BackpackerBanter.com

2011 was an exciting year for my blogging – after setlling back into to life in the UK after a year in Australia and combined with my job at STA Travel I decided to focus my blogging in a more professional manner and relaunched it as backpackerbanter.com As part of this I immersed myself in [...]

Backpacking travel is a very unique and amazing experience. It’s something that distinctively changes your perception on the world, the need to explore and most significantly the way you interact with people as a whole. For me travel presents a great opportunity to meet a whole heap of new faces, faces whose backgrounds, viewpoints and [...]

I thoroughly enjoyed my Full Moon Party experience and survived in one piece – however I’ve heard some pretty nasty horror stories from Haad Rin of unprepared, overly carefree backpackers who’s night on the beach has tarnished their travel experience. So I’ve put together all the nuggets of advice I’ve picked up…here’s my Top 10 [...]

As I’m sure you’re aware I’m heading off to Thailand next month (well in just over week!), so once again kit lists have entered my frame of thought. What do I take, what do I leave, how shall I lug the eventual supplies around?! Well I’ve come to a few conclusions. First off I want [...]

Keeping fit and healthy during your gap year can make the difference between having an epic time or flying home early, so in this instalment of our Gap Year Planner we I’ll be introducing you to James Moore – who set up Travel Health Consultancy, a one stop shop for all your travel health needs. [...]

We all know that old saying – “Getting There Is Half The Fun” – and we all know in most cases this rings the truth in so many ways. It’s especially true though when it comes to the subject of travelling. The whole “getting there” part doesn’t however start as soon as you walk into [...]

So far in our gap year planning feature we’ve covered a whole heap of topics – from where to head to what to pack. But there’s one majorly fundamental question which we’ve yet to ask. A question which can shape the entirety of your journey – who do you travel with?! Tweet

If you go into any travel agent or speak to any person who has travelled themselves then the main defining feature of planning a gap year will almost certainly come back the same – money. Tweet

Ok so we’ve dealt with where you might head and how you’re going to lug all your kit there – but what are you going to do once you’ve got there? Another massive divide amongst the backpacker world is how much planning you should actually do. And that’s what the third part of our Gap [...]

Having spent 12 months covering a large chunk of Australia this year – from West coast to East coast – I’ve picked up rather a lot of info along the way. Info that I’ll happily bestow upon anyone looking at heading to Oz and info that helps me do my job. It’s also info that [...]

Ok…so for anyone that knows me you know there’s one item that I couldnt live without – let me introduce Barry…my iPhone! I queued from 2am to get it when it was released and since June 2008 it’s basically synced everything in my life into one tiny pocket sized piece of amazingness! And since I’ve [...]