Here we are… part 3 of 3 on “Where We Slept.” In the previous two posts, we addressed our different sleeping arrangements as well as our strategies for finding somewhere to sleep each night (based on region). So, this post should be a bit shorter, mostly answering questions we’ve received, both recently and over the course of our trip. So here goes!
Do you recommend using Warmshowers.org or Couchsurfing.com?
First, just in case you are unfamiliar with these two networks, warmshowers is an online hospitality exchange for touring cyclists, while couchsurfing is an online hospitality network for the general populace. (I encourage you to just click around on the web sites if you’d like to learn more!)
To answer this question in the most direct way, we would recommend warmshowers over couchsurfing. Please allow me to go into detail. First of all, please know we had little overall experience with couchsurfing. We used it on two occasions (when we couldn’t make a warmshower work but we really HAD to have somewhere), and our two experiences were great. Our hosts were hospitable, kind and accommodating. So let me give you few areas that we can highlight the differences, which include both strengths and weaknesses, of each network.
Having dim sum with Brandon (in the back) in Hong Kong–one of our two great couchsurfing hosts.
Size of the network itself
Let’s just start by pointing out that couchsurfing is HUGE—which can be an awesome thing. Couchsurfing has somewhere around 6 million active members, while warmshowers weighs in with about 40,000 (only half of which are active hosts). So, realistically, you have much better odds with couchsurfing. First of all, there are more cities that have hosts. It was not unusual for us to look up a city on warmshowers and realize there wasn’t a single host living there. That’s much less likely on couchsurfing. And then when you go to search in a big city, you’ll find far more couchsurfing host options. So overall, I’d say this is a perk of couchsurfing. However, I can honestly say that except for two instances, we always found hosts where we needed them via warmshowers. Sure, we probably could have stayed with a few more hosts in between destinations if we had searched more on couchsurfing… but to be completely honest, we weren’t that organized. We weren’t always sure where we’d be in between destinations, and a lot of times, it was just easier to fend for ourselves as opposed to trying to coordinate a host every other night.
Also, on the size note, because couchsurfing is so large, I think you’re more likely to get bizarre requests as an active host. We’ve heard a few stories that would encourage us to use great caution in responding to couchsurfing users. Because warmshowers is a smaller network, our opinion was that it offered more of a community feel, rather than feeling like we were just using a service provided by a web site.
The issue of gear
This one has a lot to do with expectations. The most typical couchsurfer is probably a twenty-something traveler who shows up at your door with a backpack in tow. The typical touring cyclist, however, shows up with a minimum of a bike, and most likely with 2-4 large panniers, a handlebar bag, and probably a dry sack on top. Yes… touring cyclists carry A LOT of stuff! There’s no getting around it. Fortunately, our two couchsurfing hosts were not caught off guard by this, as one of them had done a bike tour himself, and the others were regular motorcycle travelers. So they both understood the amount of gear we came with, and the need for somewhere safe to store our bicycles. But we’ve heard from other cyclists who used couchsurfing that sometimes hosts were completely shocked when they showed up with so much gear and planned on storing it in the person’s tiny apartment. Dave and I really had to take this into consideration, since we came with TWO bicycles, six panniers, three dry sacks, two camping chairs, one stove tube, two handlebar bags, and a few other random things tucked in here or there. So for us, we appreciated that every time we used warmshowers, the hosts EXPECTED us to come with lots of gear. It was no surprise. There was no stress in trying to figure out where we would park our bikes… they had already thought through that. And they understood that we didn’t want to park our bikes out on the street—they knew the value of ensuring they were secure for the night.
While this is actually a hotel room, it can give you some idea of how much our stuff can “take over” when we get settled in somewhere. And I have to say, this doesn’t even begin to do it justice…
Flexibility of arrival date/time
We found warmshowers hosts to be very understanding of our somewhat ambiguous projected arrival date and time. Usually these hosts understood that cyclists’ schedules can be upset by a range of disturbances, such as unknown hilly terrain, a nasty headwind, an afternoon thunderstorm, or even just a sluggish day of cycling. We didn’t really use couchsurfing enough to know if those hosts would show the same understanding. I would think it might come as a surprise to them, as couchsurfers can usually pinpoint an exact arrival date and time because they either know the bus or train schedule, or might even be driving their own vehicle. But I don’t think this is a huge strike against couchsurfing… I just think it’s a good idea to communicate well about this with your hosts if you are using it!
Meet Maarten, our warmshowers host from Oslo, Norway. He was completely understanding when we showed up at his home HOURS behind schedule because we’d gotten all turned around in the city.
Conversation
Now, again, we didn’t have a bad experience in this area on couchsurfing. But a warmshowers host we stayed with (who is also a couchsurfing host) said she prefers hosting cyclists because of this: if nothing else, you can always talk about cycling. Let’s be honest, sometimes you just don’t have much in common with your host. Conversation could be strained. So with warmshowers, you at least have a default conversation topic of cycling… and we used that a couple of times when there seemed to be nothing else to talk about.
Meet Britta, our awesome warmshowers host in Berlin. She is the one who, even though a couchsurfer herself, prefers hosting warmshowers guests… because you can always talk about cycling!
General Understanding
Last of all, we would say, in general, we felt like warmshowers hosts—especially those who had been on bike tours themselves—really understood us. We didn’t have to explain details about our trip—they already knew. They also didn’t mind if we didn’t want to stay up late chatting because we were too exhausted after a long day on the bikes. We did have one experience with a warmshowers host (although he had never done a bike tour—he was on couchsurfing and loved hosting people so he also joined warmshowers) where we waited until 11 p.m. to eat dinner and didn’t get to bed until 1 a.m. Why such a crazy schedule? This guy didn’t really “get” us. He didn’t understand how tired we were or what our schedule was normally like. He had never been on a bike tour. He was a nice guy with a good heart, but we missed the understanding we normally had from warmshowers hosts—from other people who had been on bike tours, whether short or long.
Meet Thomas and Estelle, our awesome hosts in Paris. They had also done some bike touring, and even though we were their first warmshowers guests, they totally understood us!
Did you ever have a bad warmshowers experience?
There is only one experience we would actually qualify as “bad” with warmshowers. Sure, there was a weird guy we stayed with in Utah (hope he’s not reading this now), and the super late night in Greece mentioned above. But we would only say one experience actually left a bad taste in our mouth… and even in that, we were still provided with a safe place to camp for the night. I won’t go into too many details, but basically, we’re Americans, and from this host we sensed some rather strong anti-American political sentiment. Listen, we get it. We know our country isn’t perfect. But just because we’re Americans doesn’t mean we support or agree with all the decisions of our government. In fact, a lot of times we disagree quite strongly… but as it turns out, we can’t do that much about it. In most places in the world, we found people didn’t hold our nationality against us. But on this particular night, we felt… well… out of place, I guess I would say. But even so, the host still hosted us! And even though it didn’t actually include a warm shower (and it was way too cold to take the suggested cold one), we were thankful for the hospitality this host did show.
What was the worst experience you had with random hospitality?
We actually had a few experiences, and though we wouldn’t label any of them as intrinsically “bad,” we would say several of them were “interesting” and kept us on our toes! Let me say this… we had one experience in Panama where a family offered the house next door to theirs (they owned it as well) for us to sleep in for the night. Though it seemed uneventful at the start, over the course of the evening we dealt with Dave breaking their toilet seat lid, a lizard falling from the ceiling, not having time to eat a real dinner, trying out the worst bed we’ve ever laid on, and bats flying around the bedroom. We ended up pitching our tent inside and sleeping within the security of its familiar walls… even though I can honestly say I didn’t sleep very well that night.
A somewhat fuzzy photo of our tent inside at what we now affectionately call “the bat house.”
Besides overall strategies for regions, what advice would you offer regarding sleeping arrangements for cyclists embarking on a journey?
A few things…
1. Don’t ever give up control of your decisions. We could talk for a long time about this one, but let me sum it up quickly. If you are looking for a place to sleep, but have to load up your bikes in a truck (or something of the sort) to get to a “good” free spot, skip it. We learned this lesson the hard way, in a completely harmless situation. But we realized that we could get ourselves into a bad situation quickly if we weren’t more careful. You should always keep control of your schedule, your time, and your location. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you don’t have the freedom to make your own choices.
2. Lay out your tent footprint and test the spot before you actually stake the tent into the ground. We selected plenty of campsites that appeared flat from the naked eye, but actually lying down on them proved us wrong.
3. If it’s windy… ALWAYS put at least one stake in while setting up your tent.
4. Always store food in a safe place in your bags. Don’t leave it unpacked overnight… this isn’t just a bear problem. We had lots of experiences with dogs all over the world that made us glad we’d packed our precious food items deep into our panniers. We also had a couple of experiences with raccoons that made us wish we’d packed it up more securely.
So there you have it… the conclusion to our series about where we slept. We hope this information is useful, or at a minimum, amusing, to some of you! And again, if anyone else has questions or thoughts or comments, feel free to post them here on the blog, or e-mail us at garthsontour@gmail.com. We love hearing from our readers!
