About

Our mission

Backpacking Diplomacy exists to help people explore the world’s cultures with curiosity, humility, and respect, whether they’re planning a first trip or their fiftieth, and whether they ever leave home at all.

We’re building a global community to share the knowledge, stories, and practical tools that let anyone explore confidently. We see the world as a classroom. It has a lot to teach, and most of those lessons come from travelling and sharing with one another.

What we believe

Three principles run through everything we publish:

• Immerse yourself in local culture. Speak a little of the language, try the food, and dance when there’s dancing. A few words in someone’s language go a long way as a sign of respect.
• Respect local culture. Leave only footprints. Travelling well means meeting a place on its own terms, not yours.
• Enjoy every moment. A fulfilled life is one of new experiences. Travel is not a competition; it’s a way of living more fully.

We think people who are better travelled and more curious tend to be more open, and that openness, multiplied across enough people, makes the world a little more understanding. Ambitious? Maybe. But it has to start somewhere.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

— Maya Angelou

Who this is for

If you’re reading this, it’s for you. Some of what we publish is aimed at brand-new travellers finding their feet. Other pieces go deeper, meant to spark conversation among people who’ve been on the road for years. New or seasoned, the door’s open.

The team

Backpacking Diplomacy started as one person’s project and has grown from there. Whoever’s behind a given guide or story, share the same passions.

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A note from Andy, our founder

Hello and welcome. I’m Andy, and I started Backpacking Diplomacy back in 2012. I’m glad you’re here.

Where my interests came from

A lot of it traces back to where I’m from. Growing up in Louisiana, I was exposed to some genuinely interesting people and things, from pet alligators to French-speaking Cajuns living out in the woods. It’s an eclectic mix of culture with a fascinating history, and anyone who’s been knows exactly what I mean.

That curiosity grew at university. I met internationals and people from backgrounds very different from mine, and their stories left me with a restless need to see what I hadn’t seen and understand what I didn’t yet know. A first trip to Europe lit the fuse for good.

When I came home, I wanted to learn everything about what I’d seen and done, and to communicate in other languages. I fell hard for everything international: languages, politics, development, business, cultural practice. These days I live to experience what the world has to offer firsthand and to share what I pick up along the way. I’m a believer in cultural immersion, in trying new things, and in respecting local culture wherever I go.

Where it’s led me

Since I started, I’ve been lucky enough to take trips across many countries solo, meet people from all over, climb a mountain, and see my own country with new eyes. I’ve learned plenty out there, but mostly how little I actually know.

I don’t like to count countries, but it’s a fair few by now, and I’ve made it to most of the US as well (one state left). I’ve tried on different religions for a day, wrestled with different languages, and travelled in different ways, including hitchhiking. I’ve spent nights on the street, one with squatters in Detroit, and once an alligator ate my t-shirt. You can read my top 25 lessons learned here.

A few quick facts about me

• Where I’m from: Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
• Languages: English and Spanish, plus hello, goodbye, and thank you in a bunch of others, which helps right up until someone answers in full force. A polyglot in training, let’s say.
• Favorite music: On any given day, anything from Bachata to Bhangra to Japanese funk, Persian, or classical. It’s all good. Have a look at my YouTube playlists.
• What I most want to do: My tangibly un-tangible bucket list, written a long time ago. A lot of it’s still on my mind; some of it’s done.
• Most mysterious ruin: Tiwanaku, or maybe Nazca.
• Favorite topics: Ancient civilizations, languages, and culture.
• Favorite country: An impossible question. No such thing.
• Favorite food: Anything with some spice.

Travel trivia: which of these are not true?

A little game. Some of these are real, some aren’t:

• I once ate rotten whale in Iceland.
• The first mountain I climbed was Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
• I’m a street-food junkie. I prefer it when I travel.
• I once met the Japanese Prime Minister by accident.
• It’s almost impossible for me to resist dancing to Punjabi or Bhangra music.
• I fell in love with Louisiana Hot Sauce while eating a Turkish-style kebab made by a Moroccan in Barcelona, Spain.
• I once spent an entire night walking through New York City, including Harlem, Queens, and Brooklyn.
• A Turkish vendor once asked if I was Pakistani because I was haggling so hard in an Istanbul bazaar. (I hate tourist prices.)
• I couchsurfed for a night with a group of squatters in Detroit near 8 Mile Road.
• I once spoke freestyle gibberish with a Scandinavian guy for two minutes in a language I invented as I went. We eventually just nodded and walked off.
• I once sat on a train from Serbia to Bulgaria for 12 hours in a cabin with a man who chain-smoked the whole way. The windows didn’t work, and he spoke to me in Bulgarian the entire time.
• My number-one travel goal is to get mistaken for a local. If that happens, I’ve done cultural immersion right.

Let’s explore the world together

I built this site for you, in the hope that you can have your own version of these experiences. If there’s ever anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to reach out. I love helping out a fellow enthusiast.

Want the story behind the name and the philosophy underneath all this? Read Why Backpacking Diplomacy?

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Hey there, have a question, spot something worth fixing, or just want to say hello? Get in touch.