NEW TRADITION BAND

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

Forget those expensive packaged tours. Travel independently. Not only will you have a lot more freedom, but you will also save a lot more cash and learn much more about the culture. Packaged tours are ridiculously overpriced for a short trip. A typical packaged tour can cost you $2,500 to $6,000 plus airfare for a one or two week detailed, inflexible itinerary in a country.

Backpackers can take just $2,000 and travel for two months, four months, and sometimes longer, simply by traveling independently. Unwilling to be pampered by a guide for the entire trip they figure things out themselves and are rewarded for it. This section will show you what you need to do to prepare for your independent travels.

Think of it this way: If the U.S. is your native country would you pay a travel agency $2,500 plus transportation for a one week tour of Yellowstone National Park and Missoula, Montana? Hell no! You would simply drive there yourself, pay the entrance fee and explore Yellowstone at your leisure. You would find a motel on your own in Missoula and you certainly can find restaurants when you’re hungry. If you don’t know where something is, you ask. If you want to leave, you can. If you want to stay longer you can do that too.

So why pay a travel agency an ungodly amount of money to do the same type of thing in another country? Unfamiliar with the territory? Don’t speak the local language? These usually aren’t problems at all. If you’ve never been to Montana then that is unfamiliar to you too. And language? English is spoken around the world. It is the world’s official language of business and employees in all major airports speak it. Language barriers are almost never problems; you either understand each other, you don’t, or you find someone who does.

This is not to say that you should never go on a tour. Some tours are reasonably priced, convenient and offer excellent learning opportunities. In some cases it would be nearly impossible to see a protected site without going on a tour. If you want to see the Nazca Lines in Peru, for example, you’ll want to take a tour. For around $40-$50 you’ll fly over the Lines in a small plane and visit cemeteries where mummies can be seen in their subterranean tombs. The price is reasonable, you can fit it into your budget and if you were going to fly over the Lines the do-it-yourself way it’ll cost you much more money and difficulties. Tours do have their place in independent travel, just use them when they’re the best way to go.

Nowadays international travel is no big deal. You grab your passport, have your visa in order (or when you get there), put debit cards in your pocket, for good measure you might bring a guidebook, a camera and some personal items, then hop on a plane, train or automobile and GO! That’s really all there is to it.