I wrote this, not to try and convince you that you’re a backpacker, but so that real backpackers can read it and and have something to relate to, and have a good laugh. Odds are, if you ARE a backpacker, you can relate to some or all of these. Let us know!

1. You secretly look down on people with large luggage or rolling suitcases, because you managed to pack your whole life in a 50 liter backpack.

2. It’ s not out of the ordinary to spend the night at the airport or train station, to save a night’s accommodation.

3. Your future travel plans have “visa runs” factored into the itinerary.

4. You know what the term “visa run” is.

5. Your future travel plans also include meeting up with people all over the world, whom you met on the last trip.

6. When asked, you’re not sure what to write down as your permanent address.

7. But when asked, you have your passport number memorized.

8. To you, hot water is a luxury. Sometimes even just running water.

9. Even if traveling alone, you haven’t had a room to yourself in a really long time.

10. You really aren’t sure what day it is, unless there’s a beer special at the pub. Everyday is Saturday.

11. You can say Cheers in 10 different languages.

12. You can sleep anywhere. Noisy park benches, crowded dorm rooms, airport.

13. You normally ask someone where they are from, and remember them by that, and not their names. “Hey where’s miss Norway?”. “Have you seen Kiwi?”. “Where did Swiss girl go?”

14. You have a permanent sunglasses and flip flop tan.

15. You are an expert in finding cheap travel insurance. Something you didn’t learn in school.

16. Love it or hate it, you know what city Khoa San Road is in.

17. You avoid people with the same accent as you like the plague.

18. You search Hostelworld with lowest to highest price function, and consider the top three.

19. You don’t remember a time where you didn’t shower with flip flops on.

20. $3 for a cocktail, fine. $3 for a meal, no way. Beer has calories right?

21. If you book a hostel online, the deciding factor is usually if they have free breakfast and/or airport pickup.

22. Future travel plans are made with meeting people all over the world, that you met in the last trip. You have free places to stay on nearly every continent.

23. You constantly laugh at people that are worried about travel safety warning about a country.

24. You would stay at a hostel without hot water or a kitchen, but not one without wifi.

25. You’ve worn the same 3 shirts for the last 6 months.

26. IF you ever find a hostel with toilet paper in the bathrooms, you vow you will leave a great review. A hostel that you can actually flush the paper in: out of the question.

27. Even your bad times turn into good memories and you talk fondly of them.

28. You’ve mastered the art of staying up until 6am, yet still managing to be in time for the free breakfast.

29. You secretly look down on vacationers. “You can’t see anything in Thailand in 2 weeks!”.

30. Everyday your Facebook status says you have a new friend.

31. You know every place within 3 miles that has free wifi.

32. There’s been times when you’ve been on a constant pasta diet/budget. 3 meals a day… Pasta. Also….

33. …You are an expert at making different variations of cheap pasta. Past with tuna. Pasta with pieces of hotdogs. Veggie pasta. List goes on.

35. You sniff check your clothes to see what you should wear that day. With socks, it’s the ones that don’t stand up on their own.

36. You’re an expert of coming into a dorm at night and getting dressed by cell phone light without waking anyone.

37. Having sex in a dorm of 10 people is ok now. In fact…

38. ..Sometimes you sleep even better when someone is rocking the bed underneath/above. You put in the head phones and get rocked to sleep. Tomorrow you switch roles with the bunk-mate.

39. You take packing light to another level. Souvenirs just weigh you down.

40. You’ve run out of passport pages.

41. The item you lose the most a hostels is your quick-dry towel. After a shower you hang it on a bunk and forget it.

42. You’ve been known to get to a new hostel and rummage through their lost and found, and find someone else’s quick-dry towel that they forgot. You keep it, even if it’s pink.

43. For you, finding a half empty bottle of shampoo in the shower is like gold.

44. You look down on people who use Lonely Planet. You plan your travels from the recommendations of fellow backpackers.

45. You’ve flown on Ryanair and Easyjet and Wizzair enough times that flying any other airline feels like a 1st class upgrade.

46. You can honestly not imagine a real job again and vow to never return to the “real world” 9-5 life.



47. You are too busy to shave, even though you are more free than ever before. You’re friends wouldn’t even recognize you. You also probably have tons of bracelets from different countries on your wrists.

48. Your friends back home have tons of postcards on their fridges from you, and secretly hate you.

49. You can eat street food for every meal, as long as it’s cheap. In fact you prefer it. Fried chicken from a cart on the street in Costa Rica? Yes please!

50. You know you’re a backpacker, because while reading this you kept saying “that’s so true!”.

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