Backpacking 4 Beginners
Hi everyone. This is Tommo & Megsy.
We had one simple mission in creating Backpacking 4 Beginners:
Help first time backpackers travel like pros from day one.
We’ve developed this site to be a process. From choosing where you want to travel to what gear you’ll need to how to travel safe and spend less on the road.
This is an organised backpacking 101 from A to Z. Complete orientation to help you learn the ropes before you are actually out doing it for real. We want you to be able to surprise other first time backpackers with your knowledge and skills.
We are Tommo & Megsy!
BUT, why are we qualified to write about travel?
Because between the two of us we travel, and have travelled to over 80 countries around the globe and to every continent (including Antarctica!). This number is set to rise, possibly indefinitely (Maybe we’ll make it to Mars one day)
We are travel addicts always looking for our next fix… And trying to get the best value for money while doing it. One great site we use to get cheaper accommodation: AirBnB ($25 Discount on first stay with this link).
Our most recent trip started in April 2013 and is still going!
After spending so long on the road, we’ve proved that you can travel full time, in style, anywhere (Apart from Antarctica & Outer space!), for less than $750 USD per month.
If you’d like to know how it’s done, join our Travel Freedom newsletter, and we’ll show you how to Discover Travel Freedom for yourself.
We believe everyone can & should travel more. In our Blog & Podcast we reveal how we travel well for way less than you’d expect and how to build an online income to support travelling as much as you want.
Of course, if it’s your first backpacking trip, you may not be ready to give up your home forever and become location independent.
It’s time to just get out and experience what the world has to offer. We’ve had our fair share of experiences, maybe some of these you’d want to go out and do yourself:
Random bullet points about Tommo & Megsy
Some of our crazy shit we have done in those 80+ countries
Tommo swimming with a whaleshark in The Philippines
- Danced on the back of a moving truck while being sprayed by a fire hose at the Thingyan water festival on the streets of Yangon, Burma.
- Stayed with a nomadic family in Mongolia while crossing the country overland from east to west and broke down in the Gobi desert.
- Stayed a week in a 16th century French chateau for free – through Housesitting
- Tommo kissed a crocodile, on the lips, and has the photos to prove it – sign up to our email list for that one
- Swam with whale sharks in the Philippines
- Had birthday drinks with an Angolan diplomat in Portugal
- Got covered in colour at the Holi festival in india.
Megsy at Holi Festival in Jaipur, India
- Lived in the french alps for a month and only spent $546 USD (for both of us!)
- Trained Elephants and joined them for a mud bath in Thailand
- Lived in a volcanic spa in South Korea
- Learned how to make real italian pizza and gelato in Florence, Italy
- Went camping at Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia
- Danced on tables at a greek taverna in Athens, Greece at 6pm in the afternoon on a Sunday – because that’s how it’s done.
Dancing on tables in Athens, Greece
Our travel stats/highlights
- Both been independent travelling / Backpacking since 2006
- We met in Denmark in 2010 and have been travelling together ever since.
- We have been to over 80 countries.
- Megsy had been to all 7 continents, including Antarctica. And visited both arctic circles in the same year (2009)
- Tracked every dollar of our budget from April 2013 to April 2015 – we traveled on $22 USD per person, per day – not including Insurance. We even recorded a podcast featuring all the details.
- Now we fund our full time travel freedom lifestyle through our travel blog & Podcast and teach others how to discover travel freedom for themselves.
Tommo & Megsy: Soaking up the winter sun on the Algarve coast, Portugal.
Advertising & PR
To all potential business partners, please visit our Advertising & PR page on our personal blog (http://foodfuntravel.com) for a full breakdown of our site stats and opportunities for working together.
ATTENTION FELLOW TRAVEL BLOGGERS: If you have a blog we’d be happy to guest post, and we are looking for guest posters for this blog too. Just get in touch using our contact form in the footer at the bottom of the page.
Don't find out the hard way... Learn from veteran travelers exactly how to do everything right the first time. Don't forget a thing.
Yours FREE:
Ultimate Backpacking Checklist: The definitive pre-trip to do list
Our Travel Flags
We have now been to 80+ countries – here are some of the flags we’ve collected! One day I will update the rest.
Tommo
Originally from the UK, I caught the travel bug in 2006 and since then spent my time seeking out ways to get paid whilst travelling.
The simplest starting point was to have a job that incorporates travel. I’m a musician, its a flexible career that lets any one motivated enough, to find or create international opportunities. From living in the french alps to working on a cruise ship and many travel and backpacking trips in between, I have come to realise that you can see a lot of the world and get paid to do it, but like any full-time job, work always comes first and you often miss out on the freedom of independent travel…
Over the years I have been honing my skills to become the “ultimate budgeteer”. The past has brought about an insatiable wanderlust that can only be satisfied by bigger and better travel experiences.
The future holds so many possibilities, and this blog is all about the culmination of everything we have learned about traveling being taken forward into perpetual TRAVEL FREEDOM. Join us as we embark on a journey into the unknown and we bring back stories and advice from all the destinations we’ll be visiting.
Read about my 15 Favourite Asian Foods from 14 months in Asia OR my 8 reasons why I think hiking sucks!
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| I’m the One on the right… |
Megsy
Deciding in 2006 to head overseas, none of my friends seemed interested in joining me so I headed off by myself…..well sort of, I was on a Geckos tour for a large portion of the trip but it was a start!
Travelling through Vietnam and Cambodia I realized that the thing I love most about travel is the people and their stories, wether they happen to be locals or fellow travellers, everyone had a good yarn to tell and was willing to take the time to sit down with a stranger and tell it.
I started work on Cruise Ships in 2008 and was lucky enough to get to see most of the world though my 2 and a half years at sea. My guilty pleasure is telling people I’ve been in both arctic circles in the same year!
In 2010 I met a boy who it turns out has a love of travel just like me, and not just the everyday travel but the urge to go to places that no one you or I know has ever been to or even heard of. Tom and I never want to stop travelling. It’s about constantly seeking out the next adventure and making sure that when you get there you make it worthwhile meeting awesome people, have an amazing time and when you’re old and grey you have a great story to tell!!!
Read about why I’m a traveller who hates travelling
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