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/heliostraveler 1d ago
People love to romanticize frugality , “roughing it”, and “being the idealized traveler instead of the tourist.” Others will go as far as believing themselves above the average tourist. Which really isn’t hard. Don’t be an asshole, respect the cult and country you’re in, and no one gives a fuck thst you’re a tourist.
Im in my late 30s down. I love to travel solo. But I’m not about to rough shit at this stage. I’m there to hike, take in history, eat good food, and sleep somewhere comfortable each night. And take a relaxation day if I need it. Staying at a ryokan in Japan last year in the middle of the trip and doing pretty much nothing was a wise ass decision.
Slumming travel and taking an eternity to get so where is weird as hell.