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Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, the podcast that talks all things travel and all things transformation. I'm your host, Jessica Grace Coleman – but you can call me Jess – and this is going to be a quick solo episode on different ways to travel, which one is right for you?

Now, I've made a few notes, but I have not done any kind of script. I'm not reading from anything, so I hope I don't ramble off on all kinds of tangents. I'm just going to basically go through all the main ways I know that you can travel these days, and this is mainly talking about accommodation.

So obviously you can travel as a solo traveller, you can travel in a couple, you can travel with friends, you can travel with family, group trip trips, group tours, all that kind of stuff. But I'm mainly going to be talking about accommodation because I feel that is, well… apart from flights and stuff, it's often obviously the biggest expense and it might be the thing holding most people back from travelling. 

But there are so many options these days, and just in case you're not aware of all of them, I thought I would run through the list. Some of them I've tried, some of them I want to try, some of them I’m not too keen on trying, but let me go through the list for you. 

Let me get up my notes… okay. Now the first one is obvious: hotels. This is what everyone used to stay at. I do like staying in hotels, actually, especially as a solo traveller. I think it is kind of a form of safety, of feeling safe if you're on your own and staying on your own. I just like it really, when there's a reception desk and you know someone's on reception, you know you're surrounded by other people in hotel rooms. You're not just on your own in some random Airbnb – but I'm going to talk about that in a minute. It's often safe, secure, easy to get in… there are no weird codes that you need to get in and you don't have to wait around to meet someone with a key, that kind of thing… that you do with Airbnbs. Obviously, price is an issue with hotels, but these days you can get some pretty good ones. 

I tend to use booking.com and I'm also signed up to their rewards program – I think it's Genius or something loyalty program – so I occasionally get money off and they show you which ones are a part of the program and how much per cent you can save, stuff like that. I like booking.com, it's really easy. I've booked flights through there, accommodation… If I'm solo travelling, I often book my taxis through there, my airport taxis. It's a bit more money than you might pay for other forms of transport, obviously, but it saves you standing in line at the taxi rank when you get to the airport, which can be really long, and the country you go to might not have Ubers, or maybe Uber is expensive there, it depends on the country. So, I just do it like that and, you know, it's booked. They usually WhatsApp you the night before to confirm the time and the pickup date and place and everything, that's really good. Anyway, I’ve already gone off on a massive tangent about booking.com, but yes.

So hotels, obviously you can stay there. Now, hostels. I'm kind of past the hostel age. I did stay in them when I was a teenager and when I was in my twenties – I stayed in huge dorms of like 20 people, which I would not be able to do now. I could barely do it then; I didn't get enough sleep. Budget option, great. It's also great if you're solo and you want to meet people; they often do group activities, things like that. You'll be in a communal kitchen where you can hang out with people, they do pub crawls and stuff like that. 

And these days there are quite a few boutique hostels where you can get your own room, so it's not like you have to share a massive dorm with bunk beds. There are a lot of pod hostels where you get the little pod rooms. Not great if you're claustrophobic, but if you're not, then they can be quite cosy, I think. Usually you get like a little TV, you get a curtain so you get your own space and privacy, or a door. So I've stayed in hostels in the past, but they’re not my favourite form of place to stay now.

Obviously, there are Airbnbs. I do like Airbnb. I know there are some issues around it in some countries in particular, with people turning apartments into Airbnb and there being a housing crisis and all that stuff, and obviously sometimes you can get hosts that are not great, you can get places that are completely misrepresented… I've heard of people getting Airbnbs cancelled at the last minute for no apparent reason, and then you've got to sort out more accommodation, so it's not the most stable and secure way of doing it. But I've stayed in some amazing Airbnbs, so I will always check Airbnb when I'm looking to stay somewhere, especially if I'm in a group. If I'm on my own, I usually go for a hotel room. If I'm in a group and you can split the cost, then Airbnb all the way. 

I go and stay in an Airbnb with my friends, Vicki and Ruth; we try to do it every year, and we're going to Wales this November. We've got a really nice one. Our main sort of priorities when we book them are: it has to look nice, not be too expensive, has its own kitchen, and has a hot tub. We have come to learn that if we're going to spend money on Airbnb, we're going to go all out and have a hot tub, because it just makes it that extra special. So, yeah, I've had some brilliant Airbnbs. 

You can get really quirky ones – you can get castles, you can get boats, you can get tree houses, you can get igloos… there’s all kinds of stuff on there and they now have it in specific categories that you can look through. So it's even just worth a look, having a look at the different categories, even if you have no idea where you want to go, if you're not particularly planning on going anywhere yet, just to see what's available, because it is actually really quite cool. 

Okay, so the next one is colivings. You've probably heard me bang on about this in most episodes, and I think I'm going to do an episode on whether a co-living is right for you or not in the future. For me, it depends on the coliving and it depends on how long I'm going for and whether I'm going to colivings before or after. 

I have come to learn that I cannot do coliving after coliving after coliving. As an introvert who needs my own space, even if I have my own room, it can be a lot, especially if the coliving does lots of activities every day. There's social stuff, there's professional stuff, there's your own work you're trying to do, you're staying up late, but you still need to get your sleep, and there's wine everywhere... and it can be a lot for me. For other people, they thrive on that. They can do it month after month after month and they love it. I know people who do that and they are having a brilliant time.

It also depends, for me, where the coliving is. So I talk about the pop-up coliving I went to this year and last year – the Sun and Co pop-up in the Basque Country, Spain. And that is perfect for me because it is really in the middle of nowhere, isolated, beautiful nature. It's an amazing big house, so it's not like you're stuck in a little house in the middle of nowhere. Great garden, pool, decking. I like that.

I'm not a huge city person. I never really have been; I've never really lived in a big city. I like visiting them, but I can't live there. So if the coliving is in a huge touristy area and there's loads going on and there's loads of nightclubs and stuff like that, I know that I won't get enough work done. I know the balance will go completely out the window, so I prefer being in a more isolated place. I know a lot of people would hate that. So do your research;

just decide which one is good for you. 

As I've said on this podcast over and over again, the Basque Country pop-up coliving I went to last year was the start of my entire travel transformation. The start of this podcast, the start of my book, Intentional Travel Transformation, the start of my coaching, the start of my Academy… it was literally the start of everything and it really helped push me outside my comfort zone and boost my confidence. Solo travel on its own does that, but I think staying in a coliving, especially when they do all kinds of activities and you have opportunities to push yourself out there and get outside your comfort zone… it is an experience like no other and you should definitely try it. Even if you just try it for like a couple of weeks, you don't have to be there for months. I would highly recommend it. 

And there are loads of apps coming out now that you can use to search for colivings. There's Map Melon, Nomadago I think has a section in there, there's coliving.com – but that also lists apartments and things, so make sure you're looking at the right kind of coliving you want. All kinds of stuff, highly recommend, but yeah, do your research first and figure out what kind of coliving you want to go to. 

Okay, then there's stuff like couch surfing. This has been around for a long time. You basically stay on people's couches, and it's not completely dissimilar from some Airbnbs where you stay in a person's house, in their room. I've done that a few times. I prefer having my own place, but if money is an issue and you're in a particularly expensive area, or if you're booking last minute and there's nowhere left, then that is a viable option. Couch surfing, I've never tried personally, it's never really appealed to me, but if you don't mind sleeping on a couch – I mean, there might be an actual bed – and you like meeting new people and you're on a budget, then that's a great way to go. 

Talking of couch surfing, there is an app called Her House. I'm on their mailing list. I haven't yet signed up for a membership just because I'm not currently in a place where I would use it a lot, but maybe in the future I would because I think it's a great idea. It's similar to couch surfing, but it's only for women. No offence to guys out there, but sometimes solo female travellers feel safer if they're staying with other women – it's just a fact. And it's more of a community kind of feel. So they have hosts, Her House hosts, and you don't just stay in their house; they basically show you the area. They hang out with you, they cook with you, they eat with you, they introduce you to their friends. You can hang out, be like a local. And if you're on the mailing list, you'll see loads of pictures come through of Her House hosts and guests having a whale of a time, making friends for life. And I think it's a really, really good idea. So I'll put the link to that in the show notes as well. I think they only open memberships every so often – it's not open all the time – but definitely get on the mailing list so you can find out about that and read about all the other amazing Her House success stories.

Okay, so there is a thing called WWOOFing, which is where you basically do mostly manual labour – I think like farm work, that kind of thing – in exchange for room and board. That's a great way of doing things if you don't have as much money, don't want to spend as much money, or if you want to help out. Just be aware of how many hours you need to contribute each week because if you're running your own business, or if you're trying to work full-time for someone else, it might not be viable. So have a look: WWOOFing. I'll put some links in the show notes around that as well. 

Workaway is a great site. I've never actually used it – I've never booked anything through it – but I often go on there and see what's available and I think I will use it in the future when I have more time work-wise so I could contribute to these projects. It’s similar to WWOOFing, but anyone can post on there; they can ask for help if they have like a farm they need help with, if they have a renovation project, if they have kids they need looking after during summer holidays, if they have a community project they need help with. Sometimes it's just someone who basically wants a PA to help them with their life for a few weeks. In exchange, you can stay with them and hang out with their friends. 

I saw one in New York that was like that. It was just like: ‘Help me out with a few things. You can stay in my apartment. You're in the middle of New York, you can come and hang out with me.’ And it's basically a really cool way of experiencing what it would be like to live in, say, New York City, while getting experience in all kinds of stuff that you could use on your CV, I guess. Yeah, make sure you have the time available and make sure you read the reviews of other Workaway people to make sure that it's legit. I mean, they're all legit, but to make sure that it's what it says it is. I'm definitely going to try that in the future; I think it's such a great idea. 

Then there are things like group tours, and I've done a few in the past. G Adventures is a big one, though it was called Gap Adventures when I used them back in the day. And then there's sort of ‘travelling colivings’ I would call them – like WiFi Tribe and things like that – where you're with a group of people, the same people, and they're usually remote workers and they work, live, and travel together and they go to a different city every month. You can join a chapter – like, a month is a chapter – or you can join several chapters. Some people just continue with them for months and months or years, mostly with the same people. I’ve never done it because it's quite pricey compared to other ways of travelling, but I would like to maybe experience one chapter. I think it would be quite good. Maybe in the future.

Then we've got other options like camping, if you're on a real budget, in a tent or in a caravan, and van life is a huge thing. If you've got your own van or if you want to hire one, the van life community sounds amazing. All the meetups they have, and all the sort of hashtag #vanlifer stuff on Instagram you can see is really inspiring. And I kind of like tiny homes. I need my space generally, but I think I would quite enjoy a tiny home living minimalistically. Most of my stuff's in storage at the moment and I got rid of a load of stuff when I moved out of my house to go travelling, so I don't have a great deal of stuff now, but the idea of travelling around in a van, being able to wake up and drive wherever you want… I know it's not as glamorous as that in real life, there's loads of stuff to deal with… but I would like to try it even if it's just for a week. So van life is a thing. Boat life is a thing. You can hire a room or a boat, get with a group of friends, do it that way. 

I mean, there are so many ways, so many different types of accommodation these days. I'm sure I've missed out loads, but these are just the ones currently on my radar, either because I've done it myself or I'm planning to, or I've heard of friends who use the sites and the apps and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, those are the main ones. Please let me know if you have any others or if you have experience with any others, because I'd love to hear about them for my own travels and to let everyone else know. You can email me at info@traveltransformationcoach.com or you can DM me on Instagram @traveltransformationcoach.

I hope this helped in some way, maybe got you thinking about different ways you can travel if you've not considered any of these other options before. And, yeah, even if you don't book anywhere soon, it's still fun to see what's available. I love looking through Airbnb and Workaway and seeing what the options are and dreaming about what I could be doing in the next few months or the next few years. So, I hope this helps, and until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side, bye! 

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Written by Travel Transformation Coach Jessica Grace Coleman, this guide walks you through 10 ways you can transform yourself – and your life – through travel... even when you can't travel!

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