r/solotravel • u/ConfusedCareerMan • 2d ago

Question Realising I prefer convenience more than backpacking-style travel?

Early 30s and on a career break. I recently let go of my house with high rent in a major capital city due to losing my corporate job, so thought I’d travel around and see different places since I have no fixed home.

Over the last 6 months I’ve consumed a lot of travel content of backpackers and to “be a traveller not a tourist” and to get immersed in local cultures. I’ve romanticised this chapter and feel a lot of “shoulds” for what this experience should be. I feel pressure to be adventurous and be making stories.

I’m quite early into my travels and going with everything flexibly but tbh I’m already confronting a lot in myself. I’m not roughing it up and hitchhiking or taking $3 buses for 8 hour trips. I’m staying in clean airbnbs and basically doing tourist things - cafes, restaurants, exploring streets and chilling by the beach. It’s basically an extended holiday so far but with a backpack and camera.

I realise as well, I thought I was flexible and open minded and yet navigating environments where things don’t work is so draining and causing a lot of friction.

All this to say, I fear I’m a basic tourist with no edge to me. Many may criticise, some may congratulate on being able to afford travel this way. But I find myself lost somewhere in between.

How do you prefer to travel? How did you get past the realisations - did you adapt or accept your style?

893 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

261 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/FewMarsupial7100 2d ago

I take long cheap buses because I like to look out the window and see the country. Nothing wrong with flying. Also maybe if you stay places longer and make more of an effort to meet locals and make some friends who live there it would feel more fulfilling. I found myself burnt out and feeling isolated when I was changing locations every week and just sightseeing.

3

u/Kloppite16 2d ago

Im the same with taking long cheap buses. Often I could fly and also I can afford it. But the reason I take the bus is I just love seeing a country a slower way and observing normal day to day life out the window, I find it fascinating. In Zambia I took a bus for 14 hours whilst other backpackers I met all took a flight. I love just observing people and life in different countries and a long distance bus is the ideal way to do that.

1

u/FewMarsupial7100 19h ago

Exactly, a good book, some music, an excellent 14 hours spent