The Culture of Trekking Finding David Sneddon
Trekking is a popular activity throughout Europe and Asia but is not widely known or understood in the United States. Consider Trekking as a cross between backpacking and motor touring because it involves elements of both. Like backpackers, Trekkers take all their gear in a backpack. But rather than hiking in the wilderness environment of the mountains or forests and camping out in tents and cooking food, Trekkers move from place to place, sometimes on foot but often on train or bus or hired automobile, all depending on the geography, sights, and distances between points of interest. Unlike backpacking, Trekkers generally stay overnight in specialized youth hostels or guest houses, which serve this group of travelers with inexpensive lodging and food. Trekkers are generally younger and often single because they eschew comfort for adventure, flexibility, and economy of travel.
One advantage of Trekking over other forms of tourism is that a Trekker can easily modify his or her itinerary based on information received from other Trekkers, a trekker hostel, or local people. Often a Trekker will combine efforts with fellow travelers as they meet in hostels and travel together short distances to a common point, sharing costs of transportation, meals, stories, and language skills.
Associations come and go, changing frequently according to common goals, such as choice of destination, an interest in a particular culture, sightseeing, and one's physical capacity. Trekkers help each other and often pool resources and skills to assist each other along the way. Gender differences have little impact in the selection of short term—often only one to two days—travel mates. For example, English speakers that find themselves in a remote part of rural China would likely share their common language skills to help each other in an environment very, very different than life in western Europe or the United States.
Many Trekkers travel single. Indeed, this frequent meeting of new people, fellow Trekkers, from different nations and cultures gives Trekking a unique appeal to young travelers who seek to learn more about the world.
Trekking is full of ad hoc encounters and joint experiences with many fun, but transitory friendships. This is one of the great appeals to younger travelers seeking adventure on a limited budget.