TikTok’s Backpacking Transformations Are Beautiful

My algorithm never ceases to amaze me. I’m the furthest thing from a “backpacker.” The thought of having to squish all of my essentials into one bag (I’m a maximalist) and stay in a hostel full of strangers — shared bathrooms are a hard no for me — sounds terrifying. But TikTok has officially convinced me to consider it.

We’re dubbing it the “backpacking effect” — hundreds of people are posting transformational videos from their backpacking adventures on TikTok. I’m talking about Mia Thermopolis-level makeovers: the kind that aren’t solely physical, but that alter your aura for life.

Take Gabriela Ramos, for example. The 30-year-old was working in car sales for six years when she decided to quit her job and solo backpack around the world. Grief had consumed her over the past year, as she was mourning the loss of her older brother. So with $15,000 in savings, she put in her two weeks notice and started packing. “It was our dream to go backpacking through Europe and our schedules never aligned . . . so I did it in honor of [my brother],” Ramos tells Popsugar.

She started out in Spain and stayed with cousins for two weeks. Then, Ramos went off on her own with just a backpack and a three-month train pass to travel around Europe. “It was $400 and unlimited trains, which was a great deal,” she recalls. Her thought process was simple: “I’m just going to use this and travel wherever I can go.” But very quickly, three months became a year. And not only did she tackle Europe, but the Middle East and Southeast Asia, too, backpacking her way through 33 countries. An adventure like that is quite literally “life-changing” Ramos says — and it shows.

“It made you look so much younger and relaxed,” one commenter wrote under Ramos’s before-and-after backpacking video. “You were beautiful before but now? Glowing. Stunning. 😍” said another. “Now you’re glowing from within,” said one more.

Ramos herself was shocked to see the noticeable difference. “I was moving pretty fast through Europe that I didn’t really have time to look back and see what I’ve accomplished,” she says. But in those last four or five months, “I was able to really take in how beautiful this journey is.” The glow that so many of her commenters pointed to is what Ramos describes as a manifested healing — of the mind, body, and soul.

“I felt my brother there with me the whole time,” she says. “I would see his name, [Arthur], everywhere that I went, showing me, ‘I’m here with you. I’m experiencing this with you.'” With each reminder came a sense of peace — and as her grief slate was being wiped clean, so were all of her past perspectives.

“When you backpack long term, you’re consistently stepping out of your comfort zone,” Ramos says. That challenges many of the narratives you once held, not only about yourself but about the world.

Prior to visiting Egypt, Ramos was advised by countless hostel roomies not to go. All of them warned her of the dangers, suggesting she skip that country altogether. But in looking back on her time there, Ramos says, it was the highlight of her time abroad. Most impactful: taking part in Ramadan and fasting 12 to 16 hours a day for the duration of her two-week stay.

“The first four or five days were the toughest for me. I was like, ‘I don’t know I’m gonna make it. I feel like I’m gonna pass out,'” she tells PS. “But the reason for Ramadan is really putting yourself in someone else’s shoes that [have] less than.” And in that experience she gained a whole new mindset.

“It was the first time in my life that I actually really felt thirsty — that my mouth was dry at the end of the day,” Ramos adds. After two weeks, Ramos started thinking about “everything that I do have in life and just every little, small things that we might take for granted every single day.”

Backpacker Bonnie Ngai echoes a similar sentiment. She quit her job in tech software in 2023 after a bad breakup. She felt drained to the point where even her happy place, Hawaii, felt eroded with sadness. “So I booked a ticket and I left,” Ngai says. It was only supposed to be a two-week vacation to Costa Rica, but she ended up traveling for two years, posting her before-and-after video in May.

“This shows how terribly and wrong we all live. Mental health ❤️” commented one person. “THE GLOW, HAPPY EYES AND HAPPY SOUL OMG 🥺❤️❤️💗 so happy for you 🥺💗,” said another. “Im sobbing, feel like i just watched u heal 🥹” said one more.

Ngai visited 23 countries in two years, with Brazil, Thailand, and Albania making her top three. With each new country came a new lesson, Ngai says. In Albania, she learned not to judge a book by its cover, thanks to a friendly hostel owner who made everyone feel like “this can always be your home.” In Brazil, she learned why it’s important that we don’t live to work, but rather work to live. And in Thailand, it was the beauty of simplicity that she truly appreciated.

After the first few months of her travels, Ngai started feeling lighter — both literally and figuratively. “I feel like a lot of stress usually sits in your face, and I completely slimmed down. My eyes started sparkling more the more I [traveled],” she says. “Through meeting amazing people, knowing that I’m doing this for myself and I’m doing this to heal my heart, I think that’s where the internal change started to come through.”

Her advice to anyone considering backpacking? Do it. “Everybody should, if possible, go at least once on a solo backpacking journey — whether that’s two weeks, two months, two years,” Ngai says. It’s not until you step outside your own echo chamber, have to fend for yourself, figure out your next meal with no money, and rely on strangers for help. “That’s when you realize how big this world is, how much you haven’t seen, and how many many more experiences that you yearn to have,” she adds. “It makes you a more patient person, a kinder person, and I think in general, a better human being.”

The physical manifestation of that is just a happy coincidence. But the change that happens within will last forever. Backpacking is an experience that alters you at the core, Ngai says: “It taught me that I don’t need much at all to live a rich life.”

Alexis Jones (she/her) is the senior health and fitness editor at PS. In her seven years of editorial experience, Alexis has developed passions and areas of expertise around mental health, women’s health and fitness, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining PS, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women’s Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.