It is a good idea to go first with a short term rental, two weeks to a month should be enough time for you to find a place to live and negotiate a price. I would almost always recommend renting, preferably with cash and no messy paperwork and credit checks. You should try to spend as little as possible on your residence and use the bulk of your earnings acquiring assets. When meeting new people there are often non-conventional opportunities and deals that you can make. Perhaps you can trade some of your skills for an extra room or guest house. Many times people are in need of a trustworthy person to walk the dogs or water the plants while they are away.
Free
– House Sitting:
House sitting is a great free way to live in other countries. There are people out there that need people to look after their houses and in some cases will actually PAY YOU to live there. I did this the whole time in university and it worked out phenomenally. Listen to this interview of a couple on their first hand experience house sitting (http://thestatelessman.com/2012/06/17/housesitting-experience/.
– Mind My House: A global house sitting matching service.
– Trusted Housesitters: A website where homeowners can search for ideal house and pet sitters, view references, photos , relevant house and pet care services, police check information, and even video profiles.
– The Couchsurfing Project: This is a new concept for short term accommodation. There are people all over the world that offer to have people to stay with them for free. This is not seen as just a way You can find places to stay almost anywhere in the world and possibly a person to introduce you to the area once you get there. There are free and paid accommodation and also couch surfing parties for travelers that want to meet others of like minds. Here is an article explaining the details of using the Couchsurfing site.
– Home Exchange International: Home exchangers trade their homes, condominiums or apartments at a time buy levitra online cheap that is convenient to both parties, but there are not the only types of accommodations that one gets to choose from. For example, one exchanger traded his home for a 40-foot yacht. Often, home exchangers will include their automobiles as part of the package.
– Global Freeloaders: A website much like couchsurfing but in exchange for staying at others house you are required to offer your own place. This is especially popular in Australia.
Paid
– Airbnb: The ultimate in free market accommodation. This is a website with people all over the world who host their spaces online. From apartments and rooms to tree houses and boats, they have unique spaces in 192 countries. This website is great because you see reviews from past guests and pay right through the website with no lease involved. This is also a good way to make money while you are traveling, while your house is unoccupied you can rent it to someone else.
– Roomarama –
– Flipkey –
– Hostels.com: A great resource for great value accommodation all over the world. If you are on a budget and adventurous enough to give it a try traveling in hostels can be fun. They have list of hostels, B&B’s, budget hotels, and other accommodation online.
– Hostel World: The top used site for Hostel users worldwide. There are huge differences in hostels so it is very important to check the reviews on this site to make sure you don’t get stuck in a dump
– Tingo: If the hotel rate where you are staying drops between the time you buy and check in (this happens approx. 20% of the time), you can usually rebook at a lower rate, or be refunded automatically. Tingo.com (a sister site of Airfarewatchdog) re-checks regularly your hotel rate as your check-in approaches and automatically refunds a price drop to your credit card. What’s more, it alerts you if there’s a room upgrade available at the original price you paid.
– Craigslist: This is a wonderful resource for finding great deal of all kinds.