Free & Cheap Places To Stay on Vacation
If you’re planning a trip to a new destination I highly recommend visiting a friend, friend of a friend, or even new found friend. Locals know all the best places to eat, what’s a rip off, and are usually happy to share. Here’s a few sites that match locals with travelers.
- GlobalFreeLoaders ~ Worldwide free accommodation network of travelers willing to host each other. I’ve slept in boats, on couches, and in private guest rooms.
- CouchSurfing ~ Find a place to sleep or a local friendly face.
- Craigslist ~ Look in the housing section for sublets/temporary housing or housing swaps. Check the right sidebar for worldwide cities.
- Vacation Rentals By Owner ~ I stayed in an amazing converted one-room school house in Tiverton, Rhode Island for the same as the cost of a hotel and much more fun.
- Airbnb ~ Rooms and complete apartments rented by individuals start at $40 and go up from there. I stayed in a great apartment in suburban Washington DC during the Jon Stewart rally last Halloween.
- Hostelz.com ~ Is the most complete listings of hostels and low-cost hotels I know of (and I worked in a hostel for a summer). Some hostels require you to be under a certain age or carry a student ID but many are open to the public.
- don Quijote Spanish Courses in Spain & Mexico ~ Many language schools have dorms or private apartments for rent at slightly above the local rate but less than a hotel. I took 4 weeks of Spanish lessons from this school in Barcelona and Madrid. I stayed in two-bedroom apartments with all the basics in safe neighborhoods. You take classes for 4 hours a day and have the rest of time to explore the city and enjoy. Ask your employer if they’ll chip in for language lessons.
Tracking Your Travel
- TripIt ~ Automatically imports travel reservations and syncs with a smart phone or popular calendars. Plus you can link with friends to share travel dates. You can pay for frequent flier mileage tracking but I haven’t and still find it super useful.
Where I’ve Stayed
Here’s some of my favorite 169 cities in 14 countries I’ve visited. I’m happy to give travel advice as usual.
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About Me
Jazmin is the Director of Awesome for Tekserve, the independent Apple computer store in NYC. She helps women start technology companies through Women 2.0 in San Francisco and Founder Labs in New York City. Her recent public speaking engagements include preventing payment fraud, low-cost marketing best practices, web design, training, social media, customer surveying, and responding to customer complaints. Jazmin holds a Bachelors of Science in Management Information Systems. Her passions include travel, tea, Audible books, and Zumba. 
