Backpacking Tips & Tricks

The more people you eat with, the cheaper it'll be.

1 - I’ve mentioned it before, but don’t assume that because you’re backpacking, you must have a backpack. I came out with a 120L capacity backpack and within just a few room changes I was ready to dump it and leave all my worldly possessions behind. A suitcase will become your best friend - easy to move, easy to pack, and most of all - easy to see where the hell all your stuff is! There is nothing more frustrating than trying to find a specific item of clothing and looking like a vet with his arm inside a cow - trust me, wheels are best.

2 - Never be afraid to ask for the odd cheeky discount. When buying my suitcase it was $199, a little over my budget. But after a simple question of ‘do you do backpackers discount…?’ I had managed to work $80 off - bargains! 

3 - Suncream suncream suncream. I can’t stress this enough - anything under SPF 50 and you will burn. To be honest, even with SPF 50 you’ll still have the odd lobster day. The ozone layer is a lot thinner in Australia, making it deceivingly difficult to guess when you need to apply. Simple solution - buy the aerosol kind and top up regularly, no stickiness, no greasy hands and you’ll be covered within 20 seconds. 

Shopping Around

Just a few of the options available to you

If like me, you’re choosing to go travelling with the help of a company and organisation, such as Bunac or STA Travel etc, it’s vital to look around and conduct thorough research before making any big decisions of who to go with. After aimlessly typing “working in Australia” into Google one day (no doubt I was probably sitting in a lecture bored at that time), I was overwhelmed by the amount of results and the vast number of choices available. For the first-time traveller, such as myself, I was looking for an organisation to fly out with, something that would introduce me to living in Australia and would eventually get me on my way to working and earning out there. Of course this isn’t everyone’s first choice. A lot of people don’t see the sense in paying £400/500 to get ‘settled in’, when they could just book a flight and work it out for themselves for free when they got there. That’s all well and true, but for those of us that like that little extra bit of security and forward planning, these are just a couple of the great options available...