Travel Tips
You can be both anyway. Backpacking is one of the concept of self-traveling while self-traveling is the essence of backpacking. Off course there are differences between them. Backpacking is a form of travel where travelers carry their backpack, explore the world or city, on their feet or by public transport, looking for staying in budget Bed and Breakfast, mixing and interacting with the local people, and with really tight budget.
On the other hand, Self-traveling is a generic form of travel. Some might refer this travel style as ‘Flashpacking‘ where travelers travel to a country or few cities by public transport, carry whatever luggage or backpack, explore the travel destination with flexible time, staying in whatever accommodation booked by themselves in advance, learning the local culture or not, doing whatever you like without any tour guide, all with your relatively limited budget.
However, both self-traveling and backpacking are self-guided. Both have the maximum freedom in terms of deciding when or where to go and when or where to be back. Most importantly, both are for budget travelers, like me.
Nevertheless, technology advancement has made both of them to overlap with each other in many instances. Both self-travelers and backpackers can now book their hostels or hotels online in advance. Backpacker can now be tech-savvy to search for whatever local information online that made interactions with local people became lesser. In simple terms, backpackers nowadays are merely referred to self-travelers traveling in their backpacks with the lowest budget. Recent trends of budget youth hotels and budget airlines tell us that more and more young travelers with limited budget nowadays are traveling by themselves, not with guided tour package.
Is backpacking still the best style of self-traveling? Again, it depends. Depending on the travel destinations that you are spending your holidays in. Backpacking still gives an image to public that they are budget travelers who need free guides in every aspects. When people see a backpacker, they will always offer a helping hand. Unless safety is a severe issue in that city, backpacking is always the best choice to safe money. For example if you are traveling to Europe where steep exchange rate is killing but safety and security are relatively good, the basic backpacking is definitely the opted style.
However, there are cases where backpacking might not be the best traveling style for certain holidays. Take ski vacation for example. It is very different from sightseeing tours and it is seasonal. Short ski breaks are best to have a flashpacking style instead of backpacking. You plan everything for your ski vacation but you don’t travel around often. The other option is Self-Drive-Traveling where you rent a car and drive yourself up the mountain from hostel downtown. Self-drive ski holidays is common for ski travelers in this case, not backpacking.
What about me? I’m a short term Self-traveler. I love to travel, I travel very often but I travel within a short period. I plan everything of my Europe tour myself but I have only 2 weeks to cover 4 countries. I’m a budget traveler carrying a huge backpack but not always stay in a B&B or guesthouse. I’m going to travel a lot by foot but I’m still going to buy a Rome Pass and London daily Travel Card. This is challenging. I’m striving to achieve a balance between comfort and economical travel experience. Good luck to me! 
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I’ve finally had my Europe tour itinerary finalized (will come to this later). It was in fact very challenging to plan for a perfect tour to Europe. Not only the continent of Europe is so huge and all countries are so tourists attractive, the options of transportation are also diverse with so much cost difference between them. Off course, different types of transportation always have their characteristics. Flights are always faster but more expensive while bus could be the cheapest but need double or triple the flight time to get you to your next destination. However, depending whether you want to save time or to save money, all kinds of transportation always have their own fans.
The situation has become more complicated in recent years. Budget airlines are booming. Air tickets can now be cheaper than train tickets. Low end market are not dominated by bus or train transportation but also air transportation. This has made my Europe tour planning more difficult in searching for appropriate and economical transportation. However, the situation shouldn’t scare yous off. Instead travelers visiting Europe now are possible to get some really good bargain in their transportation cost. Why is it so important? If you have gone through this stage which I have, you should realize that transportation cost could contribute up to 40% of your whole Europe tour budget so it is critical! Unless you are willing to spend thousands to fly 12 hours to Paris and stay there for the whole month but would you waste your long haul flight not to visit its neighboring cities such as Lyon, Brussel or Amsterdam?
From my recent experience in booking transportation and finalizing the itinerary of my travel to Europe, I have learnt some ways to get some really good deals. Here are my top 5 tips to get cheap transportation for Europe tour:
- Book in advance. This is the best and most effective ways to get cheap fares! However, it is always easier to talk than be done. To book transportation well in advance, you need to confirm your route well in advance also. How many of us especially backpackers could confirm our route well ahead of departure? If you could, confirm your train route at least 3 months in advance and air flight 6 months in advance (this is during normal peak season. More months in advance would be needed during super peak). Next, book your train tickets and flight tickets online and you will save up to 100% of your fares! If earlier is not possible, you may consider to postpone your trip until next season or even next year!
- Choose the best route. The best route here means the cheapest or least popular route. In order to get to Milan from Paris, you can either book direct train or indirect train. In this case, you can choose the less demanded route from Paris to Nice by night train and from Nice to Milan the next morning. It would be cheaper in tickets price and you can even save 1 night of accommodation! You can find special promotions in train and flight fares online for certain less popular route.
- Choose the best type of transportation. The best type of transportation to suit your destinations. Flight is the fastest in terms of flight time but if the airport is very far away from the city center where you are going to, the combined cost of flight ticket and airport transfer could be more expensive than getting a train into the city center itself! If you are going to stay in city outskirt, getting a bus could be the cheapest way! Another factor is the route to your destination. If you’re traveling to Scotland from London, opt for train transport can give you the opportunity to view the breathtaking greenery along the way!
- Choose the right operator. Eventhough you have confirmed your route too late to get best bargain in advance booking, you may still have ways to get cheaper tickets. For the same route and same type of transportation of your choice, you should choose the best operator with cheapest fares next. As rules of thumbs, always get the local transport operator. TGV is best to book train tickets for France travel while Trenitalia is always the cheapest to book for Italian domestic travel. For air tickets, always compare flights from different airlines. The air fares could vary over 100% from 1 airline to another.
- Raise your budget. Lastly, if none of the above is possible to you, there is still 1 last tips (not the best) to get cheap transportation for your Europe tour – Raise Your Budget! If you have more money to spare for transportation, any air or ground fares would appear cheap to you! Please don’t mention it’s my idea as I’m an advocate of budget traveling and I really don’t hope this is my only option…
These are what I’ve experienced when I booked for transportation to Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome and Florence. It helped me and I hope it would help those of you who are planning a trip to Europe too. As Travel Feeder’s Motto: Maximize Our Travel Enjoyment, Minimize Our Budget and Enrich Our Limited Holidays. – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog
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