My Travel Style

There are a myriad number of ways to travel, I want to share mine.

My name is Eric (he/him), a solo budget traveler from Albuquerque, New Mexico who likes to stay at hostels, mostly sticking to walkable and accessible cities with affordable street food, quality coffee, and queer-friendly nightlife. I am a second generation Mexican-American and this year I’m embarking on a slow travel journey beginning in Mexico City. I’m about 10 days in and both thrilled with what I’ve already experienced and excited for what lies ahead.

I took my first solo trip in 2013 to New York City. I boarded a redeye with a midnight departure from Albuquerque’s Sunport to JFK, stayed in my very first hostel, walked all up and down Manhattan, and came back just three days later a completely changed person.

I immediately started looking for more opportunities to travel further and longer and booked another JetBlue flight that same year to San Juan, Puerto Rico. On that trip, I broke out of my shell more, taking advantage of the social nature of hostels, made new friends, and realized traveling solo doesn’t mean being alone.

That’s also when I realized I would need a passport if I wanted to venture any further, and I did. The following year I took my first international flight to Vancouver in time for Canada Day and then bussed my way down to Seattle and eventually Portland, just in time for American Independence Day.

My biggest trip came in 2017. I was turning 30 and had not yet crossed an ocean. I was determined to visit Europe and to maximize the 90-day allowance for tourists.

Having been inspired by watching The Way starring my favorite fictional president, Martin Sheen, roughly half of my three-month trip was devoted to walking the Camino de Santiago across the northern Spain. This 500-mile pilgrimage remains the most rewarding experience of my life. The other half of my time abroad took to me to London, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon, Granada, Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Munich, Milan, and Rome, in more or less that order.

More so than any previous trip, I learned the importance of traveling light, packing well, making smart clothing choices, spotting a quality hostel, navigating transportation systems, eating well for cheap, and stretching a budget to last.

Somewhere along the way, even before that trip to Europe, I got plugged in to the Couchsurfing community. Some of the tips and tricks I employed in Europe came from the Couchsurfers I met, both those visiting from elsewhere but also the Albuquerque-based travel veterans who generously shared their tips and tales from the road. While I’ve still managed to make many travel mistakes on my journeys, I have no doubt their imparted wisdom saved me from some major blunders.

I share all of this as primer for where I’m coming from when it comes to how I approach travel. Like I said, much of what I’ve picked up along the way has come from other travelers as much as it has my own experience. I’d like to make this a regular feature of the blog, sharing my travel style and tips I hope others can use. I’m certainly not the first blogger to do so but I hope I can use my decade of experience to add to the chorus of travel styles out there to inspire someone who might see a little bit of themselves in me and my way of moving though the world.

If that’s the case, I am glad you’re here. Please let me know what you think or what you are curious to know more about, and fire away with any questions.

Hasta pronto!

Eric