Tourists, Backpackers, Expats: What's the Difference?

Just as there are all types of people, so there are all types of travel. Your grandparents, for example, would prefer skirting through the Caribbean on a cruise ship, enjoying views from afar and only going ashore for the most regimented and sterile vacation pleasures. Now I'm not criticizing because I have not yet reached my 30^th birthday. I'm sure at 70 years old I won't have the same zest for plodding through Turkish back alleys and Moroccan bazaars that I have now.

My parents, on the other hand, are willing to rent a car and off-road it a bit as well as interact with the locals (though they do like their cruise ships). My girlfriend's parents-intrepid souls that they are-have considered a bike tour of Italy. As for myself, I am content to work in Istanbul and pay rent, waiting for my girlfriends to join me next month TEFL certificate and resume in hand. We are planning a Romanian Christmas sightseeing and ski vacation by train, which will be well documented on AC, rest assured.

The point is that some people like tours, hearing from an expert exactly what they are seeing and following a safe and comfortable itinerary. College graduates and just about everyone in Australia and Canada under the age of 30, prefer backpacking-following a roughly predetermined route; staying in hostels, cheap hotels or camping; traveling by mass transit and leaving slack for improvisation. Expatriates, meanwhile, are a rare lot who go whole hog and move abroad for an indeterminate period of time. Expats usually get jobs, rent flats and take their time seeing a country.

Tourism comes in many flavors but its most common elements are following a fixed itinerary of anywhere between a long weekend and a month. Tourists typically fit as much as they can into a short period of time so they focus on efficient guided routes through cities that hit the most obvious of destinations. Tourists are also the easiest foreigners to spot on the street and the easiest prey for charlatans and thieves.