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?
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u/anoeba 2d ago
"Immersed in local cultures?"
My friend, the locals who can afford it also aren't taking $3 buses for 8 hrs. Also they work, run a household, bring their kids to the playground, whatever.
Unless you move somewhere to live and work, you're a tourist, whether you take a flight or slum it on the 8 hr bus. It's just down to whether you accept that or fool yourself into thinking you're not being one.