Accomodation

Due to the cheap price of today’s low fare airline the price for the accommodation can easy be the most expansive part of your trip. I have been very active in BEST and I have therefore a lot of contacts among international students all over the world. Not only can I find a cheap accommodation because of this but I also get invited to their local student parties and a have a personal guide for that city I visit. In the same way I would enjoy hosting some of them at my place. It also happened that I stayed at a friend’s friend place or that the person gave me key and then told me to put the key in the mail box!

Hostels:

The good thing about hostels is not just the price but it’s also is a gathering point for backpackers, have usually computers, Wi-Fi, free breakfast, (free dinner), city maps, laundry, fridges, board games, arrange activates and that you only have to pay 10% before arriving. Almost all big cities have plenty of cheap hostels. Do a web search on a few sites and it shouldn’t be very hard to find something. So don’t take the cheapest, instead take the cheapest among those with the best rank. If you are going to stay several of days it’s also clever to check for discounts, a lot of hostels have some sort of discount but if you are only going to stay for 1-2 days it’s probably just a waste of time (15% is like 2€ / day).

However hostels are not only good. There is a lot of stealing and you don’t have much privacy. There are usually shared showers, people arriving late etcetera. My advice is to book a shared room with a few people as possible. 4-6 roommates are alright. Hopefully none of them are snoring. I think its most common of girls steals from girls and that’s what I suggest a shared room. Many hostels have some sort of lockers and it’s therefore smart to bring your own little lock on your trip.

Couch surfing:

There are two popular website for Couch surfers. They are starting to as well to turn into communities where the people meet each week to take a beer or two. The two sites are Hospitality Club and CouchSurfing. I have not used these sites to find a couch because I either got this from a Bestie or wanted to meet as many other backpackers as possible. However I used the sites to ask questions, like where to buy the cheapest electronics (USA), what to visit, if there are any student party/other event going on in the city or if they are just interested in grabbing a beer together / want to show me around a little bit. If you ask a question to one of the members about 1 out of 10 will reply and maybe 1 out of 20 give you a positive reply. However the sites are really big, so it’s much more effective than any Lonely Planet guide.

Don’t trust people too much. It happened to me once that a guy who I spoke to told me that it was okey for me to crash at his place. He told me how to get there as well as his phone number. However when I arrived to the station no one meet me and it turned out he had given me the wrong phone number. I then had to spend the night at a double room at a hotel which wasn’t very cheap or funny… But that only happen once, all the other times I really enjoyed it and there been none problem. If you have lived at my place, I stayed at your place or just meet me, please add me to the networks and write some references.

Here are links to my profiles: My Couchsurfing profile & My Hospitality Club profile.