The term hostel has become the king of the budget travel terms. It has become over the years the uncontested king of the Scrimpers Scallywag, and all around the world without exception, that disposable Hasi chain of bunk beds and communal kitchens that have made the world affordable to millions. We look back to memories of fruitful communial lounge where every imaginable country backpacker could be met, with swapping tales of their adventure with imperial cheap beer and instant noodles. And to lots of those, it is a rite of passage, a colorful, gregarious experience of travel. But the glamour of the dormitory has started to wear off like a bridal veil on many and many an individual who travels now. Maybe you are a couple who prefer to spend a few moments together in privacy, a remote employee who is accustomed to being able to concentrate and work in silence, or maybe you are the type of person who would characterise the experience of sharing a dorm room with twenty people as exhausting rather than entertaining. The silver lining is that, your days in the hostel are over but that does not necessarily imply that your dream of affordable traveling in your post-hostel days will be no more. There are so many options to choose and they are amazing and all over the world of low-price accommodation, and wherever your destination, there are hostels which seem to open the door to the whole new world and make you feel the world far beyond the budget-friendly stay when you can sleep.
The next most available and rational move off the hostel bunk bed is into the world of personal rentals which is exploited with a tactical and a selective view. Sites such as Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com listing of apartments is a kind of travel revolution, and on a tight budget, the point to remember when perusing their glossy offerings of whole remodeled apartments is to seek out anything referred to simply as an apartment or as a Tinyhome or as a studio or a studio apartment or a shared apartment because there are gems there to find. The actual worth is the fact that you can filter your search of a “private room” under the roof of a local resident. It can be your ideal middle-ground: it is normally less expensive than a different room, but more expensive than a diverse room in a hostel, whereas it will also supply you with a extra dose of peace and privacy you could certainly never expect within a hostel common room. This is, however, more important because it gives you a host, a local resident, who is capable of giving invaluable tips to you, including where to find best street foods, how to use the local transport system, and so on. This turns your lodging into an entrance in to the culture.
When browsing through these websites, the second filter, which cannot be negotiated and waived, is access to a kitchen. This is one amenity that is the strongest money-saving weapon of any traveler. What will also almost always be cheaper in total even than the lowest possible room which does not have a kitchen with you can cook your own breakfast and the occasional dinner is an accommodation which is a little more expensive and has a kitchen. A bus ride and coffee and toast in the morning or a sandwich lunch instead of a meal out saves you pocketful money over a week and you can use it to make more valuable experiences. Moreover, these platforms deliver to users their most valuable gift, in the eyes of people who follow the slow travel trend, in the form of large weekly and monthly discounts. The cost of renting a small studio apartment in any big city such as the Chiang Mai or Mexico City at least a month apiece may be even lower than a week in a Western European hotel, enabling you to settle in a community instead of glancing through it.
Whereas the world platforms have made the process of finding the personal rooms much more convenient, there is another level of real, cheap hospitality just out of their online coverage the local guesthouses. We refer to these little places by various names in various countries, a pension in Spain, a garni in Italy, a pansiyon in Turkey, these are small establishments quite often run by a family is the life blood of local tourism. They lack trappings such as swimming pools, 24-hour room service and other features that are found in hotels, but they offer huge character, personalised service and great value. When you stay in a family run guesthouse you know you money gets directly into the local community and family. The owner is never a far-off corporation, but it is usually the individual taking your check-in, offering you a cup of tea and regaling you about his/her town. These facilities might not necessarily be included on the big booking systems and some more research on local tourism websites or the old-fashioned but still effective approach of walking through a neighbourhood you fancy and seeing signs may be needed. The payback of this secondary work is the reward of a transactional feeling of a more relational experience, a comfortable quiet place that feels like a real home away home.
However, what if you could get a flat share cancelled out? Depending not on an exchange of money to achieve a more impoverished experience, but on an exchange of money to achieve instead a more immersive experience? This is what the trust-based economy offers, a global village of travelers where sharing generosity and sharing cultures reign supreme. The best known site to be in this area is Couchsurfing. Couchsurfing at its basic level is a system where the locals provide one bed, couch or even a little floor space to the travellers at no costs. It should be known though, this is not a gratis hotel facility. It is an exchange of cultures. The way to pay this currency you do not have it but your readiness to tell your stories, to be a respectable guest and interact with your host. Lodging with a local gives an insurmountable experience of the real day-to-day life of a destination. Your host can offer to take you to an evening dinner of the family, to his/her favourite spots in the city where no tourist would ever think of, or just spend the evening explaining the details of his/her culture to you. It is one of the deepest means of the socially adventurous and open minded traveler to connect with the world.
To the person wishing more privacy and independence than he can manage sitting on a couch, the house-sitting world opens an unusual possibility. Services such as TrustedHousesitters, can only be viewed as a matchmaker between people who need to leave home on vacation (or any other reason) and safety-conscious travelers who will maintain their house and, most often, animal companions in exchange for access to a home to stay in. This is the final local experience to live-like-a-local. You might also be staying in a beautiful cottage in the English country side and the only things you have to do are to feed a cat and to water plants. You might spend some winter in a modern flat in Bangkok keeping a small dog and working online. In this case, this model is exactly right in terms of the needs of mature, responsible travelers, digital nomads, or anyone who has a longer trip. Although annually there normally is a membership fee to the platform, a week-long or longer house-sit will more than repay the membership fee many times. It is a lovely, symbiotic relationship which enables you to have the comfort and space of a real home, with a fully stocked kitchen and the loving presence of a pet, and you only pay, the big fat zero.
There is more to these more popular choices, of course. There exists a whole universe of the niche, of the creative, of the resourceful adventurer. Religious guesthouse and monasteries are available in most places of Europe and Asian countries which provide clean and simple as well as mind-blowing calm accommodation at a nominal rate or even at a donation level. These are not luxury stays; they are calm stays and cultural experience type of stay. One cannot forget the sound of bells in the chapel or the peers chanting something as they wake up because it can never happen in any five star hotel. Equally, universities in the world, as the students are off during summer, pile to foreigners to rent their dormitories. The rooms are mostly bare and simple, however provide a more privacy, secure and frequently centrally situated sleeping place at a small amount of the hotel expenses. To the person who happens to travel through the great outdoors as in the beautiful Northern regions of Pakistan or the National parks of North America and Europe, camping is the best cost-effective option. Buying a light tent and sleeping bag can earn its price back after a couple of days and the feeling you get by camping under the stars and not hearing a single sound of the city is priceless.
In the end, escaping the hostel monopoly is all about changing your perception of what a budget travel means. Lower standard is not what it is about and it is about being more creative and conscious in what you choose. It is the future when one can understand that it is not only the place with the lowest price that is considered good accommodation, but the place that suits your personality and traveling style better. No matter whether you are an outgoing individual who lives on the cultural exchange of Couchsurfing, a reserved business person, who can work anywhere you like because of a long-term house-sit, or a family of two which likes the attractiveness of a family-run guesthouse, there is a wide world of low-priced comfort available to you. The bunk bed will be an ever present safe source of shelter, yet once you step outside of it you will be able to tell that Privacy, Authenticity and a limited cash flow are not one and the same thing. On the contrary, these are what makes up a more meaningful and fulfilling trip.
This new world of accommodation entails more than even having an alternative booking site, but a sophisticated way of having yourself articulated into the world of being a traveler. In trust situations such as Couchsurfing and house sitting, your passport is your profile. It is basically your introduction, your resume and your letter of intent in one. A generic and copy-pasted message when requesting a stay on Couchsurfing will definitely be disregarded. An effective request would be one that will prove that the host is a person in whom one has interest. Go through their profile. Speak about a common interest, either a fondness of photography, a preference of writer or your fondness of hiking. Don t only explain what you want to receive during the stay, but what you can give as a guest. Cook them an authentic Pakistani meal, talk to them about what you know in a certain craft, or just hold a captivating conversation about your culture perhaps. This demonstrates that you are familiar with the spirit of the platform: this is not a one-way relationship and flow of value extraction.
Equally, in the case of a house-sitting, your profile should be filled with sound of responsibility and trustworthiness. You are being trusted to handle the most prized thing a homeowner has, their house and pets. The profile on your account must be elaborate and formal. Put in some good friendly photos of yourself and even better still pictures of yourself with animals. Get references and these may be in the form of character references by a previous landlord to you, or someone at work or around the community you know that is respected as such. An introductory video as well, usually short and well made, can perform miracles, as home owners will be able to get an image of your personality and hear the sincerity in your voice. Personalize your application when you apply to a certain sit. Ask intelligent questions concerning their pets, their name, how they take care of the pets and their schedules. Such fastidiousness helps to demonstrate your readiness to become a good caregiver as you are not simply in search of a shovel to sleep somewhere, but you are ready to take care of people. It is being an outstanding guest or sitter that earns you a reputation that results in glowing reviews which will open a world of opportunities for you in future. A tiny simple souvenir, sent home from your city by you, something rich or fragrant like an Indian spice packet from Lahore, a bit of local craft, is a gorgeous decorum, which you will long remember.
Those other types of accommodation best fit into the notion of slow travel. An anxious schedule of one-third of a tour in thirteen cities in around two weeks encourages a hastily convenient check-in procedure of a hostel. To the contrary there is moving into a room in a local house, being in control of a house-sit, renting an apartment per month needs a more gradual pace. It is not only a change in logistics; it is a drastic transformation of philosophy of travelling with unmeasurable economical and adventurous advantages. It is an attractive financial case. Offering discounts of some 40-50 percent for weekly and monthly stays in the rental platforms can make the nightly price of a privately rented apartment considerably less than a bed in a hostel. Not having accommodation expenses in one location during a three month house-sit basically equals money saved that can equate equal value thousands of dollars and in itself can make the idea of travelling long term work.
The best part of slowing down is the intensity in which a person is immersed. When you move in a place and remain there a few weeks or even months then you move beyond tourism. You are not a tourist anymore, spending a time in this place, now you are an interim citizen. You find out how to get around the local grocery, where you can go to get fresh bread at the best possible time in the local bakery, you may even meet some nodding familiarity with neighbours. You can spare the time to take up a course in language, a set of classes in cooking or to volunteer around a local organization. You observe the small changes in the society- the transfer of a workweek, the reverb of a Sunday market, the tranquility of a national holiday. This is the kind of knowledge which is never possible when you are simply flying past one tourist attraction to another. It is not only that you are viewing a site, but you are also feeling it beat.
All of this philosophy of a different, slower travel can be extensively used, not only to the international travel, but also to the inner exploration of the unknown vastness and diversity of the Pakistan itself. Although the tourism infrastructures in the beautiful north regions of Hunza, Skardu, and Swat are developing, the possibilities may appear narrow towards big-budget hotels or even an emerging hostel culture. Here is the place where an innovative accommodation policy can blaze. The area is full of family owned and run guesthouses and provide unimaginable hospitality along with connection to the local culture. They are usually tracked down by seeding local networks, possibly by joining Facebook groups of Pakistani travellers where fellow travellers post off their findings and phone numbers. To more adventurous there is no limit to the camping possibilities starting off with the meadows at the foothills of the Nanga Parbat and moving on to high altitude tracks of Deosai. You pay a small price compared to the price of a hotel room to be close to nature on a scale that is truly world standard. Even trust in the travel is gaining entry. You may get a Couchsearching host in Gilgit who will help you from there to explore the nearby valleys, or a family in a smaller town, where one will be happy to host you in traditional Pakistani tradition of hospitality.
Naturally, this road does not come without a few unique challenges of its own though, and you should come to terms with that. Orderly dependability of a hotel or an efficiently managed hostel is substituted with a higher level of unpredictability. A host on Couchsurfing may be forced to cancel on short notice because of a crisis involving the family. A house-sit, in spite of being a free experience, is a job, a job with the actual responsibility, you cannot just go off on a whim and take up an impromptu 3-day walk when you have to take care of a cat 2 times a day, walk a dog 2 times a day. Besides being very time consuming and entailing elaborate communication and prior planning it sometimes comes at a higher cost than a simple walk up to a hostel reception. The trick is to make sure that you have some backup plan at all times. So before you venture to another city to stay with a Couchsurfing friend, it is always best to have at the back of your pocket, the name and address of a guesthouse that is within your budgetary means, just in case. Look into the reviews critically, talk a lot and openly with your hosts/ the people who own the home, and learn to listen to that inner ear.
In a conclusion, the philosophical value gained after manoeuvring through these stumbling blocks is enormous. Having lived in these alternative accommodations changes your relationship with the world essentially. You get to know that your home is not a series of walls, but a source of trust and common obligation. You find, that the most interesting social moments are not always in a rowdy hostel bar, but the small voice chatting to the family that manages the building you are staying in and sharing a cup of chai, or the close friendship you build staying with a host on Couchsurfing. The experience of your journeys stops being a mere chronicle of views. It turns out a rich story filled with the people you encountered and the houses you had an opportunity of living in. The unusual character of the pet you cared for when you lived in a sleepy town near Melbourne can become part of your memory of Australia as important as the Sydney Opera House. The taste of the breakfast cooked in your host family flat in a town of Japan gets more vivid than the photo you took of a famous Japanese temple. This is the jazz of taking the less traveled path. It substitutes the transactional approach of the traditional tourism by a relationship one. Being a consumer that pays money to receive a service is no longer your only role; you become a part of the web of human connectivity. You will not only achieve a more cost effective way to travel but a better way to live in the world when you look beyond the bunk bed.
