CouchSurfing: A Bargain and a Gamble

I recently posted a brief reference about CouchSurfing, and I thought I would follow up.


CouchSurfing is a social media site that brings together travelers from all over the world by matching up people looking for a place to stay and people who are willing to let them stay in their homes for free.  After joining the site, one creates a personal profile that logs information about the user such as age and gender, and even goes as in depth as to ask what your personal philosophy, religion, and beliefs are.   With over 2.4 million members, CouchSurfing has drawn the attention of many sociologists, who are intrigued by its popularity, and the implications it has on our view of each other.

Cody Kittle, a writer for TIME Magazine, reviewed CouchSurfing as a veteran surfer. In his article "Adventures in Couch Surfing: One Sojourner's Truth," Kittle describes his trip to Hong Kong, and the CouchSurfing experience he had there.  He also describes exactly what CouchSurfing is--something that "outsiders," as he calls them, find hard to understand.

Kittle's review of CouchSurfing is quite positive and points out many beneficial things about the program such as available identity and address verification.  Kittle is also willing to put forward that the system can be challenging at times, such as when his plans fell through at the last minute.  His advice is to take your time exploring and finding options--there are even CouchSurfers in Antarctica.


Personally, the more I look into CouchSurfing, the more it seems like a reputable system as long as you are careful. There are kind people all over the country and the world that are willing to host reputable travelers in their homes. If someone has paid the $25 fee to have themselves verified, and they also have a laundry list of positive reviews, I would consider taking the opportunity to meet someone new.  Traveling alone and CouchSurfing may not be the best idea, but if you and a friend need a cheap place to stay, giving CouchSurfing a chance may be just what you need.

Abroad Part Three: Small Groups

     Just like traveling with tour company groups, traveling in small or independent groups has benefits and costs. Having traveled abroad with a smaller group, I can attest that this type of travel provides you with a lot that larger companies simply cannot offer. I recently traveled to Japan with a group of seven people, including myself, and with such a small group we had the utmost in flexibility.

Pros:

• Extreme Flexibility: Where traveling with a large company keeps you confined to a specific schedule, traveling in a small or independent group allows you to change your mind at a moment's notice.  It is still important to keep a schedule to prevent too many surprise costs, but having the freedom to decide if you want to see a castle on Tuesday rather than Monday is a plus. This can be especially helpful if there are unforeseen complications, such as museums or attractions being closed.  In Himeji, Japan, the famous castle we had traveled to see was closed. In a large tour group, this would have meant an entire travel day wasted, but with our small group we were able to get back on the train and see an entirely different city instead. (We also met a few ninjas along the way.)

Because the castle in Himeji was closed, the city provided street performers to keep tourists happy.

•  Lodging: With smaller groups, the amount of lodging necessary drops significantly.  If you only have seven people, they can generally be split between two hotel rooms comfortably, instead of having to purchase ten or 15. This also means that location is less of an issue.  In large groups, many prefer to stay as close to attractions as possible to avoid losing members of the group. If you only have seven people to keep track of, you can stay in locations that cost less. When my group traveled to Tokyo, we were able to stay in a hostel on the less expensive side of the city. Yes, it was an extra train from the center of town, but we had no trouble moving our small group from place to place.

• Accessibility: Many places absolutely despise large tour groups.  Having worked at a tourist attraction myself (Ruby Falls in Tennessee), I can relate with these sentiments.  Often, there is simply not enough room in a given restaurant for a group of 30-50 people and groups are simply not welcome. Large groups can also put unwanted strain on staff and resources, causing local customers to become disgruntled and angry with the business.  If you travel with a smaller group, however, many places become available and welcoming.  For example one of the best restaurants in Japan, in my opinion, was nestled in a space only slightly larger than the average college dorm room. Rokutsubo-ya serves Hiroshima style Okinomiyaki, a strange but wonderful noodle, cabbage and pancake conglomeration that is famous in Japan.  This restaurant has only ten seats, and would be absolutely impossible to visit in a large group. However, for our small group, it was a perfect taste of Japanese culture.

Hiroshima style Okinomiyaki or Hiroshima-yaki. Our group of seven took up 70% of this restaurant.

Cons:

• Planning: Probably the largest problem that arises with traveling abroad without a large company is that you are responsible for planning everything from start to finish.  While this means you get to customize every facet of your trip, it also means that you are responsible for staying completely organized. From airfare to taxi rides, all transportation must be arranged on your own as well as all lodging.

• Language Barrier: One of the greatest benefits of traveling with a large company is that they usually give you a native speaker to guide you. When you travel on your own in a small group, any language barriers that come up are up to you to defeat.  While this can be a wonderful learning experience, having to use hand signals to figure out the cost of your hotel room can be troubling.

Overall, I prefer traveling in a small group anywhere, but especially abroad.  When you are in a foreign place, you want to be able to get the most out of the trip, and small groups give you the most flexibility. Even with the challenges that are presented, most if not all can be compensated by extra planning and organization.

Abroad Part Two: The Pros and Cons of Tour Group Travel

     Traveling abroad can be done in various ways, and these different ways each have benefits as well as potential problems.

     For students, one of the most conspicuous ways to travel abroad is with a tour group agency such as Education First (EF) for high school groups or EF College Break for college students.  I have been on one EF tour to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and I am looking into traveling with EF College Break in the future. There are incredible benefits that come with tour agencies like EF, but there are also problems and tradeoffs that come along with signing onto a tour.

Pros:

• Knowledgable Tour Guides:  On the tour to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, I traveled with students from my school's german department. We had an excellent tour guide named Atto Suttarp. An actor from Berlin, Atto was incredibly energetic as well as knowledgeable about the areas we traveled to.  Not only did he fulfill all that EF promised, he went above and beyond in making sure that our German-speaking-group got the absolute most out of our trip. At one point, he led a small group of us out of the way of the normal tour path so that we could visit an actual German video store to buy films for future German classes.

• Reliable Transportation: Companies such as EF generally arrange all transportation from the time you arrive in the airport to the time you depart.  This includes transportation between cities and often within cities themselves, and EF generally will use a charter-bus for this purpose. The benefit of this transportation is limited confusion and unexpected expense. Transportation is included in the trip fee and is therefore accounted for before the trip even begins.

• Lodging:  Lodging can be one of the most intimidating things when it comes to traveling abroad, especially if in the place you choose to travel there is a language barrier between you and the person working the front desk.  All lodging is pre-booked and included in an EF tour price, which can save head-ache and unexpected lodging costs.

• Activities:  Another inclusion your tour are itineraries and entrance fees to major museums and attractions.  This can be especially helpful, as it gives you the "highlight reel" of wherever you choose to visit, and can sometimes save you a little on admission. This is an additional time when your tour guide can be helpful: having been to the places multiple times, they can often tell you what are the best things to spend your time on in a given place.

"Reliable Transportation" in that EF always makes sure you get from point A to point B.

Cons:

• Price: While many things, including air-fare and lodging, are included in these tours, you are still paying a hefty sum for service rendered.  Tours to Europe average $2300 or more, and that is without souvenirs and quite a few meals.  There are by far cheaper was to travel, because with companies such as EF, you are paying for convenience.

• Other Groups:  With pre-college EF tours, unless your group numbers close to 50, you will be placed with additional groups.  While this can be an opportunity to meet new friends, it can also be a dangerous mix.  Our trip was nearly ruined by a large group of elderly people that were taking advantage of the system.  A group of 2 "students" with 30 chaperones over the age of 50 is hardly a "high school group" as most would define it.  These people were working the system, as tour groups for older people are generally even more expensive.  This was a serious problem, as they were not fond of high school students at all.  Moral of the story: you are rolling the dice when joining a tour group.

• Less Flexibility: While structure can be good to some points, these tour groups seriously limit the spontaneity allowed when traveling.  When your tour guide tells you to be at a certain block at a certain time, you must be there, no questions asked.  Instead of being able to visit a museum on a whim, you are forced into a very set schedule, and you might miss something that you are genuinely interested in for the sake of a tourist trap that you would rather avoid.

• Disconnect:  When you travel with a tour company, it is extremely easy to miss out on the cultural experiences that make traveling so rewarding.  If you wanted to, you could spend the entirety of your trip with people of the same culture as yourself, and have little to no interaction with the culture you are visiting.  Personally, I travel to learn, and as I watched the aforementioned group members eat meal after meal together in McDonalds, I realized the danger that these groups posed.  They did not make any attempt to immerse themselves in a truly rich culture, and EF especially is accommodating for that kind of attitude in a dangerous way.

   Personally, the method EF uses for high school tours is not the way I prefer to travel, but it is an effective way to travel with a large number of students.  The EF College Break program is more flexible, allowing you to make some decisions along the way, but is again extremely expensive and restrictive.   That being said, I do not have anything against EF as a company. I truly enjoyed my trip to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland--I simply believe that there may be a better way for The Pocket Change Traveler to travel abroad.

   Traveling abroad can be an extremely fulfilling experience, and in the future I will discuss a different method of travel and use a different example. Next time, we will travel together to the wonderful country of Japan, and discuss the benefits and problems of traveling in small independent groups.

Traveling Abroad Part One: The Basics

 

All right pocket change travelers: at this point, we have covered the basic travel options for college students. Eventually, however, you will uncover an urge to see places that you cannot drive to for the weekend--namely, abroad. In the next few posts, I will be covering my favorite way to travel and highlighting a few of the places that I have been as examples. Hopefully, you will learn from my mistakes and be able to travel to as many distant places as you want without defaulting on your upcoming tuition payment.


   I recently read an article on USA Today College that outlined a few ways that students studying abroad can save money. (You can find the original article here.) While I believe that studying abroad and traveling abroad are two entirely different experiences, a few of the things that the author pointed out transfer well to traveling.

1. Street Food:  Happe, the author, points out that street food "is your new best friend" because of its low price and local flair, but of course you knew that already from this blog. Happe is correct, however, in saying that it is a great way to subsidize your eating without spending a fortune. I would add that you should be picky about what street food you partake of. While most vendors are honest and safe, if it looks risky, give it a second look--I once ended up with octopus on a stick in Miyajima, Japan that gave me a rough experience.
2. Walking Tours: It is true that a lot of hostels, especially in Europe, offer free walking tours to those staying the night. These tours can range from an hour to an entire day, and give you what Happe deems the "SparksNotes" version of the city you are in.  She is right in saying that you are  in no way obligated to tip your tour guide if you did not like your tour. However, I was a tour guide for two years, and if the reason you did not like the tour was because it was raining, the streets were crowded or the museums seemed boring, these are not adequate reasons to keep you from at least donating a euro or two to someone who spent their whole day smiling and answering your questions.
3. Plan Transportation: As I have said before, the best way to save money while traveling is to avoid unexpected expenses, and plan as much as you possible can.  This applies particularly to transportation.  Happe refers to these surprises as "hidden expenses" and astutely points out that they can add up. If you remember that you will have to get to the airport somehow, you are less likely to forget that these expenses add up. Also, I try to walk as many places as possible--it's a great way to see more of where you are, and it can make you feel better about eating all of that street food.
4. Museum Passes: Let's face it, museums are some of the best parts of some cities, but also some of the most expensive things to do. While I agree with Happe that these city-wide museum passes can be a way to see more for less, I also agree with her that they can be deceptive. Often, the student discount you receive will be better than paying for a pass, especially if you do not plan on seeing every museum that the pass is for.  These "plans" can be deceptive in that they not only offer mere discounts, as Happe found out, but they also may only cover certain museums--some that you never wanted to see anyway.  My advice here is to find out exactly what museums you want to see, and consult travel sites and blogs to see if they offer specific discounts, or perhaps are free on certain days of the week.
5. Hostels are not always cheap: This is true. Unfortunately, many hostels in the center of happening metropolises are not always the pocket change traveler's best friend. Happe proposes that you use the alternative, CouchSurfing, as a free alternative.  While this can be a good way to save and meet new people, there is also something to be said about the hostel experience.  CouchSurfing also pulls you out of the city center anyway, and when you are out of that high-price area, the hostels are also going to be cheaper. I once stayed in a hostel in Osaka, Japan that was located in a soccer stadium. Yes, it was a train ride to the center of Osaka, but we also got to see the sports complex neighborhood that we never would have ventured into otherwise.

Happe does a good job of covering the basics, but I'm afraid she gives up too easily sometimes.  The more creative you are and the more research you do, the more you will save while traveling without having to compromise on any experiences.

This only scratches the surface of traveling abroad but is at least a briefing into one of the best experiences you will ever have. Traveling abroad, more than any other type, gives you an invaluable education in culture and interaction, and I cannot wait to share even more with you.

Let's be legal here, here is my bibliography for the article by Happe:

Happe, M. (2012, May 2). Five ways to travel Europe on a student budget.      Retrieved April 5, 2013, from USA Today College website:      http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/study-abroad/      five-ways-to-travel-europe-on-a-student-budget