Taking off Travel blog

Most business trips are short and sweet, but occasionally there’s the chance to spend a couple of extra days seeing the new city. If you want to see the sights without blowing a hole in your budget, then couchsurfing might be a great option. Since we first covered the topic at the start of 2008, the numbers of couchsurfers have grown and grown, with an estimated 1.2 million couchsurfers around the world, according to Couchsurfing.org, the site founded by the originator of the movement, Casey Fenton.

Couchsurfing is a great way to see places from the inside.

How Couchsurfing Works

The premise is simple - sign up for the site, set up a Facebook style profile, say where you want to go and find someone in the city prepared to offer you a couch for a few days. That’s not all you might get, either. Many hosts are willing to show you around, give you tips on where to eat and places to visit and generally make sure that you have a great time without spending a lot. It’s a wonderful way to see a place from the inside - the way the locals see it. You can avoid tourist traps and have experiences that you might otherwise have missed.

Rating The Experience

Is it safe? Statistics suggest that most people have a fantastic time with no negative reports. On the Couchsurfing site you can rate each experience. Even if you don’t want to stay with a complete stranger, you can use the site to meet people in your destination who will meet you for coffee or a drink and point you in the right direction. You can also have just as much fun playing host to new friends visiting your town - and when the holiday’s over, there might even be business opportunities.

Other resources

• The Hospitality Club
• Global Freeloaders
• Video Introduction To Couchsurfing
• Couchsurfing on Twitter
• HostATourist
• Stay4Free
• Warmshowers - for bike tourists

Can you unplug on a business trip?

Business travel has changed a lot since I took my first business trip. Then, it was taken for granted that when you left your office, you would be out of reach for a few days. Sure, you might phone in on an extended trip, or communicate if you really needed to find out something, but if you were leaving the country, you wouldn’t waste the company’s money on an international phone call. There were no mobile phones and very few computers - and they certainly weren’t portable.

Fast forward some 25 years and the picture is different. Now, it’s strange if you aren’t constantly connected. I don’t know about you, but one of the first questions I ask about a hotel these days is not ‘what is the room like?’ but ‘do they have free WiFi?’ But is being constantly connected always a good thing?

21st Century Business Travel

On my very first business trip, once meetings were out of the way, I was left to my own devices. I could hang out with colleagues or take off for a bit of sightseeing. Once I had achieved what was required for the day, there was nothing more I needed to do. Now, whenever there’s a five minute break, I’m heading to the business center or to my laptop to check my email and make sure that nothing urgent has happened in my absence. While I’m at it, I also check up on the main social sites I frequent, as I wouldn’t want to be out of contact for too long.

The result of that is less down time, less time to enjoy the locations I travel to and to appreciate the diversity of human culture and behavior. I may travel more, but I often think that I see less of the places I visit on business. So, what’s the answer?

I think that if your holiday allowance permits it, tack on a couple of days to the trip so that you can explore the town you are in and the surrounding area. Leave your laptop in the hotel safe and only use your mobile phone if it’s absolutely necessary. Unplug for a day, if you dare - it’s one way to put the fun back into business travel.

It’s time for our half yearly roundup of popular posts on the blog. Here are the posts that you clicked, commented on and tweeted about:

• Would You Work For Free To Save Your Company? - it’s a tough question, but one many of us have had to answer
• Visiting Nottingham Castle - some of the best places to see are on your own doorstep
• Pack It Up! - Online Packing List Tools - exactly what it says - and I’m sure you can find a useful packing list generator among the ones listed here
• Travel Tips For A Great Summer - how to make the most of your summer vacation
• Six Travel Bloggers You Should Follow On Twitter - six of the best travel bloggers on Twitter, and a few more as well
• Wine And Wildlife - A Trip To Cancun - part two of my Cancun travelog

And here are six other favorites, one from each month:

• How To Get First Class Travel At Coach Prices - there’s no reason to fly coach with the savings you can make on these sites
• Nine Places To Plan Your Next Trip - exploring travel planning forums and sites
• The Roaring Sea - A Trip To Cancun - part one of my Cancun travelog
• How To Get Out Of Miami Airport In An Hour - some tips I’ve picked up in my many trips through Miami airport this year
• How To Save On Your Summer Vacation - there are many ways to cust the cost of travel; some of those are listed here.
• Traveling The Blogosphere - June 2009 - great posts from other travel blogs; well worth a read. Read more »
  Related Posts

  • How To Cut The Cost Of Your Next Business Trip
  • Working On The Road
  • Reflections On A Year Of Travel Blogging

Ben Southall, who won the ‘best job in the world’, has just started the job. He’ll spend the next six months exploring and promoting the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The process of finding him started at the beginning of the year, with some 34,000 people sending in applications so they could make the shorlist (and the short-shortlist). Sixteen people made the final cut, and Ben got the job. Here’s the moment:

Here are his first impressions of the job: ‘The clanging of my alarm clock awoke me from my slumber and the adrenalin for the day coarsed through my veins as I leapt from my pit in the knowledge that it was all about to commence, The Best Job in the World starts here….’

You can follow Ben’s adventures on the Island Caretaker blog and his Twitter stream.

Where would your dream job be? Are you already living your dream?

Time for another round up of posts that caught my eye on the travel blogs. First, a short post on Family Travel Guide called The Vacation Departure Maniac (with a title like that, how could I resist looking at it). This post extols the virtues of the list, in which I’m a firm believer. What about you? Next, the LA Times travel blog has another eye-catcher on Following Elvis Presley’s Ghost Around. Not quite as spooky as it sounds, it’s about a tour of Memphis.

European Highlights

Gary talks about his visit to Amsterdam in Brussels, Amsterdam and the Green Fairy. I loved his description of drinking absinthe as ‘doing a shot with cough syrup mixed in’. Not too far away (well, on the same continent at least), there are great pictures of the Guggenheim Bilbao on the Soultravelers3 blog. I’ve seen this building from the outside and it is fabulous.

Rants And Weird Things

Thinking of booking travel insurance? Then maybe you should read The View From The Wing’s post on why it may not be such a good deal. (You might as well read the NY Times article that inspired the post too). On the lighter side of travel, check out the list of weird airport names on The Independent.

Galavanting points to the fees to be imposed by United and US Airways when paying baggage fees at the airport. I wonder if those airlines have been talking to Easyjet in the UK. That airline also has some interesting fee policies.

Wrapping Up

The Location Independent blog has a detailed post on the ultimate mobile office setup for that lifestyle. Even if you’re just a frequent traveler you will find something useful here. And finally, Nomadic Matt has a list of free things to do in Washington, DC, complete with great pictures.