Have you hosted Travelers at your house?
 

Here in montana the weather is changing to snow and cold but it has been a great summer. We hosted 7 travellers at our home this summer and enjoyed each one of them. Some I met thru this site and others I met at the motorcycle shop where I work. We heard some great stories and have followed some on their further adventures via their posts. I would recomend others invite travellers into their home and share with them, it makes the world a saner place. Anyone else have some good stories?

Total Agreement
 

I quite agree, Bill. When I was younger I hitched a lot. Now I try to reciprocate by offering what I can. Last December/January I had the pleasure of putting up the 'motorradnomaden' who are currently in Australia. Through them I also met other German travellers from Hamburg visiting the Arabian peninsula. I gained 4 friends and, as a happy bonus, two more places for myself to stay when its my turn. It's a self-perpetuating network of friendship.

Stephan

Yup, and it was fun.

I stayed in Arequipa for a while & it was 'open house' for travellers...Rene & Amy, Appie, Estafano, Simon & Lisa, Kirsten & Jorge, Holger, Mike, Christian, and others whose names escape me right now (beer-o-clock was a few hours ago).

Never a dull moment.

Great idea
 

We have a traveler here now, from Aussie, and just had one leave from Germany. I guess we have about 12-15 a year, some through a home help organisation, and some through this site, and some that are just word of mouth. Considering we have been doing this for about 6 years, the one or two less than pleasent experiences (and they were not really "unpleasent") were a very small price to pay for the wonderful friends we made and great stories we heard. I have found as time goes on, I'm not less interested in meeting people, but I'm more inclined to say "Well it's been a very nice three or four days, where are you planning on going next?"

I say go for it, at the very least you have made the world a slightly better place for a while.

Cheers

Nigel in NZ

I met an Italian in northern France in 2004. We rode back to Cherbourg together as were on the same ferry. He thought we docked in Portsmouth the following morning instead of late that night.

I offered him a room at my place, an 85 mile ride northwards and in the direction he was travelling anyway.

All went well, he knew we were travelling to Hungary in a couple of months tme & returning via his home town. His response was that it's okay to contact him if passing through at the weekend but not to bother if it was midweek....

We did indeed pass through his home town midweek & had no intention of calling him. Slight lack of gratitude but not to worry, it's not put us off helping others. We even let Spanish Bob stay once but we'd already met him & kmew that the rumours were'nt true....

Yes, we have hosted travellers and look forward to doing so for many years to come. When we bought a lifestyle block in the country we toyed with the idea of running a homestay but there are so many rules and regulations and as I am self-employed, we wanted the freedom to be able to say no when it wasn't convenient for us to have guests. About a year ago a German couple touring the world posted a thread on www.kiwibiker.co.nz and we said they were more than welcome to stay with us for a few days. Before they arrived, we also offered a bed to a Scottish motorcyclist touring NZ - but he nearly put us off ever doing it again! Ungrateful doesn't even begin to cover it, but thankfully the three German couples who followed him were the complete opposite and we were sorry to see each of them leave. We also brought two young Swedish guys home after their bike broke down and in January 2007 we have another German couple arriving. We don't charge but most of our guests bring some food or alcohol and all the Germans have cooked us a meal during their stay as a thank you. They have all spoken understandable English and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing about their travels.

Our experience - especially with the Germans - has definitely made us even more keen to have overseas motorcyclists to stay because it has enriched our lives meeting people from other countries. Hopefully one day we may even get to visit them in their own countries!

We hosted Uwe and Ramona (world travelers since 2001) and had a great time. We cooked outside almost every nite (we are only 13 miles north of NYC) and enjoyed their company very much. We even had some friends over and had a slide show of their adventures.

Me too!
 

Uwe and Ramona stayed with me in NZ for about a week, and they were wonderful company. I have enjoyed their occasional travel stories ever since.
It's people like them that make the hosting travelers such a rewarding experience. We have a German guy coming next week, Annette (http://www.argentina2alaska.com/) and a couple from the USA the next week, and a Malaysian woman a week after that who will be with us for Christmas. It's always a busy time here in NZ over summer.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

Small world, huh Nigel?

My family was pretty surprised and nervous that I had invited total strangers to our house (I have two teenage daughters) but they were at ease as soon as they met Uwe and Ramona.... we felt like we had known them for years.

Maybe one day we will meet and exchange campfire stories.

Best wishes,

John C.

My experience with a traveller > Linda Bick
 

Good to hear about all your experiences !

I had a only experience of hosting a traveller.
In fact after posting on the Hubb and personally writing to travellers passing through India I could only find Linda who was planning to go form the north to the south of India, so she stopped over at my place in Pune for a week or ten days in my house in Pune.

I used to rent that house with a few friends and I had a really nice time with linda, sitting sharing whatever food , equipment and the small apartment with her. In return we got to hear lovely amazing tales from her about so many friendly people all around the world. This really motivates me to do my own RTW trip some time in the future. Also I think it changed mt attitudes towards many things. for example.

In fact many would not believe but , she felt IRAN had perhaps the most friendly people she met on her way from Spain to India. the stories of her first hand experiences with people really changed the way I look at Iran

This shows that even if the politicians there are crooked (as all over the world) people on the street are as nice and helpful as they possible can be.

You can follow Linda Bick's trip here http://www.haefale.de/linda/index.html

and I look forward to hosting her again , this time in Melbourne since she is expected to be here some time next year.

If you are reading this and will travel thru melbourne please have a look at this>>
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...modation-24185