Today’s Friday Travel Photo was taken somewhere on the largest island in the Mediterranean – Sicily. Like much of Italy, the Sicilian region has many characteristics that are different than other regions in Italy. In some respects, a visit to Sicily is like a visit to a different country. Either way, it’s a beautiful place that begs to be explored.
Do you have a photo you’d like featured here? I’d love to post it with a link back to your blog. Email me at matt [at] backpackingmatt [dot] com
While I’ve never specifically set off on a Round the World Trip, I’ve done most of my traveling on working holidays. I find this to be an excellent way to temporarily get settled in a country and gain a better understanding of its people, geography, customs, and lifestyle. Prior to coming to New Zealand, I spent four months in Ireland and about six months in the United Kingdom.
Traveling long term doesn’t necessarily come easy. Being on the road for extended periods of time can become waring. While these challenges are part of the journey, these seven tips will make traveling long term a better experience for you.
These seven tips all revolve around this one piece of advice. Maintaining a schedule on the road is crucial to successful long term travel. While living the life of a backpacker is drastically different than the life of a 9 – 5er, it’s essential that you still maintain some sort of a schedule – just as you would at home.
Backpackers that head over to Europe for a three week stint traveling around can stand to get pissed ever night. You can’t. If you’re considering long term travel, you’ve got to keep tabs on your drinking schedule. The midday pint or cocktail might be alluring for the first couple weeks you’re on the road – but sooner or later, you’ll find you’ve got to ditch the lunch cocktail and nightly benders.
Drinking to excess daily isn’t healthy – but I’m not here to act as the Surgeon General. A heavy drinking schedule kills the budget and generally makes for an unproductive trip.
If only the life of a backpacker allowed for nightly meals out, things would be so much easier. Or would they?
I think one of the main keys to successful long term travel has to do with your nightly eating habits. There is certainly an allure to eating out on the town every night, yet realistically this isn’t possible for the budget traveler. Clearly, a nightly meal at a restaurant with a bottle of wine would kill the budget. More importantly, I think keeping a nightly structure allows for easier travel plans. Make a habit of cooking your own dinner nightly. It’s significantly healthier, more budget friendly, and you’ll inevitably meet more people at the hostels you’re staying in. Which brings me to number four.
There is something to be said for checking into a hostel like the Flying Pig in Amsterdam. The drinking, the parties, and (for you single gents), the ladies. Wherever you go, chances are you’ll be able to find a party oriented hostel similar to the Base or Nomads chain in New Zealand. Stay in them if you wish – but only for a couple nights.
If you’re planning on remaining on the road long term, and intend on staying in the same city for more than a couple days, consider finding a locally owned, chilled out hostel. You’ll stand a better chance of staying rested, keeping up with tips two and three, and chances are you’ll meet other long term travelers.
Even if you didn’t have an exercise schedule before you left home, now is the time to start one. Trying to keep to an exercise schedule will ultimately result in you trying to keep a normal day to day schedule. You’ll be less tempted to stay at the pub till the wee hours of the morning if you’ve got to run a couple miles in the morning. More importantly, I think exercise generally makes for a healthier outlook on life. Those down moments on the road will be less likely if you’re keeping active.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe, but while you’re cruising across Europe in a train, New Zealand in a campervan, or Bangkok in a tuk tuk, life in the rest of the world goes on as per the normal. Keeping up with the daily events of the news will help you to remain somewhat grounded. While sometimes I rejoice in the fact that traveling gets me out of the day to day politics of news at home, it’s still important to keep updated with the latest happenings in the world.
Maintaining a travel blog on the road is an excellent way to document your travels, keep up with friends and family, and most importantly – maintain a schedule. Two weeks into your traveling, you’ll probably still be glad to be away from work and the realities of home and will still be enjoying the midday pints. Two months into your traveling, and you’ll probably be looking for additional responsibilities other than planning your trip.
Keeping up a travel blog allows you to keep a schedule, but more importantly, you feel responsible for something at the end of the day. If you make it a goal to keep generating content, you’ll feel responsibilities from day to day which will result in a more meaningful time on the road.
If you treat your traveling as a lifestyle, and have structure in your day to day life, it’s much easier to continue on for weeks, months, or even years.
What do you think? Leave your tips for successful long term travel in the comments section below.
Just as much of New Zealand is overrun with tourists, much of New Zealand is overrun with sheep. Take for example, the King Country south of Auckland. It’s a rural heartland that raises All Blacks, sheep, and is much greener than my rural home of Iowa. A visit to New Zealand’s King Country on the North Island deserves more than the required stop in Waitomo to view the underground caves. In fact, if you’re there in early April, skip the Waitomo Caves and instead head to the small farming town of Te Kuiti.
New Zealand claims to be famous for many things and while some of these are worthwhile claims to fame (World’s Best Sauvignon Blancs – Marlborough), some of these aren’t (Home of the World’s Biggest Carrot – Ohakune). Te Kuiti is another small New Zealand town that greets you on arrival with a billboard claiming its spot in the world. Te Kuiti is,
And rightly so.
I was lucky enough to be passing through Te Kuiti in early April. Late March or Early April is when Te Kuiti holds the Great New Zealand Muster. An end of summer festival that features two must see events:
A Sheep Shearing Competition and the Running of the Sheep
After months of driving around New Zealand, I have become quite accustomed to seeing the forty-odd million sheep that inhabit New Zealand’s countryside. They’re cute wooly beasts that sometimes quite literally stretch as far as the eye can see. The typical New Zealand postcard features a car stopped on a highway while sheep cross the road and says, “New Zealand Traffic Jam.”
It’s a relatively common sight on New Zealand’s roads. As is seeing the old farmer driving along the road on a four-wheeler with two dogs on the back and a stray sheep under one arm. In one way or another, sheep are all over New Zealand: in its fields, on its dinner menus, flavors in its bags of crisps, and they keep you warm in your slippers, boots, or jackets.
So while sheep are everywhere in New Zealand, until April, I had never really stopped to consider how they’re sheared. And let me tell you – it’s a sight to see.
Sheep shearing is a sport in New Zealand. A sport with a regulating committee, detailed rules, and regular competitions. One of these competitions was going on in Te Kuiti during the Great New Zealand Muster and paying the $15 entry fee might have been the best $15 I’ve spent in New Zealand. The men and women in this competition were shearing full sized ewes in under a minute – one right after the other. Sheep shearing looked to be a physically demanding sport that takes skill, serious strength, and endurance.
The competitors would pull one sheep after the other out of a pen, flip it up and around, while taking long clean swipes with what appeared to be an oversized, electric beard trimmer. While the poor wee suckers looked shocked as they were flipped, turned, and twisted around, they were treated quite well. Any flesh wounds resulted in a penalty for the sheerer. And it was hot in Te Kuiti, so I trust a shorn sheep was more comfortable than an un-shorn sheep.
The day finished out with an event that would arguably put the yearly festival in Pamplona to shame. Forget the running of the bulls, Te Kuiti has the Running of the Sheep.
The main street in Te Kuiti was blocked off to prepare for the running of over 2,000 sheep. I wrongly expected the sheep to come rushing down the deserted street. As soon as one daring sheep would start running down the road, it would get spooked, turn around, and all 1,999 others would do the same. After ten minutes of coaxing from dogs, men, and horses, the whole flock finally made their way to the end of town – leaving plenty of sheep poop in their wake.
Finding Te Kuiti and the Great New Zealand Muster was definitely not in my travel plans, yet it is one of those events you mistakenly stumble on to and love. I often find the best destinations you find in travel aren’t places you read about in a book, but rather places you find by random chance. This was one of them. Check it out if you can. It’s a great day out for a budget traveler and an iconic New Zealand experience.
Today’s Friday Travel Photo features a highland cow in the Scottish Highlands. These highland cattle – known as hairy coos in Scotland – are native to the Highlands of Scotland and are identifiable by their long hair and big horns. They’re rugged animals and can survive the wet, cold, and windy winters of the Highlands.
You’ll meet Hamish, Scotland’s famous hairy coo, on a day trip from Edinburgh to Loch Ness.
Do you have a photo you’d like featured on Backpackingmatt? Email it to matt [at] backpackingmatt [dot] com and I’ll feature it with a link back to your blog.
Backpacking Matt 
