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

This is part two in a three-part series on using Priceline and Hotwire to get killer travel deals. See part one: The Secret To Getting Best Travel Prices on Priceline and Hotwire.

So you’ve gotten a good deal on cars, now it’s time to use Priceline get to the REALLY good deals: hotels. However, Priceline is not for the faint of heart. To get a really good deal, you have to do your homework.

Bidding on Priceline can pay off royally – getting 50-75% per night off lowest hotel prices – but it comes at a cost. You don’t get to pick the hotel, and if you screw up, you are stuck. Priceline’s cancellation policy is ironclad – they don’t give any (except in EXTREME circumstances). Are you willing to do the work and take the risk? Let’s go! Read more »

Hitchhiking used to be the domain of happy hippies and kings of the road like Kerouac. But in these days of serial killers and just plain distrust of your fellow man, is it still possible to bum a free ride?

While many hitchhikers have perfectly wonderful experiences and meet lots of oddball characters, hitching is now generally frowned upon. Whereas guidebooks used to at least provide the best places to hitch, most of them now totally advise against it.

Let’s Go publications, which had a hitchhiker’s thumb as its logo for decades, dropped it in its most recent edition. Editor Tom Mercer said: “Though Let’s Go readers might still choose to hitchhike in certain circumstances, we felt that the logo was no longer emblematic of budget travel.” Today’s budget travelers are most often backpackers. The writers at artoftravel.com said, “…the vast majority of travel backpackers rely on public transportation and never hitch rides.”

So how do budget travelers get around? Read more »