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Couchsurfing / travel tips

dragulagu

dragulagu

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Hey everyone. I'm planning to do some short trips in the upcoming months to have a little time-out in between the daily life to spark up my worldly curiosities. Now it'll be more of a 3-4 day kind of travel to interesting spots in Europe using a modest budget.

For traveling I do have enough covered through google flights / train / ... but for the accommodations I am still looking a bit. Airbnb is a good option with modest prices but what also caught my eye is my old couch-surfing account that I surprisingly still have around.

It however has been ages that I have used it so I wonder if anyone here has more recent experiences or tips with using it and where to look out for when choosing a host. Already got some nice tips on building up the profile but other tips are certainly welcome.

General traveling/backpacking tips are also always appreciated off course :grin:
 
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Ohh what a great idea of a thread. I can recommend airbnb to anyone who haven't tried it already. Was in Taipei last summer and got two different rooms on like a two day notice for much less than what a hotel in the same area would cost. Might be more expensive in Europe, but definitely worth checking out.

Never tried couch surfing myself, would love to hear stories. I think Europe is great if you have friends you can stay with.
 
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I booked this room the day before I arrived to Taiwan, less that 15$ per night and a 5 minute walk from the subway. It had a nice little foyer too, but I was dead tired when I arrived so didn't take any pictures.

tw_airbnb.png
 
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I have a lot of experience couch surfing (not the organized website thing) when traveling, but I was with bands. So, I guess my recommendation is join a band????? I'm sorry I'm not more help.
 
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Elis said:
Ohh what a great idea of a thread. I can recommend airbnb to anyone who haven't tried it already. Was in Taipei last summer and got two different rooms on like a two day notice for much less than what a hotel in the same area would cost. Might be more expensive in Europe, but definitely worth checking out.
Never tried couch surfing myself, would love to hear stories. I think Europe is great if you have friends you can stay with.
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Elis said:
I booked this room the day before I arrived to Taiwan, less that 15$ per night and a 5 minute walk from the subway. It had a nice little foyer too, but I was dead tired when I arrived so didn't take any pictures.
Click to expand...

+1 on airbnb, did a couple airbnb's myself, never had a problem with them. And depending on the season/location you can get a really cheap but good location, less than 15$ is crazy cheap though. On couchsurfing, however, I'm more interested in the -meeting people aspect-, as bizarrely as it is for an INTJ. One of the locations i'd love to try out is Greece (Athens, Pompei) and talk a bit on the Philosophical / Historical aspect of the site with locals. The Acropolis museum of Athens also seems great to visit. Currently just ideas, have to plan out everything first.

Asa said:
I have a lot of experience couch surfing (not the organized website thing) when traveling, but I was with bands. So, I guess my recommendation is join a band????? I'm sorry I'm not more help.
Click to expand...

No problem Asa, it's also a way and honestly it is cool that you did tht. Never been in a band myself but I do have "some" musical knowledge / random meetings with artists (when buying / selling / trading synth/studio gear), so it's pretty cool. It's always fun talking about their workflows/stories when trying out the gear. Not going to join a band though, I'm not good enough for that. :)

Also an FYI, got this interesting site from a friend: https://jacksflightclub.com/ , have not yet done it myself, he did a couple times and recommends it. These are really great deals for long distance flights around the world, mostly starting from the UK (which is doable from Belgium).
 
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My advice for travel in general is to not go the tourist route, it's a much better experience if you go where people go. Tourist attractions and sightseeing sure, but it absolutely breaks my heart when people go on these fully guided bus tours and think that's all there is to it. I think the best you can do while travelling, well depending on what you want to do maybe, is to hit it off with locals. If possible I like to stay for a bit longer, get cheap accommodation and just get out there and do stuff. Try to find some local places, and once you hit it off with a few friends it's like a completely different experience. All these places you'd never find will open up to you.
 
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Pin said:
Take a trip to Japan alone.
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Funnily enough, I find that I make more friends when I'm out and about on my own than with a group of friends. I think it's all about making yourself available.
 
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Pin said:
Take a trip to Japan alone.
Click to expand...
On the long term bucket list, but too expensive for now.

Elis said:
My advice for travel in general is to not go the tourist route, it's a much better experience if you go where people go. Tourist attractions and sightseeing sure, but it absolutely breaks my heart when people go on these fully guided bus tours and think that's all there is to it. I think the best you can do while travelling, well depending on what you want to do maybe, is to hit it off with locals. If possible I like to stay for a bit longer, get cheap accommodation and just get out there and do stuff. Try to find some local places, and once you hit it off with a few friends it's like a completely different experience. All these places you'd never find will open up to you.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree, hate those heavy tourists routes. Plus you mostly pay much more on these routes/locations than when you'd go around those locations.
 
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Hmh, this might not sound like much but I would say.. there is also a particular type of traveller that finds each other very quickly, and who know the best places to go to spontaniously along your framework route. If you happen to hear people talk about their plans and exchange where they have been before then you pretty much found them. Their input can sometimes be more up to date concerning cheap places to stay at than the input of locals.

Anyhow.. exploring starts when you chose the smaller path, and telling the people living there that you want to know the real place. Usually people are very open and happy to show, share or even invite you to things you could not have possibly planned out or dreamed of.
 
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dragulagu said:
Ended up with a trip to Athens, curious ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No accommodations yet, but aiming for something social like a hostel
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That's wonderful! Hope you have a lot of fun in the land of the wisdom lovers :D
 
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