USEFUL STUFF FOR BACKPACKERS

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COISAS ÚTEIS PARA MOCHILEIROS

Escrevi esse post pra listar pra você os aplicativos pra smartphones que eu frequentemente uso no meu celular, e websites que eu sempre acesso pra buscar coisas úteis pelo mundo a fora seja lá pra onde eu estou indo. Organizei aqui tudo separado em seçōes e utilizei título grandes pra que você possa pular os que você já conhece e poupar o seu tempo precioso. Deixe um comentário depois dizendo se alguma dessas dicas foi útil pra você!

Nota: se você entende Inglês, verifique a versão deste post para Inglês também.
Você encontrará outras dicas, até que eu volte a editar este post em Português traduzindo as dicas que faltam na lista abaixo.

Aplicativos pra smartphone

Maps.me (aqui)

Faça o download do mapa da cidade/regiāo onde você está indo. Você também pode baixar o mapa de lugares ponde onde você planeja passar, pra que você possa ver o mapa de qualquer cidade no seu caminho antes de descer de uma carona, assim você pode evitar descer em lugares que podem ser ruins no meio das cidades, por exemplo. Também é possível buscar postos de gasolina, albergues, áreas de camping, fontes de água potável públicas (bebedouros), etc. Além de permitir que você calcule rotas entre as regiões que você baixou mesmo quando estiver sem internet!

Wifi Magic (aqui)

Encontre redes Wifi disponíveis próximas de você! Lembre-se de baixar as redes Wi-Fi disponíveis na cidade onde você está indo, assim quando você estiver lá você será capaz de encontrar internet pra contatar seus amigos/anfitriāo/etc que moram cidade de maneira mais fácil. O aplicativo também te mostra senhas de redes Wifi protegidas que foram adicionadas por outros usuários. Você poderá adicionar redes nos lugares que você for também, o que vai poderá ser bem legal pra outras pessoas posteriormente!

Hitchwiki apps (aqui, aqui)

There are a couple of apps that you can download to your phone which shows on a map places where other people have hitchhiked before. Usually all the bigger cities have at least a few hitchhiking spots already added. If hitchhiking in places where you know that other people have hitchhiked before makes you more comfortable, you shouldn't forget to download these apps to have all this info available offline in your hands. All these apps show the same spots, but it might worth it having them all as one can be used in case the other one is not working so well. Also, it might be useful to know that the spots that these apps show are downloaded from the Hitchwiki website (which you can read more about in the section Websites below on this post).

MyHitchhikingSpots (aqui, aqui)

Faça o download deste app e salve os locais onde você pedir carona. Este aplicativo te ajuda a manter um histórico de onde você está pedindo carona, quanto tempo você esteve esperando em cada um desses lugares e você pode adicionar notas e qualquer informação a mais que você quiser lembrar mais tarde sobre cada um dos seus pontos de carona! O mais legal é que em breve este aplicativo permitirá que você faça o upload de todos os seus pontos de carona pro site do Hitchwiki e assim outros caroneiros poderāo ver os pontos onde você caronou no mapa também.

Websites

CouchSurfing (here)

Travel and stay at people's place. Nice to make friends, to find people who'd be excited to show their cities to you, to hang out with other travellers, to be helped and to help. Also great for the fact that you don't pay for your accommodation in anywhere. It's usually a good choice especially if you're staying in the cities for two or three nights (although sometimes you might also find someone who would host you for more a week or even more as well).

Hitchwiki (here, here)

Find information about hitchhiking in basically every city where you're planning to hitchhike from. See places where other people have hitchhiked before, some extra information added by them as well as some statistics about their average experience at each hitching spot (average waiting time, how easy was it to get a ride at that spot etc). You can both read these information as a text/articles or see the hitching spots pointed out on a map. Basically every person who call themselves a hitchhiker around the world have heard of this website before, as you'll eventually notice if you haven't noticed yet. It is a very useful one! :-)

Trustroots (here)

Works basically with the same idea as CouchSurfing (finding someone to host you in the cities you go), but with the difference that the website is very new so that the people you'll find there are more likely to answer your messages and accept to host you. CouchSurfing is an old community, nowadays there's a lot of profiles and people who never even check their messages that backpackers write to them during their trips. Plus, Trustroots is more focused in helping you to find people who have similar interests in a more easy way - so it's pretty cool if you'd like to stay with other hitchhikers in the places where you go. Trustroots was created by the same people who created Hitchwiki (so, hitchhiking passionate people) and it was initially created mainly for hitchhikers!

Workaway (here)

Travel and work at places helping people with different things (farming, taking care of children or elder people, building things, teaching something that you know, etc). They give you a place to stay in exchange of 4 or 5 hours of work per day, and usually they feed you as well! This is the only tip that I'm giving here on this page that requires you paying a fee to use - and their fee is 23 euros, but I particularly think it really worth it that's why I'm including it here for you. This can make your long trips even more interesting, since you'll feel happy to be useful for someone, you might learn some new skills, you can stay longer periods (usually they expect you to stay one or two weeks as minimum), and you might even not need to care about what you'll be eating or how much money you'll be spending on food in the days you're staying with them.

Google Maps (here)

Use My Maps on Google Maps to save places on a map with information of where you possibly have a couch (where people have invited you over, where you have friends of a friend where you might be able to stay over), and places where you should visit (places you'd like to see, maybe places where people suggested you to check out as well). You can check out a map like this that I made for myself which could be an example, and you can check it out right here. It's excellent if you have a bad memory and risk visiting a city and forgetting to visit something/someone nice that you heard about in that city! In the beginning of your trips maybe this is not such a useful tip, but trust me, at some point you'll start to find the need of something like this to keep/manage some useful information.

Última atualização: 15/11/2016.

I guess we can say by now that I'm a sort of experienced hitchhiker/nomad/backpacker/whatever, right? Not that I want to brag about anything (how pointless would that be?!), but this experience might mean at least that I might know about some cool and useful stuff available out there that can make the life of people traveling around a bit cooler, easier, etc.

I've written this post for you to list the smartphone applications that I often use on my phone, and websites that I'm often accessing to find out useful things around the world wherever I'm heading to. I've organized here everything separate in sections and I've used big titles so that you can skip the ones you already know and save your precious time. Let me know in the comments if any was new for you!

How to find accommodation

Copy & Paste tip for CouchSurfing

Well, you probably have heard about CouchSurfing already. So I'll just give you my precious tip for finding a place to stay with CouchSurfing: don't loose your time writing customized CouchRequests to people that the search showed you. Instead, write a copy & paste message to lots of people saying "Hello PERSON_NAME. How are you doing? Are you currently in CITY_NAME?" and wait to see who'll reply you. There's a lot of people who'll reply your message years later, so by using my precious copy & paste technique you can save up the time you'd waste by customizing a message to them. Once you've got a reply, take your time to read their profile information and try to continue a conversation over message, saying that you're planning to maybe come to their city and asking if they maybe would be interested in hosting you. By doing this, both of you are still free to change your minds depending on the conditions or expectations that the other comes to mention. When you see that the conversation is going in an positive direction, then you send your CouchRequest making it oficial that you're coming in those specific days and etc - Just don't forget to send a CouchRequest before you come so that you can make it a bit more formal and later both of you will be able to send references for each other after your stay.

Places for short stay

Travel and stay at people's place usually for 1-3 days (sometimes for a bit longer too) with websites such as CouchSurfing, TrustRoots or BeWelcome. Nice to make friends, to find people who'd be excited to show their cities to you, to hang out with other travellers, to be helped and to help. Also great for the fact that you don't pay for your accommodation in anywhere. It's usually a good choice especially if you're staying in the cities for two or three nights (although sometimes you might also find someone who would host you for a week, a month or longer).

Places for longer stay

Travel and work in exchange of places to stay for longer periods usually for 1-2 weeks or longer with websites such as Workaway, WWOOF or Helpex. Most often you find jobs to do in farms, baby sitting, teaching languages, taking care of elderly, and many others. You work for a few hours a day, not aways you need previous experience on what you'll be doing (so it's a great option to learn new things while traveling) and very often besides accommodation they'll also provide you with food!

Religious centres

Try to look for churches, mosques, temples, etc. They might help you if not with accommodation at least with place to take a shower or they might give you a meal. And doesn't matter if you're from the same religion as them or not. In Indonesia I could take a shower and camp in an area outside of the streets that belongs to a mosque - I showed the place on this video.

Location based apps

You've just arrived in a city and you need a place to stay? Use Tindr, Grindr, Hornet, CouchSurfing hangouts, or whatever app or website that allows you to get in contact with people who lives around the area where you want to sleep. You can explain them your way of traveling, and ask them if they'd have a couch or somewhere for you to sleep. If you're bringing a tent as you travel, something that might increase your chances of getting some help of people around you is by asking them if they know somewhere where you can pitch your tent - maybe they'll offer you their back yard or even somewhere indoors to sleep. But beware that often people use these apps to find others for a date or sex, so if you're not up to that make sure that you let it very clear that you're not interested in paying for you accommodation, neither with money or sex. In the beginning of 2017 I've used one of these apps to find a ride to another city, and once I was there I found places to sleep also - you can see how it went on this Youtube playlist.

Facebook Graph Search

You can use Facebook search field to find people who have something in common with you and then contact them. Read more about the options here or here. People tend to be more eager to host/help others when they have stuff in common. I'll try to update this post later giving better examples, the way I used to use this option seem to have changed a bit lately so I should make some tests before suggesting possible query.

Sleeping in airports

Tips for sleeping in the airport overnight or while stuck in the airport during transit, weather or airline delays. It's one website that you can check out here.

How to get a transport to another city

Carpooling groups on Facebook

In some countries people create Facebook groups to do carpooling (they offer or they look for available seats on vehicles going between two specific cities). Try to check in the country where you are if there's such groups. In Brazil for example you can often find groups for carpooling between cities by searching by something like "Carona Belo Horizonte - Viçosa" where "carona" means carpool, "Belo Horizonte" is the name of a capital and "Viçosa" is the name of an university city in the countryside. Use these groups to find people offering an available seat to your destination, and if they're requesting some financial contribution for the fuel and you've got no money, you can always write them explaining how you're traveling or something like that and add a message like "if in the last minutes before you depart you still have a free seat and you could share it with me with no costs, please let me know". ;-)

Carpooling websites

Try to find out carpooling websites on the country where you are and contact people in the same way as suggested on the above topic "Carpooling groups on Facebook". In Europe for example a lot of people use Blablacar, but in some countries you might find other website more popular, as for in Denmark for example that they often use GoMore.

Black riding

Black riding is simply the fact of taking any transport without paying for the ticket, when it's possible. In some countries their buses or trains are based in trust and people buy their own ticket and not always someone comes to check if they've really bought their ticket - so go in without paying and hope that you won't be caught. Make sure you Google more about black riding in the country where you might consider doing it and you'll probably find tips on how to do it decreasing your chances of getting in trouble, and even what kind of trouble you might get into by doing it. Usually if you're caught you can just play the dumb tourist and say that you didn't know how it works or even that you thought it's for free. They might charge you a fine but you might be able to say that you have no money to pay it and they'll ask for an address in your home country to where they'll send the fine for you to pay later, but then you can just inform a false address. So, this is dishonest and corrupt, so do it on your own risk and conscience. Google it before you try to do it, so that you can do it with more confidence. I was caught black riding in Germany once and I was fined 60 euros, you can read more here.

Hitchhiking

That's how I personally have traveled in many different continents, if you don't know that yet. There are a couple of places on the internet or apps that you can download to your phone where you can find information about places where other people have hitchhiked before that might be good for you to come a try to get a free ride from the city where you are to the city where you want to go. You can use Hitchwiki (wiki and maps), Hitchgathering or other websites or Facebook groups specific for the country where you are (you can find a list of them here).

Boathitching

Yes, it is possible to hitchhike overseas. Usually you help the boat capitan with some tasks, and not aways they expect you to have experience. You can read more about it here or Google "boathitching" in the country where you are and you might find something.

Hitchhiking planes

Some countries offer last minute rides on flights of their national army. Try to find out if in the country where you are traveling they have this kind of thing, and if it's available also for non-citizens (if that's your case). I know that Russia and Brazil have this option. For Brazil you should Google something like "carona com os aviōes da FAB" ("hitchhiking the army plane").

How to find food

Ok, I'm a bit without time to describe these ones now, but I'll give you some keywords and you can Google the ones you're interested to know more about.

Dumpsterdiving

Specially in more rich countries, check the super markets dumpsters and you'll be amazed with the state of every kind of edible and non-edible stuff that you can find thrown away in them. Google this term and the name of the country where you are and you might find out some tips. Maybe worth it checking the website Trashwiki too.

Fruit map

An app that shows you the location of fruit trees. Go there and pick some for free! Find more about it by googling Fruit Map app.

Table surfing

Playing with the name "CouchSurfing", but instead of sharing accommodation people share food. Some people cook too much and want to invite others to share their meals. And some people just want some company to chat while tasting something they've cooked or bought. Google this term in the country where you are and try to find if there are some options. If you're in Turkey for example, there's a Facebook group for table surfing called Foodrail that you might want to check and maybe post asking if someone would have you over for some meal together.

CouchSurfing

Well, I've just explained above about "Table Surfing". Why not be creative and use Couchsurfing for this? Find CouchSurfers in the city where you are, and just try to contact them to check who's in the city. Whoever you find, you can tell them how you're travelling (to make them possibly interested in meeting you) and you ask if they maybe want to invite you for a meal (or you can be creative and think on a better way to make this question in other words).

How to find Wifi passwords

Wifi Magic (here)

Find Wifi networks nearby you! Make sure you load the wifi networks available in the city where you're going, and once you're there you'll be able to find internet to contact your friends/host/whatever more easily. It also shows passwords of secured networks which other users have added. Add some yourself too, and help the app to grow for the sake of our happiness!

Wifi Maps

I heard that this app should do the same as Wifi Magic. But I never tried it as it is paid to download the app, contraty to Wifi Magic that is for free.

Walk around

Always remember that usually you find Wifi's that don't require password in public libraries, cafes, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.

How to communicate in other countries

Google Translate offline mode

Remember that if you're going to travel in a country where you don't speak the language, you can download the Google Translate package for their language and for your language, then you'll be able to use Google Translate app even when you have no internet connection during your travels.

How to organize your travels

Google My Maps (here)

Use My Maps on Google Maps to save places on a map with information of where you possibly have a couch (where people have invited you over, where you have friends of a friend where you might be able to stay over), and places where you should visit (places you'd like to see, maybe places where people suggested you to check out as well). You can check out a map like this that I made for myself which could be an example, and you can check it out right here. It's excellent if you have a bad memory and risk visiting a city and forgetting to visit something/someone nice that you heard about in that city! In the beginning of your trips maybe this is not such a useful tip, but trust me, at some point you'll start to find the need of something like this to keep/manage some useful information.

Other apps

Maps.me (here)

Download the maps of the region where you're going to (you can also download the map of the regions on your way, so that you'll be able to check the map of any town before getting dropped off to avoid possible crappy spots in the middle of the city). Also allows you to see where to find gas stations, hostels, camping places, drinkable water, etc. Besides letting you calculate routes between regions you've downloaded even if you're offline!

MyHitchhikingSpots (here, here)

Download this to save your hitching spots. This app helps you in keeping track of where you've been hitchhiking, how long you've been waiting in each of your trips and you can add whatever information more you want to remember later about each spot you've been standing at! The cooler thing is that in a future version this app will let you upload all your spots to the Hitchwiki website (if you wish to) so that other hitchhikers would see them on their maps too.

Last updated: 29/may/2017.