There's a bit of an art to haggling, and after travelling the world for over 3 years now, it sort of comes second nature to me. I sometimes forget, that to the new backpacker/traveller, whatever you want to be called, it can be a little daunting.

Let me take you through some of the things I've learned that have worked for me, some you may already know, and some you may not. It really comes down to these three factors, confidence, local information, and a sense of humour.

Confidence

This is pretty self explanatory, some people have it, some don't, trust me, if you're going to be on the road, you'll pick it up, that is, if you're willing to work at it. Yes, get in there and start haggling. Yes, you may be stung at first, but remember you're in training, keep your purchases small, avoid the shiny stuff.

Local Information

Very important this, you'll need to have a decent grasp of the local currency, or currencies, for example, I was recently in Haiti, where they use 3 different currencies, the Haitian Gourde, the U.S. Dollar, and the Haitian Dollar, which doesn't exist anymore, but try explaining that to a hard nosed Haitian Market woman.

What season is it? High or low? If it's low season, you're in luck, plenty of bargains to be had; it's a buyers market.

You should be able to count to at least 10, an understanding of numbers will let them know that you're not just off the boat.

Learn 1 very important phrase, "too expensive" or just "expensive" when you say this, you'll usually get a very animated reply, which you won't understand, but it's ok, you don't really need to, their body language will say it all.

Find other travellers who've been around for a while, and get the low down on what things cost, remember, if you're going to pay 10 times what a tuk tuk really costs, you're letting the locals know it's open season. Travellers with no sense of bargaining spoil it for the rest of us.

And finally,

Sense Of Humour

Don't take it too seriously, have fun with it, when you smile, they'll most likely smile back. Keeping things light hearted will usually get you a better deal. Getting angry or aggressive certainly won't.

Happy Haggling!

If you'd like some more easily digestible advice on backpacking, or to read some of my tales from the road, head on over to my blog, http://www.planitbackpacker.com/

There's lots of things I could have done better when I first set out on the big solo backpacking adventure. You learn by your mistakes I guess. If you're new to backpacking, why not learn from mine.

Happy Backpacking!