r/travel • u/Backpacking_Gypsy • 1d ago

Question What do you think is the 2025 “Hippie Trail” equivalent?

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24 Upvotes

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183

u/Nalsa- United Arab Emirates 1d ago

Nothing. World is way too globalized to have an equivalent.

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u/gilestowler 1d ago edited 1d ago

I sometimes feel sad that travel isn't the same as it used to be, that there isn't the same kind of adventure and mystery. Even when you watch old James Bond films - they show these places that were so completely different to anything that people back in Europe, or America, had experienced. If you go even further back, reading Moby Dick and they talk about 3 year voyages to Fiji. Just imagine that - for someone back then sailing to an island in the pacific, seeing the people who lived there. It could be someone who had never left their neighborhood in London, or New York, before and suddenly they're seeing a world completely beyond their comprehension.

When I've been in Asia, I always wonder what it must have been like in the past, for people to sail to these places that were so alien to them. Even watching old videos of Bali from the 1970s it looks so wild and beautiful compared to how it is now. Back then, it was another world. Now, there's a Starbucks and a Mcdonalds everywhere you go. You can get wifi on any street corner. Obviously, there's something to be said about things being a bit simpler but at the same time the world has got so homogenised. I'd love to go somewhere that is just a bit wilder, a bit removed from the homogenization.

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u/eddie964 1d ago

I visited Morocco and SEA as a kid in the 70s. It was like being in another world.

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u/bronze_by_gold 1d ago

And too online.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/Old-Weekend2518 1d ago

Ah yes.

The classic “I’m a traveler and everyone else is a tourist”

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u/Accprova 1d ago

I don't think that's what the commenter meant. I understood it as "I traveled 10k miles to be here, I'd like to see something that I couldn't already see down the street in my own city".

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u/Kananaskis_Country 1d ago

As others have pointed out a modern equivalent doesn't exist.

A very shallow, pale comparison would be the so-called Banana Pancake Trail throughout SE Asia, but any similarity is tenuous at best. Beyond it being a route that low budget western backpackers take because there's accommodation, restaurants and tourist infrastructure catering to budget backpackers it's a completely different vibe than the "hippies" travelling on the Trail in the '50s through to the '70s.

Happy travels.

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u/Timsahb 1d ago

Even that's lost it soul. It's all 2 week flash packers glued to their phones these days....

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u/drcoxmonologues 1d ago

I travelled Cairo to Cape Town independently in the 2007. There wasn’t much of a trail but there were a few hippies heading one way or the other. It was hard core travel, plenty of weed around, cheap and adventurous. If you’re looking for one of the last real adventures without too much western traveller influencer type shit then look at Africa. If you want balls out harder than hard then go to West Africa. Barely any tourists outside a few spots, very little infrastructure for travellers etc. if you’ve never been to Africa don’t do that first. 

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u/burrito3ater 1d ago

I heard Ghana is best to start off in Africa

3

u/Random-Cpl 1d ago

Jump into the deep end. Liberia.

2

u/Bricks_For_Hands 1d ago

I’ve heard Somalia is great to visit this time of year

2

u/cannikin13 1d ago

I came here to see if anybody mentioned Africa...and here it is...

I don't like to mention Africa in these type of threads because that continent is my play ground for many many years to time present...I don't want to see it spoiled with hippie trails or any other outsider tourist trails...

... its to unique...refreshingly raw....sometimes hard core travel, sometimes easy peasy...every country has something cool...

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u/ToneSenior7156 1d ago

I just read Rick Steve’s book about it and I loved it.  It wouldn’t be the same thing, but I’m really fascinated by Spain’s Camino de Santiago. Start in France or Portugal and walk to Santiago de Compostela. It takes 40 days of walking. There’s hostels all along the way just for “pilgrims” doing the walk. It’s a spiritual journey. And one town apparently has a wine fountain for the pilgrims. All ages, all levels of ability.

I’m in! They had me at wine fountain!

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u/tetherwego 1d ago

I live on the river in Porto and see pilgrims almost everyday! They all look quite thrilled and satisfied! 

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u/ginger1009 1d ago

The Camino is truly an incredible experience. I walked the Frances last year, and it was quite a challenge but fulfilling in a way that nothing else will be for the rest of my life. If you'd like to learn more, I recommend reading John Brierly's guidebooks, Andrew McCarthy's memoir on his experience walking it, or The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coehlo.

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u/lwp775 1d ago

Wish I was younger.

2

u/ToneSenior7156 1d ago

Look into it! Lots of retirees do it - and there are shorter routes you can take as well. I think the full route is 450 miles but there are shorter hitches. I would like to do it when I retire. I might try to do one of the shorter routes before then. It’s just walking!

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u/quothe_the_maven 1d ago

That book was so good. It’s always amazing to me when people show such natural talent like that at such a young age.

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u/Backpacking_Gypsy 1d ago

Just finished the book today as well!

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u/six_six 1d ago

If the Darien Gap wasn’t there, it would be Alaska to Argentina.

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u/Kananaskis_Country 1d ago

The Darien Gap has thousands of refugees hiking through it every week. It's one of the busiest thoroughfares for unfortunate people fleeing horrible situations on the entire planet.

In any case to hop around it is super easy. It's not a barrier from completing the Pan-American Highway.

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u/six_six 1d ago

But I’m comparing it to the Hippie Trail, which was traversable via car and bus.

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u/Kananaskis_Country 1d ago

So the parts of the Hippie Trail that sometimes utilized water travel - Athens/Istanbul, Rome/Croatia, Idukki/Mannar, Dahka/Bankok, etc. don't count in your opinion?

1

u/six_six 1d ago

I honestly didn’t know those were a part of it. I thought it was Istanbul to India over land.

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u/Kananaskis_Country 1d ago

Istanbul to India is a section of the Hippie Trail. There was no black-and-white route, it was open to interpretation and many travellers had it starting in the UK/Western Europe and extending past India into Bangkok.

Bottom line is that the route is a general consensus, not a strict itinerary and thus the method of travel - while mostly overland - is not rigid either.

So my only point was is that since the Darien Gap is walkable now (although the human misery is heart wrenching and it's one of the most difficult things I've ever done) that means it's one way to complete the Pan-American Route going all overland. But even the very slight detour to jump around it via fast boats down the east coast from Carti, Panama to Puerto Obaldia to Capurgana, Colombia is no big deal either.

Happy travels.

6

u/chickawink 1d ago

With flights a lot cheaper people can now easily fly to their destinations rather than doing an extremely long trail. Though I would say popular areas people do extended trips to (ie backpacking/hiking) are South East Asia and South America, especially Peru.

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u/CardAny7103 1d ago

Bumming around national parks and climbing crags with no phone signal

11

u/islandpancakes 1d ago

Pacific Crest Trail? It would have to be something offgrid and in the wilderness. Our world is too connected these days.

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u/soil_nerd 1d ago

The community out there is amazing. It’s really strong, distinct, and far more international than many realize. The people are awesome too, a few thousand miles of walking is a substantial filter for a certain type of person.

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u/Own-Sand7220 1d ago

South East Asia travels

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u/Cat-attak 1d ago

Pakistan

The north is rugged and barely even features and roads in most places

Lahore, Peshawar and Multan are ancient cities; still living in the past with barely any international travelers. Imagine Agra or Delhi but without foreign visitors.

Karachi is chaos personified, lawless and teeming with energy. It’s very much like how London or NYC would have been like in the late 1800s

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u/bungopony 1d ago

Same as it’s been for decades - Japan then Southeast Asia

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u/Justme100001 1d ago

Whatever gets views on Tiktok

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u/snotboogie 1d ago

TIL what the hippie trail was. Fascinating. Would never go through the middle east or India like that today. SE Asia is still fine I guess

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u/point_of_difference 1d ago

South America is still edgy and affordable.

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u/roundtheworldrachel 1d ago

Guys. The hippy trails still exist. Now people still follow the same lines, they just splay a little further out. The SE Asia route, started going deeper into Laos and Cambodia in the past 20 years, and more into the anadaman islands, and other smaller Thai islands, ko chang etc. it didn’t end. If just meant you went an extra hour or two off “the main path”.

The Silk Road. Heaving with tourists recently. Pakistan. Up and coming. Eastern Europe. Moldova/armenia/ Georgia. Been massively busy the past decade Overlanding Africa. Yes. The whole place. Still a thing. Nepal is still busy with the backpacker scene. It’s not gone anywhere. It’s just changed. Go to a village.

I’ve been travelling for decades now(literally haven’t had a home base for about 20 years really) and honestly, the hippy trails are still about for those that seek it.

Ignore instagram. Ignore travel influencers.

Fuck. I even did a (terrible) Ted talk about this exact thing right before covid.

-1

u/Previous_Repair8754 1d ago

Skyrocketing cost of college/university and housing, wage stagnation, increased cost of living, and decreased job security have made extended travel too out of reach for this phenomenon to exist anymore.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/tacos_y_burritos 1d ago

Can you recommend any charities in Guatemala? What part are you in?