A guide to 197 countries and 623 cities

1backpack.travel is an open guide for independent travel. For every country it collects visa rules and how they actually work at the border, the cost of a day in three budgets, a safety score based on GPI and crime statistics, drone regulations and driving licence requirements.

2Cities are described not with marketing copy but with what you need to decide before departure: how many days to plan, how to get in from the airport, where to change money, which districts to pick and what fits into a single day. Every city has cards for specific places: streets, bazaars, viewpoints, canteens and workshops, with coordinates and photos.

3The map is the main interface, not decoration. Every place is grouped into clusters: browse the whole world, zoom into a region and open a city or a single point. Countries and cities you mark build up a personal travel map, and a route can be assembled day by day and shared with a link.

4The data is maintained by hand. Visa conditions change several times a year, so the visa and safety sections state separately what the law says and what happens in practice. If a fact is out of date, every page has a “Report an inaccuracy” button — the correction goes into a shared queue and becomes visible to everyone once checked.