Going Local Travel

Mark Boyle, the freeconomy guy who I’ve written about before, has popped up in the Guardian today talking about how to travel for free. There are no real revelations in his recommendations – Couchsurfing, LiftShare and WWOOFing all get namechecked -  but I’m happy to hear that he is going to be writing more regularly [...]

Some people hate the idea of offline travel networking. I’m talking about anything – from Couchsurfing to an open-house dinner – which involve stepping out of a comfort zone and finding yourself in the company of strangers. Here are some tips for getting over the fear and making it work for you: Worried about awkward [...]

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I really can’t emphasis this point enough: Couchsurfing.com is fantastic for language learners. And not just for hosts/guests. It can be a godsend in your home town too and it needn’t involve a single couch. I have raved about Couchsurfing’s Buenos Aires forum before (see: Top three ways [...]

Is Couchsurfing bad for local travel? Well, this is a new conundrum. Sort of. Couchsurfing has, of course, always had it’s critics. And so it should. There is no ‘perfect’ way to travel. Everything has pros and cons. And I’ve always been keen to tackle those belonging to couchsurfing. A very interesting blog over at the new Local Travel Movement site caught my eye today. Writer Ethan Gelber has picked up on some comments suggesting that couchsurfing sites do not fit in with the ‘local travel’ idea.

  Is Couchsurfing now mainstream? 1.5m users is huge number for something supposed to be ‘alternative’. But it depends on what circles you mix in. A couple of years ago, I found myself often having to start from scratch explaining the concept to other travellers in hostels. Couchsurfing was by no means new then, but [...]

Word is they’re short on traditional accommodation options for the South Africa World Cup. I wrote a piece today for the Guardian about alternative options, including using sites such as iStopover, Couchsurfing and home exchanging. While researching, I logged onto the South Africa group on Couchsurfing.com to get the current lowdown. Predictably, there are a lot [...]

2009 has been the year of accommodation networks. These are the sites that enable you to bypass hotels and rent a room or house directly from the owners. What started off as the idea of a small fee for a place to crash or throw an airbed down (in a style of couchsurfing) has moved [...]

If you stay in a hostel, your contact is predominantly with other travellers; if you’re in hotel, the receptionist may do a sterling job professing interest in your daily sightseeing, but this rarely goes beyond ten minutes. So how do you break the cycle?

WAYN is one travel networking site I’ve never really got on with. It was a combination of the Twee cartoon mascot, the spam, and those one-line emails from guys trying to pick up a date. There also seemed to be a lot of users that weren’t even particularly interested in travel, instead spending most of [...]

If you’re still not convinced by the idea of sleeping in someone else’s home as a couchsurfer, there is one last alternative. Why not try their back garden instead? All you need is a tent and roughly 15 euros to find off-beaten-track camp spots on private land via Singlespotcamping.com. Give it a try and the [...]