Extreme : Of a character or kind beyond the ordinary or average.

Some people you meet along the road are living in luxury, class, and style. Traveling by way of enormous suitcases carried into 5 star resorts by bellboys. Others you meet—probably the majority of travelers—like to spend their vacations with moderate pockets. Sleeping in hotels, riding in tour buses or rental cars, and dining in nice restaurants.

And then there are backpackers. This type of traveler can be split into two groups. The first being your standard hostel going, street food eating, public transportation riding folks who take cost into consideration, but will likely splurge here or there on that world famous meal or that bungee jumping tour. The second being the group I call ‘the extremists’—extreme backpackers. These are the people you meet along the road who will do anything and everything in their power to stay on the road. Travelers going to the utmost and greatest lengths in their actions to be able to travel just that much farther. Some may say ‘desperate’ to continue. 

The following tips, ideas, and stories are all from extreme backpackers I’ve met in my own travels. You may not be an ‘extremist’ yourself, but you might just find some of these points to be pretty helpful if you’re ever in a bind.

 Getting Money

• Pre-traveling, pack up a few so-called valuables to bring along with you. If you wind up needing extra cash, you can sell these items to locals or other travelers in need. One guy I met in Costa Rica had brought a handful of cheap watches that he was selling for $5 each to other backpackers in our hostel. It paid for his dinner and his stay in the hostel that night. 

• Make things such as bracelets or paintings. I saw a couple backpackers in Panama sitting on the curb selling tons of homemade pipe cleaner animals for $1 each so they could afford their bus fare.

• Have an awesome talent or skill? Can you sing, play an instrument, braid hair, do acrobatics, unicycle in a banana costume while juggling oranges and yodeling? Take it to a busy street and set up a donation box. A friend of mine is a professional hula hooper and brings along her collapsible light-up hoop to perform spontaneous shows on the beach for people. And they leave tips!

• If photography or videography is your thing, ask fellow travelers about taking their portraits and sell each photo or film (via CD, USB, or emailed jpeg image/GoPro file) for a small fee. This would most likely work best while on a tour or while traveling with the same people consistently. Always have their permission and an agreement on payment first!

• Find a temporary or short term job such as dog walking or babysitting to bring in extra funds if you’re staying somewhere for more than just a few days. 

Getting Food and Supplies

• Though typically hit or miss, a lot of hostels have a ‘Free Box’ full of discarded items no longer wanted by other travelers. This is a great way to get some free shampoo! I’ve seen such a random collection of items in these boxes—from gross socks to a clown nose to a nice thermos and everything in between.

• Hostels are also a great way to load up on snacks, as many offer free breakfast foods or fridges specifically filled with free food for sharing and taking. 

• Head to the local bakery in town at closing time and ask about getting free or discounted food that they will just throw out anyway. Many bakeries can’t sell their delicious goods the next day because they typically wouldn’t be considered fresh. 

• When you know you’ll be hiking or camping, pack up some free toilet paper from your accommodation or from a restroom along the way. Even if you don’t need it for doing your business, a runny or stuffy nose will thank you. And out of common courtesy, always make sure you aren’t leaving with the only TP available.

• If you’re really desperate, when heading to a restaurant, scope out a table that hasn’t been cleared of food yet. Put any untouched food into a ziploc bag in your purse or backpack. I traveled with someone who would do this all the time before ordering a light meal or just a drink. At first I was appalled, until one night and one long bus ride later, she fed my starving stomach with a slice of untouched cold pizza she nabbed from the Italian joint we visited the day before. Like I said…the extreme. 

Getting Accommodation

• Tents and hammocks are always highly useful when it comes to free or cheap lodging. One guy I knew that traveled with a hammock, asked hostels and B&B’s if he could string it up for a cheaper rate and saved loads of money on lodging because of it! 

• If you have a vehicle at-hand, you can use it to your advantage by sleeping in it to save on lodging costs. This is assuming you’re in a safe, relatively busy area and the weather is decent. Most large supercenters allow free overnight parking (though typically for RV’s, I’ve known people to park their car near an overnighting RV with no trouble). Most Walmart’s are especially known for this. Highway rest areas are probably your best bet though. 

• Many hostels will give you free accommodation in exchange for your working hours with them. It never hurts to ask the hostel if this is an option. 

• Sleep in airports and catch the free hotel shuttle vans to get there and back. You don’t necessarily need to have a flight out from that airport to sleep on the chairs inside (although some security guards might ask you to show proof of departure) and you don’t necessarily have to have a reservation with the hotel you’re using for free transportation. 

• This one will reiterate on “the extreme” again, but I just had to share this insane idea. In a travel video about these two crazy cousins train hopping and border crossing their way down to Mexico (blanking on its name), the two guys in the video decided to try to sleep inside a Walmart overnight—in a clothing rack! They entered the building late at night when less people were around and each took stake inside their own circular clothing rack that hung long dresses and nightgowns (so that nobody could detect them on the floor inside). Unfortunately, an elderly woman perusing through the nightgowns at 3am found one of the guys curled up inside the rack and they had to leave. I wouldn’t exactly recommend this idea (at all), but it was just mind-blowing to witness the length people will go just to save money and continue their journey!

Extra

• Talk to and socialize with the people around you! Not only will you gain familiar faces to adventure with, but it could also mean being in-the-know about deals and offers! For example, through sharing crazy stories with a guy on my 5 hour bus ride to Denali National Park, he offered me his mosquito headnet when we parted ways. It meant not having to buy one myself! While traveling through Central America, there were multiple offers for free rides from travelers with vehicles. A friend of mine was invited to a free yacht party after chatting up a friendly expat. Sometimes your best resources are the people around you! 

Let me just remind you (again) that these tips and ideas are geared toward the people looking for any way to stay on the road and continue their journey. Many of these require using your best judgement and consideration to others, and being highly attentive to safety. These are not tips and ideas for the average traveler—although the average traveler could still apply a few of these to save some money. 

With a little creativity and outside-the-box thinking, you’d be surprised at how far you, too, can travel!

Have you heard of any other insane ideas that travelers have tried just to stay on the road? Have you done or witnessed any of these yourself? Tell me in the comments! 

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