Anyone been backpacking solo?

[SimonMac]

I prefer travelling alone for longer trips.

You can do what you want and meeting people on the way is par for the course.

Thats cause you are a miserable chunt and no one would be able to put up with you!

[sasguru]

I prefer travelling alone for longer trips.

You can do what you want and meeting people on the way is par for the course.

He's back. The average IQ of CUK just fell about 20 points.

[Gibbon]

He's back. The average IQ of CUK just fell about 20 points.

I don't think IQ can go negative, can it? I think you may have to tweak your calculations!

[d000hg]

The great thing about being a rich contractor rather than a poor student is that you are roughing/slumming it by choice. Knowing you can check into a 5* hotel for a night if it gets too grim can make it easier.

You could of course just slum it during the week interspersed with weekends at posh hotels or something, though turning up in your skanky clothes and backpack might be fun.

Where did timberwolf go, [s]he was always banging on about camping and paying £1 for a week.

[Robinho]

I don't think IQ can go negative, can it?

Sas was informed differently as a child.

[chef]

I spent 18 months backpacking after taking voluntary redundancy in the one and only permies career job I ever had back in 2001/2002.

I started in Beijing, China and effectively travelled China, Hong Kong, SE Asia (Thailand, vietnams, laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, singapore, Indonesia) Australia and New Zealand.

I absolutely loved it, would say it shaped me to be the person I am now, I travelled alone but in reality that never happens as you are always heading the same way as others who you meet en route and by doing this met several people I keep in touch with regularly now.

Go for it.

[darmstadt]

So where are all the backpacking orgy with Swedish au-pair stories then or was everyone just a boring ****er looking at culture tulip?

[Sysman]

Travel alone, you will meet people. If you set off with someone you already know, you will bring your home life along and will miss a lot of what you might otherwise have seen.

True that. The backpacking trips with a gf were not half as much fun.

I started out with a couple of girls and another bloke (college friends) but we separated about half way through because they wanted to see different sights than I did. I also got fed up of them being slow starters in the morning. There was a monastery I wanted to visit but you needed an early start to spend time there and get back down the mountain before dark.

I ended up travelling with a pair of twin sisters who were a good laugh. That wouldn't have happened if I'd stayed as part of a foursome.

[chef]

So where are all the backpacking orgy with Swedish au-pair stories then or was everyone just a boring ****er looking at culture tulip?

2 months after returning, Swedish girlfriend I met on the trip moved in and stayed for 3.5 years. It wasn't meant to be but it was fun while it lasted and we still keep in touch, in fact I'm meeting her this week.

[Sysman]

Don't think hitching is the done thing now, this was a long time ago. Only seen one hitchhiker in the UK in about 5 years. Mostly found no problem getting lifts back then. Fending off groping Italians was the main problem.

Hitching used to be great in Scandinavia and sticking a Union Jack on your backpack ensured plenty of lifts.

Dunno about nowadays.