5 Frugal Ideas for Backpackers to Stay Connected with Friends on the Road

Staying connected with friends while you’re on the road is important while backpacking because when you’re far from home it’s nice to have a connection with people that know and love you. That feeling of being connected to friends from home can make the difference between feeling confident, happy and making the most of the holiday, or feeling isolated and alone.

Here are five frugal ideas for backpackers to stay connected with friends while on the road.

Cheap Postcards

Cheap postcards are an awesome way to stay connected with friends from home. Not only do they cost hardly anything to buy but it gives you an opportunity to share a picture of where you are at and some of your stories about how your trip is going. The versatility of postcards makes them an ideal communication device that you can take anywhere. Laying on the beach enjoying a spot of sunbathing can be much more fun if you have postcards to write, and because they are small it doesn’t take long to write them so you have so much more time to enjoy your holiday!

Letters

Sending letters via post is another great way to stay in touch with friends while you are backpacking. Yeah sure when you are at home sending emails is the most common way that you would do it but while on holiday a written letter can mean so much more for the person receiving it. It also gives you the chance to include in detail how your journey is going and all the things that you’ve been doing.

Start a blog

If you aren’t good with animals, or can’t find a carrier pigeon that will take your letter, why not start a holiday blog. It means that you can simply stop in every so often to upload photos and write a quick blurb about what you are doing. Your friends and family can check it out when they have time, so there’s no need to worry about being in a different time zone and not being able to catch each other.

Skype

Sometimes when you are alone in a foreign country all you want is to see a friendly familiar face. Using Skype is an awesome way to stay in contact with friends while you are travelling. It’s easy to carry a cheap headset with you in your backpack and when you stop in to an internet café or library you could call up phone friends for next to nothing, and chat face to face.

Email

If you are pressed for time and can’t be bothered taking the time to write a letter or postcard, or you simply don’t have time to Skype everyone that you want to contact, email is the way to go. It’s totally free, and all it takes is a couple of minutes out of your internet time at a café or library. The best part about it is that you can write a generic one and send it to several people at once!