Alternative Travel
Alternative Travel is an unconventional way of traveling that we developed for our World Tour. It’s also the main focus of guides, advice, and reflections we share here – some comprehensive posts based on our own experience of Alternative Travel!
Taking care of your belongings is not an easy task – and trust us, we know! We remember wondering, before leaving, how travelers did to wash and keep their stuff while still on the road… Especially when you use things daily! The answers came by themselves during our trip, discoveries and exchanges with other travelers… And of course – when we have useful tips, we share them!
Few days ago, we exchanged on a hitchhiking forum about gestures that have a very different meaning in other countries. We then realized that we had some funny stories to tell, small moments of embarrassment, misunderstanding, misinterpretation because of cultural differences … Moments that we wanted to share, in our list of the most beautiful misunderstandings in hitchhiking!
Read More »Hitchhiking stories: those gestures that have a different meaning
“Live better with less“: this credo is that of minimalism, a way of life that advocates a return to the essential, by voluntarily reducing our possessions. With “decluttering” as its keyword, minimalism has slowly taken its place in travel world – especially in travelers’ bags. So does minimalist travel mean travelling with a lighter backpack? Yes… But not only!
Post updated on August 06, 2020
May 2020. While most borders are still closed and travelers still quarantined, the world alternative traveler community has been shaken by terrible news: Couchsurfing hospitality network is forcing its registered members from “developed countries” to pay to access their profiles – without consultation, nor notification. A decision that led us to question the future of this network…
While today we have no difficulty in estimating our carbon footprint thanks to the multitude of online calculators (particularly for transport, housing and services), it becomes much more difficult to find reliable figures for more alternative travel modes… Using the few resources available and the expertise of Clément, an energy engineer, we will try to detail, in this post, the calculation methods to estimate your carbon footprint while hitchhiking!
Read More »Hitchhiking journey: how to calculate your carbon footprint?
Have you ever heard of “Slow travel”, this new trend that consists in slowing down the pace of travel in a modern world where everything has to go fast, sometimes too fast…? It’s undoubtedly the solution to the eternal problem of travelers constrained by time: a return to the fundamentals of travel; a discovery of the unknown mixed with relaxation. From definition to practice, let’s take our time to focus on… the slow travel!
Read More »Slow travel: from definition to the real practice
When you are used to hike in the wilderness, wild camping becomes a child’s play. However, even the experienced hikers that we are had to learn, adapt, and make some mistakes during our long journey… What equipment to take, which one to choose? Where to pitch your tent, find a place to wash yourself? We put some answers in this practical guide, based on our own experience!
Read More »Wild camping guide: our tips to camp safely during your journey!
Ahoy! Are you ready to set sail to explore new lands? Are you motivated enough to find a nice ship and a good captain to make a crossing, despite your lack of sea experience? Look no further! Our Boat Hitchhiking Guide was written to help you sail safely to new horizons!
Somewhere at sea between Hong Kong and the Philippines, we celebrated the beginning of a new year aboard a sailing boat… But we also celebrated a rather special anniversary, our third year spent on the roads. To mark this event, we plunged back into our notes and memories, our projects and dreams for the future with a gentle nostalgia. If we used to say “love lasts three years”, the love of travel lasts much longer!…
Read More »Three years overview in travel stories, figures and photos
Alternative travel: you see this term everywhere on our blog and that’s how we define our trip. Yet, the term is vague, subjective, and very catchy! What do we mean by traveling “alternately”? What are the main characteristics of this type of travel? And why differentiate it from a “classic” trip?
Post updated on June 09, 2020
Sleeping at people’s house is what makes the taste of our trip: to spend another night on the road is a pretext for encounters, exchange, enrichment… This is what makes our adventure possible and unique, allowing us to reach our ecological, economic and cultural exchange goals. But before we got there, we had to learn how to get rid of our comfort, to talk to others – in a word, to get out of our comfort zone. What was not an obvious step yesterday, has become one today: that’s why we created this hospitality and volunteering guide to help you live a journey out of the ordinary!
Read More »Hospitality, Volunteering: the alternative accommodation guide
A recent study shows that global tourism is responsible for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions (4.5 Giga Tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2013 are directly attributable to tourism). A figure that would not be ready to decline, since tourism is growing by + 4% per year… According to these scientists, transport, shopping and food are the main factors contributing to this pollution. Fortunately, today there are plenty of simple solutions, easy alternatives to reduce our environmental impact while traveling – so we can still enjoy traveling without getting annoyed by doing more efforts or feeling guilty!
Read More »Responsible travel: how to reduce your environmental impact