The Secret to Sleeping for Free Anywhere in the World!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could sleep for free next time you go travelling? When travelling, accommodation is often your biggest expense, so if you can reduce it, imagine how much longer you can tour for!

Sleeping for free doesn’t need to be unpleasant. In fact, my best travel experiences are from the crazy place I’ve stayed after refusing to pay for accommodation and the friends I’ve made there! I’ve stayed with a rocket scientist and watched him launch a rocket into space, drunk rum late into the night with the Vice-President of Nepal’s Communist Party and camped under skies filled with more stars than empty black-bits.

There are two ways to sleep for free. Wild Camping or finding a host. It helps to understand both. In the Australia Outback you won’t have much luck finding a host, whereas camping in India without being spotted is almost impossible.

How to Find Someone to Stay With

As I travel solo, I prefer staying with people to camping. It’s always fun to make new friends and see how people live around the world. I have stayed with strangers 60.3% of the last 3 years. Here’s how I find a host.

• Couchsurfing/Warmshowers. These are online communities of travellers. Warmshowers is completely dedicated to bike tourers. Sign up, fill in your profile, and message people asking if you can stay with them. It’s like Airbnb but free, and it is the surest, quickest way to meet locals and get to the soul of a place. I’ve stayed with over 100 people like this, and always had positive experiences.
  Check out this blog on to how to use couchsurfing and warmshowers.
• Use your connections. Ask your friends if they know anyone in the area. Ask friends of friends. Email Cycling Clubs and invite them to ride with you and maybe you’ll get somewhere to stay. I did this in India and had a Forrest Gump moment with entire cycling clubs joining me for days.
• Some countries have a collective of people who seem especially hospitable to bike tourers. Don’t be afraid to rock up and ask to spend a night with these guys. Here are some I’ve discovered;
  • Petrol Stations in Turkey.
  • Schools in India.
  • Cafes in Uzbekistan. Buy a meal and ask to stay a night. Many drivers do this too to break up long distances through the desert.
  • Police in Thailand, especially away from the tourist areas.
  • Buddhist Temples in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
  • Farmers in South Africa. Ask if they have somewhere you can put a tent, and you’ll invariably get an invite to the house.
    

    

    

 

• Carry a ‘magic letter’. Ask a local to write a note in their language explaining what you are doing and asking to camp nearby. I carried a magic letter in Lesotho which always worked. Example: ‘ I am from England and I am riding my bicycle across Lesotho. Lesotho is a very beautiful country. Please can I put my tent here for one night? Tomorrow I will continue my journey. I have everything I need, and do not need any food. Thank You. Josiah.’
• Just go and tell people you need somewhere to sleep. Use charades if necessary. Emphasise that you have everything you need, and will be gone early tomorrow. You’ll be surprised how often this works.

The Real Secret to Finding a Host

Stay for the People, not because it’s free.

These tips only work if you take a genuine interest in the person, not the free place to stay.

Staying with someone is a precious gift. It is an opportunity to make new friends, understand a place from a local’s perspective, and gain insights into people who live lives wildly different from your own. If I was a millionaire, I would still choose to stay with locals over a hotel.

When you stay with someone you sacrifice some of your freedom, and it can be energy-expensive; you might be woken up at 4am when your host goes to feed the chickens, or kept awake partying until 1am after a long day on the bike. You might be dragged around to meet the entire extended family so your host can display the exotic tourist staying with them.

Ultimately, if you're happy to possibly forgo comfort, rest and privacy after an exhausting day on the bike, you'll have a great experience staying with a local.

Is it safe?

• Couchsurfing and Warmshowers are based on a reference system, so you can view the feedback a host has received from previous guests. I have nearly 100 positive references (and zero negative!) which makes it easier for me to find a host.
• The world is a very safe place. If you watch the news too much, you won't believe me, but once you start travelling, you’ll see for yourself. 99% of the world wants to help you.
• Someone with bad intentions generally finds you. If you approach someone and ask for a place to sleep, the chances of them doing something bad is less likely.
• Travelling makes you an excellent judge of character, quickly able to detect whether someone’s intentions are genuine. Trust your instinct when deciding if you feel comfortable staying with someone.
• Bear in mind that it is equally risky for your host to invite you into their home, and they are taking a leap of faith to trust you.

What about for women?

It is a sad fact that it is riskier for women to travel, and that they must use better judgment. Even so, many girls do cycle around the world wild camping and staying with strangers.

The women I met reported receiving more hospitality than men, but also more unwanted attention. Whereas in many Muslim countries I had no contact with girls, many female cyclists get practically adopted by women who can’t believe what they are doing.

Sadly, women will have to exercise more caution than guys, and must develop a confident ability to dismiss unwanted attention. Some countries will be more welcoming to solo women than others.

How to Wild Camp Anywhere

Camping can be a fun part of your bike tour, allowing you to stay in stunning places for free. The thought of wild camping can be daunting, and there is often a terrifying realisation in late afternoon where you have no idea where you will sleep that night, but with a little experience you will soon develop a sixth sense to spot places you can sleep. You will quickly realise you can sleep for free almost anywhere in the world.

I have two simple principles when deciding where to wild camp;

Reduce the chance someone will find you. And, if someone does find you, reduce the chance they will care.

Camp Away from People.

Camp away from where people live and it becomes much less likely anyone will find you. Even if you are found, if you don’t pose a threat and are not on or near someone’s land, they normally won’t care enough to ask you to move on.

Think very carefully before going through a gate or over a fence etc. You can still do it but remember, that fence means someone owns that land and wants to keep something out or something in. The landowner is more likely to ask you to move along, and it becomes harder to plead ignorant you didn’t know you couldn’t camp there.

Not just a tent

A hammock or a bivvy bag is often subtler than a tent and means you are less likely to be spotted.

Tents need a large, flat, empty space, while hammocks and bivvy bags do not. This means carrying a hammock or bivvy bag increases the places you can sleep, and makes it easier to find a spot at the end of the day.

Hammocks and bivvy bags also appear less intrusive and permanent than a tent, so if you do get spotted, it doesn’t look like you’re moving there for good.

Stay away from the Road

Consider where the headlights of a car will shine, so you don’t get spotted at night, or woken by headlights on your tent. The inside corner of a bend is a blind spot for car headlights, as is under the road, as is the side of a straight road, as is behind a bush, or in a ditch.

Bikes and panniers tend to be very reflective which is great when you want to be seen on the road, but not when you want to hide and camp. Cover these reflective parts or keep them from sight.

Time It Right

If you see somewhere to camp, wait until the road is clear before heading to it. Try to be invisible; one minute you are on the road, the next you have disappeared.

Set up camp late, leave early. You are much less likely to be found once it is dark. Even if I arrive at my campsite at 3pm, I will wait until sunset, before setting my tent up. If people see me, they won’t think I’m planning on sleeping there.

Consider how long it will take you to find a spot, so you begin searching ahead of time. In India, I would begin looking for a campsite 1 hour before sunset, because it could take that long to find somewhere appropriate. In Kazakhstan, I knew I could camp anywhere, so I would cycle until sunset.

But, is it safe?

I have spent nearly 300 problem-free nights in my tent in 35 countries. 99% of people are good, and if you are found, it is most likely you will be invited back to stay in their house.

Most of the time you will camp in rural areas which are comparatively safer to the cities. People don’t wander the countryside at night looking for tourists camping to cause problems for, and most people aren’t opportunistic criminals.

Sure, you will feel vulnerable in your tent, but this will subside over time. Your vulnerability is actually your strength because you don’t appear threatening.

 What about Animals?

Nearly all animals will avoid humans, and especially humans that are inside a tent. The exception is bears in North America, which you can prevent by keeping your food away from your tent.

 

The secret to wild camping is being respectful. Don’t sleep where people will mind your presence. If someone spots me, I will normally give a friendly wave to acknowledge them or go and introduce myself and explain what I am doing. This neutralises any fears or misconceptions. If someone does mind my presence, I’m quick to offer to pack up my tent and move on, asking if they can suggest anywhere else I can sleep.

Be sure to leave the camp spot better than you found it so the next camper who comes along will receive the same welcome and hospitality.

You can do it too!

You can sleep for free all over the world, and you’ll be fine. Maybe you’ll even prefer staying with locals or in a tent. You’ll certainly make more friends and stories, and of course, you’ll save some money along the way.