Traveling for free - 4 easy (and legal) ways to sleep along the road without spending a penny!

Startup Cycling: 36/120

Published in

Sur la route du Must

4 min readMay 12, 2016

On March 30th, 2016, I joined Thomas Despin to cross the United States from New York to San Francisco by bicycle. One of our common objective is to improve our discipline, by making every day, for 120 days. He makes videos, I write articles.

There is a thing almost everybody ask themselves when they meet people traveling around the world for months: How do they deal with money ?

This question has so many answers, but our mindset as travelers is the opposite: How can we make it without money ?

One of the most expensive thing when you are traveling is accommodation. While traveling for an undetermined time though, it has to be the cheapest thing.

Thomas and I are cycling across the USA from NYC to SF. In this article, we want to share with you 4 reliable and simple ways to save money (not to spend any actually) on accommodation.

1. Pitch a tent!

The first and most easy way to do it is to travel with your own tent. While we’re on the road, we follow super easy tips when it’s time to pitch it:

Not be visible from passerby
Stay away from noisy places and roads
Keep your food out of the tent
Don’t be afraid, it won’t help anyway

The best places are national forests and riversides. It is also possible to check on Google maps green spaces which are away from cities.

If you are close to a city, an other option is to ask people if you can pitch your tent for the night in their backyard (don’t forget to smile!). Most of the time along the road are big houses with big backyards.

2. Talk to people

A lot of people stop us on the road because of the sign on Thomas bike. Travelers always have stories to tell and people love hearing them in general. In our case, they are curious about the story behind “cycling around the world with my bike”.

When you are traveling, meeting people often leads to unexpected opportunities. This is how Thomas and I met people who offered us to stay at their place just after seeing our sign on the bike.

They mostly offer us to pitch our tent in their backyard or to sleep on the couch because they want to help and support us in our adventure!

3. Use social apps (live in 2016!)

Guys, we live in 2016. Mostly everyone has internet and every single traveler knows how painful and expensive it can be to find accommodation.

That’s why some of them created those 2 wonderful apps below. It’s 100% free and you’ll meet tons of truly interesting people by traveling this way.

Couchsurfing: this is the most famous social free hosting application for travelers. It allows people to have a bed for the night. This is a community of open minded and adventurous people.
Warmshowers: this is a Couchsurfing for cyclists. You’ll meet host who are bike travelers themselves, which means they know how it is to travel this way. As cyclists we would warmly recommend this one.

They may both offer foods, bed and laundry, and they always have great stories to share.

We are always nicely surprised by the warm welcoming of our hosts. It feels good to meet with people who experienced this path. Their advices and tips are always precious to keep going on the road. Most of the time it improved the next step of our journey!

4. Share your story

Never undervalue the power of the digital sphere. Half of the people we met since I joined Thomas on the road are the ones who get in touch with us through our social networks. We use to share every step of our journey on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

Most people who will be interested in your story will be happy to be part of it. This is how some people suggested us to step by to their city and to offer us accommodation.

We save money and time thanks to the help of people who opened us their house and who shared their tips about the city we are crossing.