Travel planning advice that skips the fluff and gets to the point.
Backpacking Is Life is built around the decisions that actually shape a trip — where to go, how to get there, what to sort before you leave, and how to spend less without missing out.
Every article starts from the same question: what would genuinely help someone who’s about to book something? That usually means clearer comparisons, more direct route advice, realistic budgets, and fewer vague suggestions to “just go with the flow.”
Photo by Baguette Knight on Unsplash
About Lee
Backpacking Is Life is a one-person site. Lee writes, researches, and publishes everything on it. There’s no editorial team, no ghostwriters, and no filler content posing as experience.
The editorial standard is straightforward: publish advice that’s actually useful when someone is choosing where to go, figuring out transport, or trying to avoid turning basic travel admin into unnecessary stress.
That means a lot of attention goes into route order, timing, realistic costs, transport trade-offs, travel cards, ATM access, eSIMs, and the parts of travel that are rarely glamorous but often matter the most.
What The Site Covers
- Destination guides built around planning decisions, not listicles.
- Route advice and itineraries — including which order actually makes sense.
- Transport comparisons for buses, trains, ferries, flights, and border crossings.
- Travel money, cards, ATMs, eSIMs, insurance, and the admin that saves real money.
- Longer-trip planning for when a holiday turns into weeks or months on the road.
How The Site Tries To Be Useful
Most travel content is written to inspire. This site is written to be useful. The difference matters when you’re mid-planning, comparing three routes, trying to figure out if a bus or a flight makes more sense, or wondering whether a place actually needs four days or two.
Which places are worth the time, and how long they actually need.
Bus vs. train vs. flight trade-offs, route order, and booking logistics.
The unsexy details that save real money and prevent real headaches.
Systems for staying organised and keeping momentum over weeks or months.
On Recommendations
Some articles include affiliate links to travel cards, insurance, eSIMs, and booking platforms. When they do, the standard is the same: recommend things that solve a real problem, not things that pay the highest commission. If something isn’t worth using, it doesn’t get a link.
Editorial Approach
The writing is direct, specific, and realistic. Travel decisions are trade-offs — more time here means less time there, the cheap option has a reason it’s cheap, the scenic route takes longer. The site reflects that rather than pretending every choice has one right answer.
Good Places To Start
Start Here
A shortcut to the site’s most useful planning pages, all in one place.
First Trip Guide
New to backpacking? Get the fundamentals right before you leave.
Destinations
Browse by country or region without wading through unrelated posts.
Plan Your Trip
Transport, travel money, trip admin, and the practical planning basics.