You hear it time and time again, without fail. An excited young backpacker is telling people about the amazing trip they are about to go on for the next 6 weeks and they ramble off a list of 10-13 different cities, often spread over several different countries. It makes sense right? See as much as I possibly can while I’m away? Well weather someone tells them before they go or not, they are in for a bit of a surprise when they start scrambling to get to all their destinations on time.

Any seasoned backpacker will tell you the same thing; pick a few key places and focus on them. This is advice that is well worth taking to heart. There are so many factors that you just don’t think about, or just wouldn’t know about until you have actually gone backpacking. Here’s a few things to deeply consider before you pick how many places you will be visiting.

1.Transportation– You may have everything strategically planned out, but things don’t always go as planned. Maybe it’s just my bad luck but about half of the flights I book end up being delayed in some way, or weather prevents things from going as planned. In some cases this might tack on an extra day to your travel time. Availability can be another hurdle. If you are taking boats, trains, or buses there will be times when they are booked up and you just can’t get on on your desired dates. This often leads to another extra day to your travel time. I’d say adding an extra day of transportation hiccups per week would be realistic. On a 6 week trip that would be nearly an extra week that you should allocate just for bumps in the road.

2.Lost luggage– Every travellers nightmare with this one. You get to point B an your bags are not there. I will tell you from experience this does not just happen on air travel. I have had bags lost while taking ferries and minibuses as well. Now if you weren’t planning to be in point B for more than a day or two before you move on then you can expect that there may be times when you will just have to wait till your luggage arrives. This happens with the most reputable of companies, and most don’t guarantee that all your shit will end up where you are. Just look at the lost baggage disclaimers. I once had my bags left on an island that I was leaving from and ended up having to travel all the way back to get it. Not a huge problem, unless there is only one ferry per day. That set me back a full day.

3.Falling in Love/Too much to see– Although you may have good intentions about spreading your time evenly throughout these equally deserving cities the truth is you just might end up loving one more than the other. It happens all the time, you get to a place that you just seem to click with, meet a great bunch of people and become attached. Now you’ve decided to cut out a couple cities completely. Once this happens you realize you are willing to sacrifice quantity of locations for higher quality experiences. On the flip side some cities just simply have more things to see. There may be more attractions and activities, or be a lot more highlights to check out in surrounding areas.

4.Unexpected illness– Bacteria, viruses, food born illnesses do not realize that you are on vacation and you have a timeline to adhere to. Unfortunate, but people get sick, that’s life. And it may slow your life down a day or two.

5.Theft/Loss of items– We all try to be careful and cautious while traveling but criminals have a way of getting around this. Petty theft and pickpocketing is a problem no matter where you go. If it’s the case where you lost your passport this can be a huge set back. Usually you can get an emergency temporary passport issues, but in some cases it may take weeks to replace it.

6.Have a drink on me– Even if you’re not a big drinker you gotta understand that getting sauced is a huge part of the backpacking culture and chances are you will be partaking in the night to night festivities. There will be times when you plan to go and have a big night on the town, and there will also be times that it just creeps up on you. A couple drinks in the afternoon with lunch turns into a marathon. Result, a unrelenting hangover that destroys your ability to function the next day. Now if that next day happens to be a day you were supposed to be in transit,  it might just cost you another day.

Your best option is to choose a few places that are at the top of your list and stick with those. If you have some extra time to explore a few other cities then great, but don’t get your heart set on doing everything in one shot. I would suggest a week at each major city. Personally I don’t like to go to any country for less than a month, but if you have a shorter time frame a week at each major destination should do the trick.