoberfest and the heart of the city with Metro), and renting them out to backpackers and other shoestring travellers.

Each tent can sleep up to 4 backpackers, and can be rented per night for 52 € (Sunday to Thursday) and 62 € (Friday and Saturday).

A deposit of 50 € per tent is required, which you get back upon departure (providing the tent is not damaged in any way). The rental fee includes access to restrooms and hot showers.

The Wies’nCamp also offers optional extras like luxury isolation-mats (6 € per mat per night with a deposit of 50 €), breakfast, food and beverages, and all camping facilities like security and a place to park (9€ per night).

You’ll need to book in advance here, and don’t forget to bring a sleeping bag and your passport.

Accommodation available from the 19th of September until the 6th of October 2007.

Related entries:
Munich Oktoberfest: The Final Tally
Oktoberfest Brawl: When Flirting Fails, Hurl A Stein
Oktoberfest Chat Up Lines: Bavarian Flirting Made Easy
Packed Mag: A Backpackers’ Guide To The Oktoberfest

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels in Munich – find and book your hostel online at special discounted rates
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | 1 Comment »

Mucky mayhem awaits at La Tomatina 2008!

La Tomatina, that crazy festival that is the ultimate in mucky food fights – the biggest in the world – takes place on the last Wednesday of every year in the tiny, otherwise unexciting town of Bunyol, near Valencia.

100,000 tomatoes awaiting hurling, 40,000 revellers just itching to be covered in tomato mulch – if you’re going, you’re in for quite an experience.

And the last Wednesday just happens to be next week… so if you’re cruising around Spain, get on down to Valencia (the nearest city) and join the masses as they bus, train, or hitch their way to the big crush.

Oh, and take goggles – you’ll need them.

Related entries:
Tomato Diving at Il Tomatina 2006
Il Tomatina: The World’s Biggest Foodfight
Il Tomatina: The ‘Human Gazpacho’
Portrait of a Food Fight: Photos from Il Tomatina

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Hostels in Valencia – find and book your hostels online (if you can find places with available rooms!)
Lonely Planet’s Guide to Valencia – useful info for Valencia (free pdf download here)
Valencia Travel Guide – free downloadable travel guide from ArrivalGuides.com

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | No Comments »

Creamfields competition results

A huge thank you to all who entered the Creamfields UK competition right here on Backpackers.com.   We had a fabulous response!

We’d love to be able to give you all tickets, but we only had one pair to put up for grabs… and that pair went to the very lucky Mr Martin Deer, of Essex, who’ll be heading to the party this weekend.

Well done, Martin, and have a wicked time (we so know you will).

Tickets for Creamfields are still available online from £105. Creamfields UK takes place over the entire coming weekend (23-24 August) and what with it being the festival’s 10th birthday, is bound to be quite the bash!

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See Europe for free with Sandeman’s ‘New Europe’ walking tours

One of the best ways to get to know a city is to walk it.  An even better way is to walk it with a local.

And now even money-scrimping backpackers can get in on some city tours without having to sacrifice their lunch-funds in the process.

Sandeman’s New Europe Tours offers travellers free walking tours of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Madrid, during which ‘expert guides share with you their personal stories and insights during their intriguing tours’.

Pretty cool…  There’s no fee (they make their money from people who go on to try one of their paid tours), but the guides do work for tips – so if you really liked the tour, and have a little cash to spare, go ahead and donate some of it… you’ll probably have learnt quite a bit.

(via)

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Destinations, Travel Guides | No Comments »

Living the American Dream at Burning Man 2008

Burning Man comes to Black Rock City at the end of this month…  For the uninitiated, this means the start of a week-long party-on-the-playa – a feast of ‘radical self-expression, radical self-reliance, art and participation‘.

And this year’s art theme should make for some rather interesting manifestations of aforementioned ‘radical self-expression’, I should imagine…

“2008 Art Theme: ‘American Dream‘

In 2008, leave narrow and exclusive ideologies at home and carefully consider your immediate experience. What has America achieved that you admire? What has it done or failed to do that fills you with dismay? What is laudable? What is ludicrous? Put blame aside, let humor thrive, and dare to contemplate a larger question: What can America contribute to the world?”

Before you go thinking this is the kind of festival one can simply pop into and leave again if it’s not quite your cup of tea, think again.  Going to Burning Man isn’t for the faint-hearted, and considerable planning is required.

For starters, the entire festival takes place in a makeshift city in the middle of the Nevada desert – Black Rock City – a structure created solely for this purpose (and taken down again immediately afterwards, leaving barely a trace).

Money means nothing at the Burn – everything is bartered for.  So, you need to figure out what to take for your own use, as well as what’s useful for swapping (or just plain fun!)

So, if you’ve never been before, but are getting tempted (all that radical self-expression must surely lead to something interesting, hey?) then get to reading the First-Timer’s Guide, followed by the 2008 Survival Guide (I did say it wasn’t for the faint of heart, after all).

Still keen?  Good, now check out the Playa calendar. In just one day, you can join the ‘“First Monday” Nude Art Ride’, engage in a little ‘Daily Chanting of the Lotus Sutra‘, shoot tequilas (at trespassers) at the Tequila Shack, or even play a game of glowing checkers.

Sounds like most excellent fun to me… a pity I’m several thousand miles away.  But, if you’re luckier than I, tickets are still selling online until 12 midnight PST on Friday the 22nd of August (that’s only just over a week away).

You’ll pay a cool $295 for the pleasure (not counting all the prep costs), but for a week’s worth of entertainments like those… (and the chance to see the ‘American Dream’ in art), it’s a snip, even for the meanest of penny-pinching backpackers (I mean, there are just some things that are truly worth spending money on, right?)

The Burning Man Festival takes place from 25 August to 1 September 2008 at the temporary metropolis of Black Rock City. Keep up to date with the latest festival news by reading the Burning Man blogs.

Posted in Destinations, Festivals | No Comments »

Ryan Air £15 September Flight Sale

From now until midnight on Thursday, backpackers can pick up flights around Europe for only £15 one way!

Yep, Ryan Air is at it again, offering one million seats on its extensive European routes for a very low £15, all inclusive.

So, if you’re gallavanting around the continent this September, and wouldn’t mind a quick flight to another exciting destination, check out the Ryan Air sale and see what you can find!

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

One week left to enter our Creamfields competition (and win tickets)!

We’re giving one party-loving backpacker out there a free pair of tickets worth over £200 to uber UK dance festival, Creamfields ’08 – but there’s only a week left to enter!

With more events than ever taking place in the UK this year (it’s the festival’s 10th birthday), the Creamfields bank holiday weekend extravaganza (Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August ‘08) is bound to fluff out your tail feathers…

So, if a lineup that includes the likes of Fat Boy Slim, Pendulum, Paul van Dyk, Erick Morillo, Sasha, Ian Brown, 2 Many DJ’s, Roots Manuva, Judge Jules, Kasabian, Underworld, Gorillaz, John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto… (and many more) tickles your fancy, be sure to enter our ticket giveaway before 15 August ’08 and you could be going, for free, gratis, nothing!

First correct entry drawn, wins. Competition ends 15 August 2008. Prize is for general admission tickets only, and does not include transport to or from the event. Winner must be able to use the tickets, or they will be given to someone who can!

Creamfields ticket hotline: 0844 888 4401

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways, Festivals | No Comments »

Yet another flight sale for backpackers in Europe: FlyBaboo’s ‘Immediate Takeoff Sale’

Hot on the heels of the Easyjet, Virgin Blue and Ryan Air sales comes another one from FlyBaboo.

The Swiss-based airline is offering travellers significantly discounted fares on flights between the 8th and 17th of August 2008.

From now until midnight on Sunday (August 10th), backpackers can find fares from as low as 79.- CHF (about 49 Euros), one-way. All taxes are included in the quoted fares, as is 20kg of checked luggage (time to stock up on some of that there Swiss chocolate, mmm…) and a free meal (depending on the flight duration).

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Posted in Destinations, Transport, Travel Deals | No Comments »