Web City Travel

Somewhere before my bus broke down in Australia, I was called a flashpacker. Despite being on the road for 18 months, it was the first time I’d heard the term. A flashpacker is someone, unusually in their mid 20s to early 30s, who travels like a backpacker but has more disposal income as well as electronics such as a camera, Ipod, or laptop. Flashpackers expect better accommodation and amenities on their trip.

Neither fully backpacker nor tourist, flashpacking is new to the traveling lexicon. Flashpackers still sleep in dorm room, carry a big backpack, want cheap transportation but we also want nice meals, parties, and tours. They usually aren’t strolling into a hostel randomly or wearing the same shirt for a week. A number of hostels are up scaling to meet the growing demands and needs of flashpackers and you’ll find them in all corners of the world. The flashpacker still wanders but they just don’t try to pinch every penny along the way. They are backpackers with means.

Backpacking is a lifestyle not a look. Just because someone doesn’t have the look, doesn’t mean they lack the spirit. It won’t make someone less of a traveler. It goes against the backpacker mentality to look down on someone because they travel differently. Aren’t we supposed to be embracing different ways of life?

It comes down to what makes a backpacker a backpacker and that’s spirit. The desire to explore new places and experience new people. Backpacking is about opening your mind to new people and places. It’s not about the stuff you carry. If you spirit is the same, what you carry doesn’t mater.

We are all fashpackers now. We may not be driving up to the hostel in a limo but we all expect a little “flash” nowadays. According to a Hostelworld study in 2006, 21 percent of people travel with a laptop, 54 percent with an MP3 player, 83 percent with a mobile phone and a whopping 86 percent travel with a digital camera.

Now think about your last trip- how many people you see with cameras? Ipods? Laptops? I can’t remember seeing one person without a camera, and at least 3/4 of the people I saw had Ipods.We all have them and these are all flashpacking items.

The truth is we all travel with fancy electronics now. We check our email and Skype our friends. We all have a nice camera and, usually, we have an mp3 device. We’ve become flashpackers and that’s not a bad thing. All of this lets us stay better connected with our friends and family and helps us document our trip. The key is to once in awhile to put down the camera, turn off the computer, and enjoy the culture you came to see.

The backpacker who set off with 1 shirt, a small pack, and two baht to his name is getting hard to find. Most of us have a little more means and expect a little more but we still carry his spirit. We still seek new cultures, exotic locales, and long term travel. We still want cheap hostels and transportation. We camp on that jungle trek. Unlike “backpackers,” we want nicer things like hot showers, nice tours, places to plug in our elecrontics, and constant e-mail access. We just want to be pampered…once in awhile.