The Broke Backpacker
www.thebrokebackpacker.comWhat is The Broke Backpacker?
One of the countless things that I have learned over the span of my many years spent writing travel site reviews is this simple fact: travel blogs are a dime a dozen. I have scrolled through hundreds of them (maybe even thousands … I don’t know, I lost count long ago), and it seems like everybody who counts travel as one of their interests feels the need to start a travel blog, myself included. Since this is the case, as you might assume, there is an enormous range of quality when it comes to travel blogs. Whether it is a matter of simple site design issues, writing ability, or something else, it can be something of a tricky pursuit a lot of the time, trying to find the best travel blog on the web.
It is true that anybody can publish their own travel blog whenever the whim washes over them. Hell, with the slightest bit of instruction, my grandmother could start a travel blog in which she details every mundane second of her pilgrimage to Israel – which, now that I think about it, might not be such a bad idea seeing as it could provide her with an outlet for telling the story of this trip, instead of inevitably recounting it to me for what will be the 25th or so time. At any rate, you get my point: not all travel blogs are equally interesting, user-friendly, and/or useful to read.
That last component I just listed, whether a travel blog is somehow useful to the reader, is, in my opinion, the most important to consider. For some reason, I can look past subpar site design and a lackluster writing style (to a degree), but the one thing that I cannot stomach as a reader of travel blogs is when they don’t have anything of substance to offer me as a traveler. And, trust me, the genre of travel blog writing can be one of the most self-indulgent types of writing there is – second perhaps only to personal journaling.
But most of us don’t read travel blogs to hear about how much fun you had with your family in Cancun (or how much fun you almost had in the case of US Senator Ted Cruz) or what you ate for dinner every night on your trip to Italy. The average reader of travel blogs in 2021 does so because they hope to learn something that can then be applied to their own travel plans. The best travel blogs have something to offer their readers.
Maybe, for instance, your travel blog frequently publishes pieces that outline the best hiking gear. Perhaps your focus is more on how to best travel on a budget. The whole point of your travel blog could even be about something as trivial as suitcases for all I care, so long as it gives advice, links to quality products, reviews options, etc. – something that I can take away when I’m done reading and apply to my own traveling lifestyle in some way.
In other words, the best travel blogs have a meaningful angle. And few travel blogs present a better, more concrete and helpful angle than the site we’ll be looking at today, The Broke Backpacker. Why has The Broke Backpacker managed to survive and remain popular over the years since it first launched? … Because it has one simple and useful premise, as per the site’s homepage itself: “Get our best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring this magical world on just $10 a day!”
Now, that is something that anybody can get behind. We all want to travel, of course, the one thing that keeps most of us from traveling as much as we would like, aside from work, is money. If the Broke Backpacker, though, as he claims, can all but eliminate this massive concern, well, that is the kind of travel blog content that I will spend some time reading.
Having a solid premise, however, is not the only important factor in figuring out whether the Broke Backpacker is, indeed, one of the best travel blogs on the blogosphere. We will also have to take a look at the site’s design, its content, whether it is actually helpful in promoting smart budget traveling, and so on. Nevertheless, the Broke Backpacker is certainly off to a solid start, if you ask me.
What is the purpose and design of the Broke Backpacker Blog?
There are aspects to this travel blog’s design that I quite like, and there are aspects that do not jive with my personal taste. This contrast, for me, is between the site’s overall organizational structure and the way in which the site’s blog posts are formatted. From the moment that I land on the Broke Backpacker’s homepage, for instance, I am impressed. Travel Blogs really run the gamut when it comes to providing intuitive and sharp site design, but the Broke Backpacker offers a professional, inviting, and extremely user-friendly layout.
I am greeted by an enormous banner depicting a man resting on a bench overlooking a beautiful, snowy mountain range, the Swiss Alps perhaps. Overlaying this image, at the very top of the page, is the site menu bar, where you will have no trouble whatsoever navigating the site to your liking. The Broke Backpacker even gives you a recommended starting point in the menu, with “Start Here,” or you are welcome to check out Where to Go, Budget Travel, Travel Jobs, Gear, Tours, or Travel Tips. It is very uncommon, in my experience, to find a travel blog that is so easy and simple to navigate, so well organized. Or, alternately, you can browse the site by continent if you already have a destination in mind.
What I don’t like about the Broke Backpacker’s site design is the format of the blog posts themselves. There are many large gaps that interrupt the reading experience, be it with images, links, videos, unnecessary banners or font, and text changes, etc. This results in a somewhat cumbersome reading experience, as well as a ton of time spent scrolling to get through the article. Format-wise, this budget travel blog could do a much better job at prioritizing concision.
What are The Broke Backpacker travel site content and features?
As far as the content of the blog posts themselves, though, you will not be disappointed. Every post is well-written, interesting to read, useful, and jampacked with plenty of info and resources. If you are looking for tangible tips and tricks for budget travel, this is easily one of the best travel blogs out there.
Another component of the Broke Backpacker’s content lies in his frequent suggestions for how to make money while you travel. There is even a whole section dedicated to Travel Jobs, or in the words of the Broke Backpacker, “how to ditch your desk and travel forever.” This might sound too good to be true, but it’s not impossible. An increasing number of people are becoming what is known as digital nomads, finding travel-friendly remote work, and the Broke Backpacker offers a ton of useful tips and resources to help you make this happen.
Aside from articles that address these more practical travel concerns, the Broke Backpacker also helps you decide which gear to buy thanks to in-depth reviews and comparison pieces, what tours to take in various destinations, and how to find the best travel accommodations on a budget. The Broke Backpacker is one of the most comprehensive budget travel blogs on the web today.
Is The Broke Backpacker travel site mobile-friendly?
Most travel blogs do not have mobile apps, and the Broke Backpacker is no different. However, the mobile version of this site is perfectly optimized for any mobile device, be it a smartphone or tablet. The mobile site is smooth, responsive, and every bit as user-friendly as the desktop site. When it comes to travel sites, of course, mobile-friendliness is crucial – you want a site that you can depend on no matter where in the world you happen to be, whether you’re hiking, in an Uber, or back at the hotel. The Broke Backpacker offers one of the best travel blog site designs for mobile devices, hands down.
Some readers may not be thrilled to learn that the Broke Backpacker relies on ads. Before you roll your eyes and write this site off for being just another annoying travel blog that is trying to sell you something, please consider a couple of facts: A.) every travel blog is trying to sell you something (this is how travel blogs make their money, 9 times out of 10), and B.) the only ads that you will find on the Broke Backpacker pertain directly to travel. In my opinion, if a travel site must employ ads, if the ads have the potential to actually be useful to me, I am willing to look the other way. So, the occasional Airbnb or travel backpack ad isn’t going to ruin my experience of the site.
What I Like about the Broke Backpacker
-Hundreds of useful posts about how to travel on a budget
-Articles are well-written with high-quality photography
-Good advice on how to make money on the road
-User-friendly, good-looking interface
What I Dislike about the Broke Backpacker
-Articles are very long due to formatting issues; lots of scrolling
-Might be a bit too promotional for some
What is The Broke Backpacker?
One of the countless things that I have learned over the span of my many years spent writing travel site reviews is this simple fact: travel blogs are a dime a dozen. I have scrolled through hundreds of them (maybe even thousands … I don’t know, I lost count long ago), and it seems like everybody who counts travel as one of their interests feels the need to start a travel blog, myself included. Since this is the case, as you might assume, there is an enormous range of quality when it comes to travel blogs. Whether it is a matter of simple site design issues, writing ability, or something else, it can be something of a tricky pursuit a lot of the time, trying to find the best travel blog on the web.
It is true that anybody can publish their own travel blog whenever the whim washes over them. Hell, with the slightest bit of instruction, my grandmother could start a travel blog in which she details every mundane second of her pilgrimage to Israel – which, now that I think about it, might not be such a bad idea seeing as it could provide her with an outlet for telling the story of this trip, instead of inevitably recounting it to me for what will be the 25th or so time. At any rate, you get my point: not all travel blogs are equally interesting, user-friendly, and/or useful to read.
That last component I just listed, whether a travel blog is somehow useful to the reader, is, in my opinion, the most important to consider. For some reason, I can look past subpar site design and a lackluster writing style (to a degree), but the one thing that I cannot stomach as a reader of travel blogs is when they don’t have anything of substance to offer me as a traveler. And, trust me, the genre of travel blog writing can be one of the most self-indulgent types of writing there is – second perhaps only to personal journaling.
But most of us don’t read travel blogs to hear about how much fun you had with your family in Cancun (or how much fun you almost had in the case of US Senator Ted Cruz) or what you ate for dinner every night on your trip to Italy. The average reader of travel blogs in 2021 does so because they hope to learn something that can then be applied to their own travel plans. The best travel blogs have something to offer their readers.
Maybe, for instance, your travel blog frequently publishes pieces that outline the best hiking gear. Perhaps your focus is more on how to best travel on a budget. The whole point of your travel blog could even be about something as trivial as suitcases for all I care, so long as it gives advice, links to quality products, reviews options, etc. – something that I can take away when I’m done reading and apply to my own traveling lifestyle in some way.
In other words, the best travel blogs have a meaningful angle. And few travel blogs present a better, more concrete and helpful angle than the site we’ll be looking at today, The Broke Backpacker. Why has The Broke Backpacker managed to survive and remain popular over the years since it first launched? … Because it has one simple and useful premise, as per the site’s homepage itself: “Get our best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring this magical world on just $10 a day!”
Now, that is something that anybody can get behind. We all want to travel, of course, the one thing that keeps most of us from traveling as much as we would like, aside from work, is money. If the Broke Backpacker, though, as he claims, can all but eliminate this massive concern, well, that is the kind of travel blog content that I will spend some time reading.
Having a solid premise, however, is not the only important factor in figuring out whether the Broke Backpacker is, indeed, one of the best travel blogs on the blogosphere. We will also have to take a look at the site’s design, its content, whether it is actually helpful in promoting smart budget traveling, and so on. Nevertheless, the Broke Backpacker is certainly off to a solid start, if you ask me.
What is the purpose and design of the Broke Backpacker Blog?
There are aspects to this travel blog’s design that I quite like, and there are aspects that do not jive with my personal taste. This contrast, for me, is between the site’s overall organizational structure and the way in which the site’s blog posts are formatted. From the moment that I land on the Broke Backpacker’s homepage, for instance, I am impressed. Travel Blogs really run the gamut when it comes to providing intuitive and sharp site design, but the Broke Backpacker offers a professional, inviting, and extremely user-friendly layout.
I am greeted by an enormous banner depicting a man resting on a bench overlooking a beautiful, snowy mountain range, the Swiss Alps perhaps. Overlaying this image, at the very top of the page, is the site menu bar, where you will have no trouble whatsoever navigating the site to your liking. The Broke Backpacker even gives you a recommended starting point in the menu, with “Start Here,” or you are welcome to check out Where to Go, Budget Travel, Travel Jobs, Gear, Tours, or Travel Tips. It is very uncommon, in my experience, to find a travel blog that is so easy and simple to navigate, so well organized. Or, alternately, you can browse the site by continent if you already have a destination in mind.
What I don’t like about the Broke Backpacker’s site design is the format of the blog posts themselves. There are many large gaps that interrupt the reading experience, be it with images, links, videos, unnecessary banners or font, and text changes, etc. This results in a somewhat cumbersome reading experience, as well as a ton of time spent scrolling to get through the article. Format-wise, this budget travel blog could do a much better job at prioritizing concision.
What are The Broke Backpacker travel site content and features?
As far as the content of the blog posts themselves, though, you will not be disappointed. Every post is well-written, interesting to read, useful, and jampacked with plenty of info and resources. If you are looking for tangible tips and tricks for budget travel, this is easily one of the best travel blogs out there.
Another component of the Broke Backpacker’s content lies in his frequent suggestions for how to make money while you travel. There is even a whole section dedicated to Travel Jobs, or in the words of the Broke Backpacker, “how to ditch your desk and travel forever.” This might sound too good to be true, but it’s not impossible. An increasing number of people are becoming what is known as digital nomads, finding travel-friendly remote work, and the Broke Backpacker offers a ton of useful tips and resources to help you make this happen.
Aside from articles that address these more practical travel concerns, the Broke Backpacker also helps you decide which gear to buy thanks to in-depth reviews and comparison pieces, what tours to take in various destinations, and how to find the best travel accommodations on a budget. The Broke Backpacker is one of the most comprehensive budget travel blogs on the web today.
Is The Broke Backpacker travel site mobile-friendly?
Most travel blogs do not have mobile apps, and the Broke Backpacker is no different. However, the mobile version of this site is perfectly optimized for any mobile device, be it a smartphone or tablet. The mobile site is smooth, responsive, and every bit as user-friendly as the desktop site. When it comes to travel sites, of course, mobile-friendliness is crucial – you want a site that you can depend on no matter where in the world you happen to be, whether you’re hiking, in an Uber, or back at the hotel. The Broke Backpacker offers one of the best travel blog site designs for mobile devices, hands down.
Some readers may not be thrilled to learn that the Broke Backpacker relies on ads. Before you roll your eyes and write this site off for being just another annoying travel blog that is trying to sell you something, please consider a couple of facts: A.) every travel blog is trying to sell you something (this is how travel blogs make their money, 9 times out of 10), and B.) the only ads that you will find on the Broke Backpacker pertain directly to travel. In my opinion, if a travel site must employ ads, if the ads have the potential to actually be useful to me, I am willing to look the other way. So, the occasional Airbnb or travel backpack ad isn’t going to ruin my experience of the site.
What I Like about the Broke Backpacker
-Hundreds of useful posts about how to travel on a budget
-Articles are well-written with high-quality photography
-Good advice on how to make money on the road
-User-friendly, good-looking interface
What I Dislike about the Broke Backpacker
-Articles are very long due to formatting issues; lots of scrolling
-Might be a bit too promotional for some
