Somewhere before my bus broke down in Australia, I was called a flashpacker. Despite being on the road for 18 months, it was the first time I’d heard the term. A flashpacker is someone, unusually in their mid 20s to early 30s, who travels like a backpacker but has more disposal income as well as electronics such as a camera, Ipod, or laptop. Flashpackers also expect better accommodation and amenities.
Neither fully backpacker nor tourist, flashpacking is new to the traveling lexicon. Flashpackers still sleep in dorm room, carry a big backpack, want cheap transportation but we also want nice meals, hot showers, fancy tours, and good drinks. They usually aren’t strolling into a hostel randomly or wearing the same shirt for a week. A number of hostels are up scaling to meet the growing demands and needs of flashpackers and you’ll find them in all corners of the world. Flashpackers still travel the world and wander without a fixed schedule or itinerary. They are backpackers with means.
Backpacking is not about how you look or act but about the way you think and travel. Just because someone doesn’t have the look, doesn’t mean they lack the spirit. It doesn't make a person less of a backpacker. It goes against the backpacker mentality to look down on someone because they travel differently. Aren’t we supposed to be embracing different ways of life?
It comes down to what makes a backpacker a backpacker and that’s spirit. The desire to explore new places and experience new people. Backpacking is about opening your mind to new things and looking differently at the world. It’s not about the stuff you carry. As long as your intentions are the same, what you carry is not important.
We’re all flashpackers, whether you like it or not. We may not be driving up to the hostel in a limo but we all expect a little “flash” nowadays. According to a Hostelworld study in 2006, 21 percent of people travel with a laptop, 54 percent with an MP3 player, 83 percent with a mobile phone and a whopping 86 percent travel with a digital camera.
Now think about your last trip- how many people you see with cameras? Ipods? Laptops? I can’t remember seeing one person without a camera, and at least 3/4 of the people I saw had Ipods.We all have them and these are all flashpacking items.
The truth is we all travel with fancy electronics now. We check our email and Skype our friends. We all have a nice camera and, usually, we have an mp3 device. We've become flashpackers and that's not a bad thing. This helps us stay in touch with our family and friends and helps us better chronicle our ttravels around the world. The key is to once in awhile to put down the camera, turn off the computer, and enjoy the culture you came to see.
The backpacker who set off with 1 shirt, a small pack, and two baht to his name is getting hard to find. Most of us have a little more means and expect a little more but we still carry his spirit. We still seek new cultures, exotic locales, and long term travel. We desire cheap hostels and transportation just like other travelers. We still camp on that jungle trek. The difference is that now we also want a place to plug in our camera, check our e-mail, take a hot shower, and splash out on tours. We just want to be pampered…once in awhile.
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