How To Find Homestay Family

Staying with host families abroad was one of the greatest experiences in my xiv-year traveling the world. I e'er loved learning nigh local cultures so if this is something y'all want to do, I will share with you lot how I was able to find local host families abroad without paying!

Reader Mail: Hello Trisha! Your blog is a wealth of information. Thank yous so much! I am looking to stay with local families abroad and was wondering how did you practice it? How did you observe your host families abroad? Is there a website of some sort? Thanks a lot for all your help. I really appreciate your work!
– Emma, UK

Dear Emma,

Thank you so much for post-obit! I was quite surprised by your e-mail service because there aren't a lot of travelers who will opt for this travel style. Usually, people are scared to stay with strangers! I am glad yous want to travel this fashion, actually!

I've been hosted by many local families abroad but I usually but observe them on my ain. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of websites that do this kind of thing yet merely we'll become to that! Anyhow, I'll share my tips in this post hoping that it will assist you plan your travels.

Feel costless to get in bear upon with me if you lot experience similar you take questions that weren't answered in this postal service. Good luck! I am then excited for you lot!

Twenty,
Trisha

Did you know that staying with local families in the class of my traveling hither in South America helped me become fluent in Spanish for less than a year, taught me how to cook local food and fabricated me come up to a conclusion that the just manner to know how other people eat, melt and sleep is to alive with them?

I know it's a bit weird to alive with someone you don't know and you've asked me a bunch of times how tin can I be comfortable with this lifestyle but permit me tell you that my best experiences are from staying with local families.

There are a lot of websites that offering local family stays simply it comes with a fee. To tell you honestly, I don't believe in paying for the experience.

I believe this should come naturally. I firmly believe a local family should not take a program on how to bear witness their culture though I practise not judge the people I met on the road who signed up for this program.

Why should you stay with local host families?

A tangible experience. You can never say you've been to a state if you lot don't know how they eat, sleep cook, and alive. You tin never say "I've been to Brasil" just because yous visited the famous landmarks of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

You volition larn how to speak some other language fluently, how they serve food in a different way, and how they alive their life on a daily basis. Yous will understand the meaning of "we are all different culturally but we are nonetheless." And that is just amazing.

Stayed with a local family in Sri Lanka for two weeks!

My best advice when looking for a host family abroad: write with honesty. Tell them what you are expecting from this feel and what you can contribute in exchange. You can tell them yous can share your culture by cooking food from your state or educational activity them a bit of your language.

Tell them nigh your family and if you have the take chances, introduce them via Skype – and it doesn't affair if they don't speak English. If at that place's ane important thing I learned from staying with local families is that love is the linguistic communication of the world. They will requite that to you unconditionally.

Up until today, I am in contact with my host families and they are quite updated about everything I am doing (and about to exercise). They're like my real family unit now and ane of them is even listed equally an emergency contact merely in case something happens to me while traveling Latin America!

Is it prophylactic to stay with host families abroad?

The first thing that I always do when looking for host families abroad is to cheque their profiles. If I am meeting them in person (which I unremarkably do first), then I will follow my gut. These families are the ones who want to host you and welcome y'all in their home so there mustn't be any reason why they will harm you.

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Of course, there are a lot of unforeseeable circumstances that you might come up across but based on my experience, I was never harmed even if I am coming together them for the showtime fourth dimension. I swear yous'll know if someone has bad intentions. You volition feel it and from there, you determine.

How to discover host families abroad: tips and tricks

#one: Couchsurfing

I got tired of volunteering when I was traveling in Brasil and that's where I started craving for a family stay, again. So, I looked for a host in CouchSurfing Uruguay. By and large, CS hosts (who regularly receive surfers) live lone. I checked the profiles of the Uruguayan hosts to encounter who is receiving surfers at the moment.

To every person I wrote, I clearly stated that I am looking for a host living with their families. I received a agglomeration of replies that didn't quite understand what I was looking for. Luckily, one cool dude told me he lives with his family unit. In his message, he besides stated the house setting, how many siblings he has, and what his parents do for a living. "I am coming," I replied.

My host family in Uruguay introduced me to their extended families!

I lived with an Uruguayan family unit for a month doing the aforementioned things they exercise every day, taking them to schoolhouse, walking the dogs, drinking tea while chatting in parks with the whole clan, and many more.

Couchsurfing has weekly meet-ups in every urban center in the world and this was one of the best ways I fabricated friends! When I was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I went to the run across-ups every calendar week and this is where I also got a chance to come across my host family in Brazil!

#2: Sign upward for Encounter Up

I often apply Tinder or Bumble but I received messages from girls who read this blog – they observe these dating apps creepy, especially if your intention is not to engagement. iv years agone, I constitute out about MeetUp, a platform where you can see current events happening in the city you are in.

Couchsurfing has a similar feature but what's proficient about Run into Upwards is that there are many active members! During the glory days of Couchsurfing, anybody was posting actively merely these days, just a few people participate.

Super random: I stayed with these Colombian girls in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They were studying there but I also stayed in their dwelling in Colombia.

What'due south good about MeetUp is that you can filter the groups based on interest. When I first used this platform, I did non wait to make long-lasting friendships. I helped a woman with a Spanish to English translation for her website. She said she couldn't afford to pay for my services so she offered for me to stay in her dwelling for gratuitous for two months.

She was a single female parent living with her son so she had space in her home. This was actually one of the best experiences because the castling was off-white and none of us had to pay for anything!

➢ Click here to sign up for Meet Up

#3: Explore house-sitting gigs

I did a lot of business firm-sitting in South America which enabled me to relieve over $4,000 USD on accommodations for 1 year of travel. House-sitting works like this: people who are going on vacation usually look for someone who volition accept care of the pets they will leave behind.

You volition stay in their house past yourself for free. All you accept to do is to feed their pets and clean later on you! Most of the house sits I did in the by were in super huge homes with pools. Since I love pets (I travel with dogs!), I was able to get a gig easily.

Delight notation that homeowners will interview you and there's lots of competition! My tip is to put pictures on your profile with your pets – it's e'er a winner!

Later my 3.5 yr Due south America backpacking, I tried doing local family unit stays in my own state!

I apply Trusted Firm Sitters when finding gigs. If y'all accept a reference on your profile, it's fashion easier for y'all to go a house-sitting gig. Some did non even interview me anymore! I firm-saturday in Brazil for three weeks and when the family came back, they invited me to extend my stay with them in exchange for teaching their daughter English. It's and so funny and amazing how y'all commencement with the intention of just house-sitting but if they like you, they will definitely invite you to stay for free!

➢ Click here to sign up for Trusted House Sitters

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#4: Exercise work exchange

I also did volunteer travel for a while – I am sure that with this post, you are understanding how I tenaciously planned my trip to become free accommodations. I was really a broke backpacker but I did not let that hinder me from traveling. I made sure I always had a abode for free and it was pretty easy!

Volunteering opened a lot of doors for me. I am nevertheless in awe thinking nigh how many long-term friends I met along the route!

I met these guys while volunteering in a hostel in Taiwan. We are still in touch upwards until today!

Worldpackers is my become-to website when it comes to volunteering. two weeks is the minimum stay when volunteering but if the host likes y'all, then you can stay longer! I once volunteered in Argentina where I taught ii kids to speak English language in grooming for their Disney trip.

In the offset, it was a paid task (the parents paid me and I stayed in an apartment nearby). But every bit time went by and I became close to their mother, she invited me to live with them in exchange for education her children English.

She was also a single mother and I was always attracting these kinds of women! I was raised in a unmarried female parent household and then I can imagine that people run into that energy in me.

➢ Click hither to sign upwards for Worldpackers and become $ten USD off

#five: Facebook groups

I am amazed how much joining Facebook groups has helped a lot in this journey. Today, I am a member of over a hundred FB groups and it'southward my principal vehicle for whatever questions I may have while traveling S America. I found my host family in Argentina by posting in the Argentina Backpackers grouping in a span of minutes. I taught a whole family English language while staying with them. I had my own room, they fed me well and I stayed with them for i and a half months.

Asian host families are always the virtually welcoming!

You don't need to discover a specific Facebook group for host families abroad. Whatsoever grouping in the urban center that you lot're in will definitely piece of work. When I was in Kingdom of cambodia, I posted in a group that I am a journalist looking to write most local family unit civilisation in Kingdom of cambodia.

Subsequently a few minutes, I received x messages inviting me to stay with them! But of course, Asian countries are more open to receiving visitors and then that was really easy for me.

#6: Friends of friends

I have a bunch of friends in Brasil who I met while CouchSurfing. I asked one of my friends if she knows someone who can accept me as a guest for a couple of weeks and luckily, she did.

I stayed with her aunt who lives alone on a big cow farm, a bit South of Brasil where I helped in feeding/milking the cows and every farming task you tin call up of. I too had my ain room with a state-of-the-art bathroom. Additionally, the aunt didn't speak English so I had to battle my manner to learn Portuguese – and I did.

When y'all brand world citizenship your mission, you volition come up beyond extraordinary allies.

I've stayed with all their families throughout my travels in Brazil because they just kept passing me effectually: "Oh, stay with my aunt in Curitiba!"

"Trisha, I have a friend that lives in Rio and she will similar y'all!" This one family has helped me traveled all throughout Brazil without paying for accommodations.

This was really ane of the most in-depth cultural exchanges I did and it was not even intentional!

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Trisha is one of those people who left their comfy life to travel the world and learn about life. Her style is to stay in 1 place she likes for 3 months (or more) to know what information technology feels like to eat, cook, speak, and sleep in another culture that isn't hers. She'd like to believe she'southward not traditionally traveling but she just chooses to be somewhere else all the time. In no item club, her favorite cities in the world are Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Mexico Metropolis, and Tel Aviv.

Source: https://www.psimonmyway.com/how-to-look-for-host-families-abroad/

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