Be Inspired to Live Your Travel Adventures

Jacque & Mark Hagan have been traveling the world since the 70's. They kindly share their travel experiences and advice as part of our Travel Chats series.

You just can't even begin to imagine ever going on a guided tour or on a cruise...

Jacque & Mark's travels started back in 1974. Just out of university when the expectation was to put a down payment on a house, they instead did what was known as the Hippie Trail. An over land trip from Australia to Europe. It was at the same time as the authors were creating The Lonely Planet guide,

This is why Jacque and Mark love independent travel: "...It really gets into your blood. You just can't even begin to imagine ever going on a guided tour or on a cruise because of the absolute excitement you get when you get off the plane and you think wow, we're here and we've got to find the bus from the airport to wherever we're going. Then we just got to figure out what each day is going to be..."

Highlights From A Chat With Jacque & Mark...

Jacque & Mark's Key Points of Advice...

• Independent travel offers a sense of excitement. Getting off your flight finding the bus to wherever you're going and then working out what each day is going to be, offers an exciting challenge.
• First, choose a country or region you are really excited about; do plenty of research and reading about the history, the current situation and the culture.
• Studying the history beforehand helps you understand much more about the people and their circumstances. This also allows you to better understand the architecture or geography in a historical context.
• While a higher level of risk taking may appeal to the younger traveler, at this stage in life, travel is not about doing anything that’s dangerous or risky. Instead it’s the satisfaction of meeting people in out of the way places where it's not dangerous. 
• Learning to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in the local language always makes a huge difference.
• Leave most of your luggage behind, ideally 7kg but no more than 10 kg.
• Better to travel to one country or two or three countries in a region. This limits the range of clothing required as luggage. Plus, it saves getting confused about the culture and history than if you spread your travel itinerary too far.
• Always prefer to use public transport as that allows you to interact with people rather than observe them from inside a rental vehicle.
• Always have your antenna up and be very, very aware about where you are. But don't allow that to interfere with your ability to interact with local people. Operate from the position that locals are typically trying to be friendly and welcoming you to their country. You don't automatically need to assume they're out to cause harm, trying to sell or steal something.
• Engaging with locals offers a great source of local knowledge such as interesting places to see you often would not know about.
• Apart from the flight in and flight out, do not to have a fixed itinerary. Keep yourself open to local suggestions. Meeting people can create other ideas you hadn’t considered and open up amazing experiences you could never find on an organized tour.
• It's important to make yourself available to listen to people and show an interest in them so you can find opportunities you won't find in any guidebook. The locals know their town far better than any writer of a guidebook. In many cases, they know interesting things to do and places to see of which the tourist office has never even heard of.
• In summary: The two rules of travelling. No more than 10 kilos of luggage and do not rent a car. Those two things will guarantee you a fantastic trip. It is very liberating and relaxing to take a bus, lie back and let somebody else have the stress of driving, find parking, etc. Plus you get to experience the richness of interacting with people along the way.

This article is part of the The Youthful Midlife Traveler. Tips and advice how to travel the world as a free independent traveler, where you wish and on your terms. To subscribe Click Here.