They fill up the streets, the plazas, the airports and the terminals. The play and sing with guitar in hand in the markets and on buses. They sell handicrafts in the main plazas and in the parks. They juggle at traffic circles and on the avenues. They put out their thumbs and hitch-hike so they can get free transportation from one place to another. They look for the cheapest deals, and they haggle over everything at hotels, restaurants, in taxis, and on flights.

Some of these people are vagabonds who have abandoned their work and their families. Others are adventurers who have courageously left behind everything in order to be able to fulfill their lifelong dream to travel. Some of the local residents are offended by their presence here, and they argue that these people are stealing jobs, that they are dirty, and that they live by begging. Other locals consider them to be great travelers, and they help them out by giving them a place to stay, by offering rides and contacts, and by sharing their time with them.

Faced with so many differing opinions, we ask:

What is a backpacker, really?

According to the Oxford dictionary, a backpacker is person who travels on foot carrying a backpack. Wikipedia has the same concept: a backpacker is a person who travels with a backpack on his shoulders, and who independently tries to solve any problems encountered on his journey.

So, from the self-image which the backpacker projects, we can deduce that a backpacker is one who travels with his home on his back. He travels over continents, through countries, and into cities. His motive for traveling can be for pleasure, for self-discovery, to enjoy new experiences, to meet new people, to see new places, or for countless other reasons.

Within this immense group of backpackers who now travel on all the highways of the world, you can find crafts-people, professionals, digital nomads, couples, and friends who have turned traveling into a way of life. Therefore, beyond all the accepted definitions of the word, it is necessary to remember that what a backpacker is cannot be determined by the dictionary definition of the word.

A backpacker should not be labeled that just because of the backpack that he carries, any more than a tourist ought to be defined by the amount of money he spends. Everyone loves to travel. Everyone loves freedom, and everyone loves to escape from boring routine. We travel for the pleasure of traveling. We travel to conquer the world. We travel so we can be ourselves all of the time.