The Tux in the Backpack

Yes, the global financial crisis is affecting us all in some way, and often is not good news. When it comes to travel, people tend to do it less. Holidays are shorter, or destinations are closer to where we normally live. Hotels have less bookings, airlines less flyers.

But there is some good news: as a consequence of all this prices are going down, and if you’re willing to travel now you can get some great deals that you wouldn’t have dreamed of even just one year ago.

Airline prices are into a “pleasant descent“. Low cost carriers meanwhile continue their rapid growth. According to KPMG “Traditional airlines are already moving closer to the low-cost model, but they will need to do so even more rapidly. In the long run the current downturn will squeeze the gap between low-cost carriers and traditional ones.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 37% [?]

Another two weeks, another review of the best that has been written online regarding the Flashpacking phenomenon.

First of all we have to point out how in the last month or two there has been a sharp increase in ready-made articles from sites like Articledashboard.com or Ezinearticles.com, and a lot of fake travel blogs scraping articles about Flashpacking from other travel blogs. We take that as a good sign that the phenomenon is growing, however here we bring you only the best, fresh and original content, even if sometimes there’s only a few of those posts.

Rogue Stampede: Travel is for cheap turds. Or not.

A very interesting article against those who look from above at flashpackers, claiming that you have to rough it at all costs in order to experience the culture of a place. Nice room = no culture experienced? “Does living in a grotty hostel with drunk idiots on the bunk below you – and shaking the damned bed as it is – an authentic cultural experience?”

One of the best pieces on flashpacking (and allow us to say, on travelling as well) written lately.

a cultural experience?

The Free Radicals Blog: Flashpackers, are you one ?

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 22% [?]

That time of the month again. The usual bi-weekly appointment with the best of what has been said online about Flashpacking.  Not a great quantity of articles in the last two weeks, but definitely great quality. Let’s get started.

Habitat Hostel, Singapore, in TravelPod.com

I wouldn’t go as far as saying (as claimed on the article) that this is the only boutique flashpackers hostel in Singapore, but surely Habitat Hostel is showing us that even a dorm can be quite fancy. Excellent location and funky color themed rooms.

The flashpacker’s guide to the galaxy. Times of India

One of the best pieces written lately on Flashpacking, exploring the phenomenon as it expands in India as well. And of course merit for one catchy article title. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 51% [?]

Allow me to insert a more personal post on this Flashpacking Blog. It has to do with Flashpacking as well, of course.
The thing is.. maybe I don’t want to be a Digital Nomad. I know I am a nomad and that is not too likely to change, but maybe I want to be a slower, employed nomad instead of a digital one.

maybe it takes more effort...

There’s a lot of blogs and websites out there telling you how to “live your life making money online”:

How not to be location dependent; how to be an expert in social media, blogging, viral stuff, ebooks; how to be the ultimate digital nomad.

Many of them are very well done, and sure their authors make a very decent living out of it. But I’ve also seen a lot of bad ones, the “make a trillion online in a month” ones, where they show you proudly some Adsense receipt and ask you to give them your email address (if not also some of your money).

Well all this made me think that maybe a lot of what we see online is just a more advanced, refined version of the old crappy MLM and affiliate sites. I’m not saying this out of disillusion because I’ve tried and didn’t work for me. After all I’m living in a very affordable place at the moment (Budapest) and I’m making some little income. I could continue doing this is some place that I love and that’s even cheaper (like Thailand or Indonesia).

But as I’m trying to find out my next destination (and occupation) my thoughts go more or less like this:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 100% [?]

Quite a lot has been said about Flashpacking in the last couple of weeks. As usual the best has been captured here on the bi-weekly Flashpacking Blog Carnival.

Noches Multimedia, ElPais.com

Flashpacking gets attention in the Spanish world with this article, where we learn how the phenomenon is spreading rapidly across Spain, especially in Valencia and Barcelona. We also learn that the term backpacker in Spanish is mochilero, and that Flashpacker hostels can be called TechnoHostales. There you go, two more useful words for you.

Purple Nest Hostel, Valencia

La Mia Bellissima Avventura (My Beautiful Adventure)

A new Flashpacker is around, and her blog is definitively one to follow. Lauren after working 3 years in pharmaceutical and hitting a bit of a mid-life crisis decided to leave her job and her Chicago and go travelling in Italy. The blog describes her adventures and thoughts, and explains why she has chosen Flashpacking as her travel style. Lauren also came up with her personal definition of Flaspacking.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 64% [?]