Monday’s article on What Backpacking IS and IS NOT received a pretty positive response thanks largely to a Reddit submission made by Eyeflare, thanks Eyeflare! One negative comment the article received on the Reddit submission, that I would like to respond to today, was:

“backpacking is the middle-class playing at being poor”

Obviously, I do not agree with this comment, but I do think it is viewpoint held quietly among a notable percentage of people around the world, who basically stereotype backpackers as a group of “self-righteous hippies”. So, for today, I would like to indirectly defend the idea of backpacking through an argument against “Luxury or Comfort Travel”:

Many of my Go Budget Travel readers already know this, but for those of you who don’t, I am currently working as a coordinator for a grassroots development project in Quito, Ecuador. About a year ago, a friend of mine who works with the US Embassy in Quito, contacted me about having drinks with a Congressman who was going to be in Quito for a couple of days, and wanted to talk to somebody who is “in touch with the people” (please note I am NOT an important person down here, my friend just knew that I was available). I accepted, and was told to meet the Congressman that Thursday, at the Marriott restaurant/bar in Quito, where he was staying, and would be returning that day after touring the country in private jet.

I met with the Congressman later on that week for drinks, and we had a pleasant conversation about what I do, about the country, etc. However, the whole time I was thinking to myself, this guy has no clue about how to effectively visit and learn about foreign cultures. Through our conversation it was very obvious that he was quite interested in learning all about the Ecuadorian people, but was clearly going about it in the wrong way. Which leads me to my argument against luxury/comfort travel:

You can spend the rest of your life visiting every corner of the globe, but if you do so from a Penthouse balcony, you will never really learn anything about the cultures you are visiting.

Under normal circumstances, I don’t have anything against consumerism (in my opinion it drives the global economy, and is key to most our well-beings), nor do I disagree with people spending money on comfort if they can afford it. If you work your butt off, and are successful, there is no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy the fruits of that success. However, in the context of international travel, where the traveler is genuinely interested in enlightening themselves on foreign cultures, as this Congressman was, you really have to choose which is more important: Learning about the people, or traveling in comfort.

If you choose “Learning about the people”, you have to LIVE like the people. Which, most of the time means living in family-run hotels/hostels, riding the bus, shopping in markets, eating in local restaraunts, and spending your free time talking to locals as opposed to other English speakers, etc. Obviously, this is a less “comfortable” way to travel, but it is the only way to get a first-hand look into what life is like in that specific culture, and rewards them with a kind of enlightenment and experience that you just can’t get from reading a book, watching a documentary, or talking to another foreigner about his/her experience in the country. It is an enlightenment that comes by living AMONG the people, not by looking at them through a tinted window.

What do you think? Leave your comments below!