Drinking Exotic Drinks

Either it 's Fernet in Argentina, Pisco in Peru or Absinthe in France they ' ll try anything remotly exotic, even if it tastes like absolute horse shit. Of course , they ' ll claim that it 's super tasty and buy a bottle to take home.

Pretending that they are poor

Even if they are from London and have pounds backpackers love to pretend they are poor, they ´ll go to the shittiest dorm of the shittiest hostel of the shittiest little town and eat rice for two weeks just to tell their other rich friends "what an adventorous trip they had in South America".
All of this while wearing a "The North Face" backpack.

Lonely Planet Books

Lonely planet books pretend to give you the insight scoop on the city/country they are about.
Those insider tips that only the thousands of people that buy Lonely Planet Guides know about...
For this reason when backpackers go to the events listed as '' where the locals like to hang out" they find way more foreigners with lonely planet books than actual locals.