Which do you prefer - backpacking or flashpacking?
 

I've been to several countries in SEA and clearly identified myself as a backpacker, but with the rise of our need to be connected (safety reasons is the major one!) I believe I've become the latter. Waterproof cams, mobile data, laptop, iPad, among others became like essentials to me while backpacking. What do you think about this? If you're a wanderlust like me, which do you categorize yourself?

Never heard of flashpacker. Anyway, we only travel with a backpack each when we travel anywhere....well except skiing that is. We do not stay where 'backpackers' stay though. We tend to stay in more upscale hotels and we always stay in a condo when in Pattaya.

My bag happens to rest on my shoulders but I am not a backpacker. I rarely stay where the backpackers stay.
To me, a flashpacker is just a backpacker with more electronic gadgets.

I consider myself a "budget traveler".

Poster #2 sounds like a flashpacker.

Poster #1 sounds like a backpacker with some electronics.

I'm neither despite my liking for travel - I've always found a suitcase or holdall much more convenient, but each to their own.

I can't see how the gadgetry you carry with you changes the type of tourist you are. Though it might be an interesting subdivision for marketers, who see a useful niche developing in the consumers' desire to place themselves in a distinct tech-savvy, more affluent, category of tourism.

I'd love to know what you believe identifies you as a backpacker rather than a run-of-the-mill traveller on a restricted budget. I'm hoping it's a bit more than the tiresome I am a traveller, you are a tourist silliness.

^^^

well, I'm still smarting from the criticism I got in this exchange:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23540788-post55.html :D

Neither. :cool:

Welcome to FlyerTalk. Since this post is a general travel topic rather than one specific to Thailand, I've moved it to the more appropriate TravelBuzz forum for further discussion.

Thanks

~Moderator, Thailand Forum

Last winter it was so cold in Central Park that the flashpackers were describing themselves.

I do enjoy traveling to Asia (I'm surmising that by SEA, you meant Asia and not Seattle), and I do travel with only a backpack, but I also prefer staying in 4* and 5* accommodations. I'm thinking that just makes me another white tourist, rather than a backpacker or flashpacker (Whatever that might be...).

I think of backpackers as grubby, sunburned 20-somethings on gap year, which is something I haven't been for a decade or two.

As we grow older - we have different needs as we travel. We can afford more, we learn how to get more for less. Its just natural evolution.


I dont stay at the same places I did when I was 21. I also dont engage in the same activities either while traveling. I'll occasionaly stay at a hostel if alone, and want to meet people - but I need my own room, and especially bathroom. The days of 8 people dorms are long gone - but god, was it ever fun 10 years ago.


Over the last 12 years or so, I probably spent if you add it all up at least a combined 4+ years "backpacking", at least one 10+ week trip a year - and yes, I've always considered myself a flashpacker - I never really made use of hostel kitchens, and would not try to save $2 by walking a mile vs taking the bus.

I dont think gadgets have anything to do with the differentiation, we flashpacked long before there was wifi or smarthphones, or even digital cameras. It has everything with how you behave, and how you spend your money, while you backpack.

The world of traveling and backpacking has changed quite a bit since I first went around Asia in 2003. Young people today are buried in their mobile screens, whereas the backpacking world used to be more social.

Its also much easier to travel, with google maps gps in your hand, numerous apps, instant photo upload, tablets, data plans, easy ways of getting/spending money, peer review sites, etc.

When I look back at backpaking even as little as10 years ago, it was VERY different.

I can only imagine how travel was before the advent of the internet, even not as far back as the 90s.


Oh, and I absolutely *love* getting dirty looks from stuffy old people, or the common corporate drone work flyer, when I rock up to biz class checkin with my backpack :)

That's not what a flashpacker is.

10 Key Signs of a Flashpacker...
 

I am not aware of any country in Seattle, let alone several. :p:D

I think OP meant Southeast Asia, not Asia in general.

I've seen some use shorthand SE Asia for Southeast Asia. That is definitely less misleading or confusing on FT.

FYI. A headsup for OP. For most FTers, SEA is decoded as Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, not Southeast Asia.

+1

FWIW, from an old news article where some pointers of flashpackers are provided: :)

Flashpacker is a person who has higher budgets and brings along more technology like laptops, camera, smartphone etc. Though I have never that sort of a traveler but I prefer to be more of a budget traveler.