Photo by emanuela marchiafava

To add a little challenge to my trip I did the following:

1. I stuck to off-the-beaten-path locales
2. I stopped using a guidebook
3. I started arriving at strange cities at late hours and without a clue

Result: it was still laughably easy.

This is because the world is getting more convenient each day. Even little-traveled places are getting smart to tourism and have reliable information close at hand. Most people in the world are happy to see foreigners and willing to help. If the people around you don’t speak English, they will know someone who does.

And even if they don’t, communication with hand gestures, noises and scribbles can get you close enough to what you want.

To have a truly challenging travel experience these days, you have to undertake days-long treks in countries most people never knew existed. You have to go to places blacklisted by most foreign relation ministries.

And such places today are quickly heading for extinction.

The Internet is everywhere, whether by fiber, cellular towers or satellites. Banks are connected to a global electronic system. There is always a place to stay anywhere you go.

Of course, there are places in the world where safety is a problem, where you can’t just arrive at 2 am without an idea of where to go. But taking simple precautions vastly reduce the chances of something bad happening.

This all distills to a single message:

There is no excuse to not travel independently and on the cheap.

After six months on the road, organized tours and all-inclusive packages seem utterly needless. They are the travelers’ nanny states, telling you how to live and protecting you from yourself.

They restrict you in what should be an exercise in absolute liberation: the freedom to choose where to go, when to go there and what to see.

Money is likewise a poor excuse. With more broke backpackers on the road than ever before, budget services vastly outnumber high-end options. No money? Start saving now.

So what’s keeping you form taking your dream trip?