BUDGET / FREE Accommodations While You Travel!: How To Travel for CHEAP!

Hi, everyone! Sonnie here with some helpful travel hints! Accommodations can be the most expensive part of your trip, but in this video, I’d like to share some ways to get your accommodations for your next adventure for next to nothing! If you know of any more awesome tips on saving money on accommodations, please comment with them below!

*Work For Stay:* There are a ton of websites out there to help you find farms, hostels, or other types of businesses where you can work for a set number of hours per week, in exchange for housing and sometimes food. Most of these websites require a membership fee to keep them running, but they easily pay for themselves. The top three that I’d recommend are WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), Work Away and Help X, but there are many more. You don’t even necessarily need to use these websites though. We know plenty of people who just asked the hostels they were staying at if they needed any extra hand and got to stay for free that way.

*House/Pet Sitting Internationally:* I can make an entire video about our awesome experience with our International Pet Sitters so commented below if you’d like that, but for now, I’ll give some short amount of information here. You can sign up on certain websites to interview with people for a chance to house sit or pet sit for them in their countries! When we used the service, we interviewed a couple who got to spend an entire summer in Paris without paying anything for accommodations because they were flat-sitting for a family. We used Nomador, but we’ve also heard good things about Mind My House and Trusted House Sitters.

*Home Exchange:* This one can be seen in the Christmas movie, The Holiday. We’ve never been able to do this one, but if you have a home and would like to take a vacation you can swap homes with another person in their country! Both of you keep in touch with one another and you get to live like a local without paying for accommodations! Win- win! The top website for this is called Home Exchange.

*Couchsurfing:* Couchsurfing, for those of you who don’t know, is a community of travellers who offer their spare rooms or couch or whatever they have for other travellers to crash on. We’ve had mixed experiences while couchsurfing. The bad experience was pretty dang bad, but we learned a lot from it and our next two times couchsurfing was wonderful! We even made a dear friend who later couchsurfed with us in Edinburgh! I’m DEFINITELY going to make a video on this one because I feel like I have some good insider information on it.

*Stay In Hostels:* I’ll finish this list up with a classic! Hostels are the main accommodations we use while travelling. We always stay in the largest mixed dorms they have. So we’ve shared rooms with up to 18 other people sometimes. Most people are SUPER considerate, …but we do have some funny stories from getting woken up by drunks. A lot of Colleges and Universities actually convert their dorm rooms into hostels during their summers when most of their dorms are left empty too! We’ve done this previously in Slovenia.

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MUSIC:

[SonnieTravels]

A few people have asked me how we afford to travel so much. So I wanted to start a series on how to travel on the cheap! :) All of the links are in the description box. ALSO, be sure to follow me on Instagram and check out Joe's new channel!

[JacquelineMoleski]

I don't know if it's still available, and the vid hostess brought it up towards the end of the video, but back in the 1990s I stayed for a full week in a dorm room at the University of Toronto for less than it cost to park my car (and way less than a conventional hotel). Now a few things to know. It was a *dorm room* - tiny, twin bed, desk, chair, room fridge but no microwave - that's it. The bathroom, like most dorms in the 90s was down the hall. So it's very bare bones. Also, they booked by the week - I only needed the room for 3-4 days, because the other 2-3 nights I actually was staying in a hotel with friends, so in a sense the fee was a bit higher - because I was charged for a week, and only stayed 3-4 days. And I had to pay for parking, in downtown Toronto, completely separately - which was very expensive (the suburban hotel where I stayed on the same trip had free parking - if you stayed in the hotel.) Finally, staying in a dorm is AGE RESTRICTED. At the time, I was in my 20s, so I was able to stay in the university dorms, now, I'm much older, and too old to do that by their own rules. OTOH - not wanting a tiny bare basics room and bathroom down the hall anymore. But at the time - I couldn't have been happier and I highly recommend it. Also, yes, I'm sure university dorms are only available in the Summer or during the off-season for the University.

[CazAvery]

Pet sitting sounds totally up my street! I love pets and would happily shower someone else's pet with love (and appropriate care) - even if they didn't let me stay in their house for free! I've been to several hostels, most were really lovely but one was absolutely dire. I'd definitely hostel again if I wanted to travel cheaply, though my partner wouldn't want to be in a dorm so hostels might not work when both of us travel... Work for stay is also pretty cool and totally something I'd be up for, especially if I was travelling for a while.
a Joe channel. I have very little interest in minecraft, but there are lots of other games that I think you guys play so I'll keep an eye out!
I really enjoyed your live stuff, I was driving down to Oxford for a wedding so missed most of it :( but hopefully will catch it next time. I think it's a really cool idea.

[meredithludlow]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
I'm solo traveling for the first time in December and trying to sort through all the information out there is terrifying atm. This helps have a starting point, so thanks for this!

[TinyWorlds]

Thanks for making this and going the extra mile to make such an extensive description :) Didn't know about house sitting, it sounds like a really cool idea!

[kariereilly]

A woman I work with does Home exchange . She has been to Slovakia and then has also exchanged in Ireland . She loves it! She has 3 children and finds it brilliant

[capirte]

Hi! This was super helpful, thanks! Please do upload a separate video about hostels if you can. (: Also one more question, was it difficult moving to Edinborough with your cats?

[TiffLuvsDev]

Love this thank you so much. My goal in life right now is to just travel and show my daughter the world. All money saving tips are more than welcome. THANK YOU!

[casiostar]

Your cats are adorable! I've subscribed to Joe's channel, I love watching Minecraft videos! I meant to comment on your blog where you mentioned watching Hermitcraft but I forgot. I love the way different YouTube communities crossover like this!

[TheDustyForest]

Glad to see you back again! and nice video as always :D

[LuiWallentinGttler]

Thanks for the tips. And kudos to the kitty for most excellent head butting skills :D.

[irenemathieson]

My favorite part of this video is your sweet cat kissing you. I have never seen a cat do that!

[miriamfigueras]

Hi Sonnie! Thank you so much for this video! I am from Barcelona who is currently planning on moving to Edinburgh. I discovered your channel for your videos on the UK and continued to watch also your Japanese experience! I was particularly interested in the housesitting option because I will have to look for jobs once I am there and I didn't know how much time it would entail. I am thinking on trying that option instead of the hostel. As for traveling cheap, I also do recommend student residences on summer as really good options. While I visited Paris a few years back, I stayed in Maison des Mines in July and came back the next year. I assume other places have similar good options. I wanted to ask you about the process of looking for jobs in Edinburgh in terms of CV and options. I will check all your last videos but if you have any other tips or recommendations, it would be great. Thank you again and sorry for this long comment :)

[stephengardiner]

Looks like Penny picked up some bad Scottish habits lol

[RoyalCaymanian]

House-swapping is cool really! Best way to go... only wish I could find someone to swap bodies with me for a week or 2...LOL

[dubiousROM]

Would you be able to make a video on getting an English teaching job in Japan and what it is like? Like the whole process from application to teaching your first class.

[tiffanidewitt]

Are these sites family friendly or are they more geared towards individuals/couples?

[thejessta]

Just when I was wondering what the rest of your shirt said, you said, “Do you like my shirt?”

Get out of my head 😧