ON A SHOE STRING

Everyone wants to have a holiday and at any time of year. But what can you do if you can't afford to do what you want to do, if you wanted to go to several countries in one go and with the whole family as well?

Citizens of the world

In actual fact, it is not that difficult to do it. The main expenditure on a trip abroad is the living costs. Special websites were set up many years ago to help resolve this problem. These are kind of social-networking sites on which future travellers become acquainted and come to an agreement to stay with one another. CouchSurfing is the major international association of travellers and like-minded people, which brings people together and whose overall purpose is "the exchange of hospitality" worldwide. The essence of this association can be conveyed in a single phrase which is CouchSurfing's slogan: "You have friends all over the world, you simply haven't met them yet".

The major network of this type has several million subscribers, and the system of searching among them is completely automated - it is sufficient to indicate the town or city that you want to visit and you will immediately see a long list of those who can put you up. 

It all started in 2000 with the idea of an American student, Casey Fenton. After buying a cheap ticket to Iceland, he discovered that he did not have that much money left to pay for a hotel. Then he sent out letters to more than 1,500 Icelandic students asking them whether they would allow him to stay with them. As a result of the correspondence, he became acquainted with several groups of students who were prepared to show him "their" Reykjavik, capital of Iceland. After he had made some unforgettable visits to Spain, he decided that he would no longer use the travel agents' services and set up a website on the Internet which became accessible to the wider public in January 2004.

Naturally, you might ask how people can be prepared to let complete strangers into their home. The fact is that there is a feedback system on the CouchSurfer websites, so every guest and the person who offers to put them up can write about all the shortcomings of their new acquaintances.

"In actual fact CouchSurfing is much better and more interesting than ordinary tourism," engineer Ahmad Sultanov recounts. "It's not just about saving money. When you have someone to stay and you stay with someone in another city, you get to know interesting people. CouchSurfers are almost always interesting and extraordinary people." Ahmad himself started to join in this form of tourism quite recently. He recalls that in this time he has got to know musicians, artists, writers, ecologists and physicists and even a real French mime.

"When you are travelling around, you get to know different people, since you yourself choose on the Internet whose interests are similar to your own," he says. There are many other pleasant elements about CouchSurfing. One of them is the opportunity to learn something from each other. It is sufficient to choose to meet up with someone who indicates in his profile that he plays the piano for example, or does oil painting and is prepared to give you a few lessons. Besides this, there are guides on CouchSurfer as well, most of whom are prepared to show you the city, to suggest where it is best to get a bite to eat, to tell you which sights are worth visiting. Couchsurfing is not necessarily about exchanges, that is, you don't have to have people to stay with you, if you don't want to or don't have the possibility to host them. No-one will reproach you for that.

Cheap flights

Yet another important element in economising is the so called low-cost airlines offering cheap flights. They have existed in many countries for many years now and quite recently managed to reach us. If you buy a ticket a month or even more in advance, then for example a flight to the countries of Eastern Europe will only cost approximately 40 manats. But here there is one important thing you need to know. On these airlines you have to pay extra to put baggage in the hold, and secondly most of the low-cost airlines do not give you a refund if you decide not to take the flight or to change the date.

Many people are surprised how the airlines can offer such low prices and wonder whether it is risky to use their services. In actual fact, it is precisely the low-cost airlines that have the newest aircraft.The demand for the most popular routes is so high that it allows them to have several flights a day, which makes it possible to offer low prices. Besides, these airlines do not serve any food, but you can easily take what you need with you.

Designer Anar Mammadov frequently uses the low-cost airlines. "Travelling is so cheap, especially if you only take the necessities with you in your hand luggage he says. Numerous airlines like this exist throughout the world and they are often cheaper than even going by train.

…and living costs

If you prefer to be by yourself and think that you already have enough interesting acquaintances, but you want to economise on accommodation, then you can stay in a hostel. These are cheap hotels found all over the world. Essentially what happens is that several people share a room. If you go to a town you haven't visited before, then it is unlikely that you will spend a lot of time in the hotel, for in actual fact you will mostly be out sightseeing and enjoying the local cuisine. Very often people only go back to the hotel to sleep. It is best to choose the hostel in advance, consulting the Internet for details of the accommodation, seeing photographs of the rooms and reading the comments. Good hostels should be clean, and each resident should have his own locker where he can lock up his belongings.

"But I did stay in a hostel in Tbilisi, "Anar Mammadov recalls, "it was interesting and fun, since there were many people from different countries there, from Morocco, the USA, Argentina, and Sweden. We socialised a lot, sitting out on the veranda under the grape vines, and a Korean student told me that she had read [the novel] 'Ali and Nino' and this created a splendid atmosphere of big international contacts."

As the sociologists say, modern communications and the Internet "have made the world a small place"; in the last few years we have got closer to one another and have masses of opportunities to get to know each other, have contacts and understand how splendid and varied the world is.