21 y.o. girl, looking to learn the basics of traveling alone and backpacking
Hello,
I'm a 21 year old girl who has never traveled outside of the US (where I live) and Bulgaria (where I grew up). I am going to be traveling in Central America down to Ecuador by myself and I don't know the first thing about traveling alone, or backpacking. Anyone have any suggestions for good places to start? How do I find hostels, meet people, avoid the super touristy parts of countries, how do I find information about cool places to go while avoiding the popular touristy areas?
I know this is really vague, but I'd appreciate any advice you can give me!
I hope to go through south Mexico, Guatemala and maybe make it all the way down to Ecuador, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet.
Thanks!
Rossy
Reply to this A travel guide is always good to give you the basic information about customs/currency/border crossings and pretty much anything else you could need to know! I've always found the Lonely Planet guides good and they do Central America or South America guides or even the option to 'pick and mix' various chapters depending on where you're going so you don't need one for each country. That's a good place to start and often can point you in the direction of backpcker hostels where you can easily meet other people. Talking to other backpackers is also a good way to get the low down of good local places to go/what's not worth going to or even just particularly good hostels etc. You'll often find people who are doing the same sort of trip as you in reverse so can give you ideas or people who are heading the same direction as you who you can travel with for a bit. Even better is to talk to the locals, they can point you in the direction of non-touristy parts better than anyone!
Have fun!
Kat x
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