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Budget Travel is all about making the most of what and who you know. It’s about finding out when the free entry to museums are, and it is all about turning that vague acquaintance into your best friend and staying at their house. Here are a few tips on how to be the perfect house guest.
Cook for them. Clean for them. Reinvent yourself as their personal slave. Make their house a haven, even if it was previously the pit of despair. Of course if you’re just crashing for a few days, this is probably not so necessary.
Don’t invite all your friends around and throw wild parties. Most likely, if you’re only there for a few days, you won’t necessarily know too many people apart from them anyway. They will probably go out of their way to make your time special, but if you met them for five minutes, 3 years ago, chances are, they aren’t going to be over the moon about having to remove red wine stains from their carpet.
Let them show you the sights, local style. Take advantage of their knowledge. They will take you to the places they hang out. If your host jumps onto a table and starts flamenco dancing, smile and nod. Remember, they are your accommodation for the night, or at least the provider of a small patch of floor space.
A quick note. Using your new found friend’s phone line to ring late night TV gameshows is not a terribly good idea. There are several reasons for this:
- If you are up at 3am, you are probably drunk.
- You won’t win
- You will have to admit to your friend what those “special” charges are on her phone bill
- You will soon realise that you’ve spent more than staying at a hostel would have cost you.
What if, I hear you ask, I know too many people? How do I choose who to stay with? The answer is simple. Choose the one with the car. Or the cable TV. Only check first that its in English.
Above all, have fun, and maybe shout them a pint or two to say thanks. Just remember that karma works in weird and wonderful ways, and one day, you may open the door to a bedraggled traveller who claims they are your long lost second cousin twice removed, or else they met you in a bar in Santorini 5 years ago.
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