There have always been two different types of travelers: the traveler who takes almost all his belongings in his suitcases and goes on a package holiday; and the more adventurous one who packs one backpack and only leaves with a Lonely planet guide, sleeps in cheap hotels and has a shower once a week. But both come back with the same pictures in front of the well-known monuments. However, the dissatisfaction with standardized impersonal hotel rooms and the desire to avoid the constant flow of tourists have been growing and these stereotypes that we have about travelling are about to be blown by a new phenomenon: the emergence of social travel.
A new, different type of traveler has emerged, generally younger, connected to the rest of the world via social media. If you have a Facebook account, you surely have noticed the general tendency of your friends to post statuses about places they are traveling to. Through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and all the other social networks, these travelers communicate with their friends and post daily updates on their trip along with photos and videos. But a social traveler is not only a social media user, but also someone that socializes in real life with local people. Social travelers try to avoid hotels and stay in local apartments to meet new people. They try to discover places in a much more authentic way. This funny infographic, shared by our friends at Wimdu, demonstrates quite well the differences between normal and social travelers and explains the underlying reasons behind the success of the concept of social travel.
To discover a country like a social traveler, you have many options. One of the more exciting ways is to rent a local apartment instead of staying in an expensive, impersonal hotel. Websites like Wimdu help you book local accommodation all over the world. Wimdu offers more than 50,000 apartments worldwide and over 100,000 users are registered on its network, so you really can find an apartment anywhere, from a bed and breakfast in Barcelona to an apartment in London or even a sailboat in Singapore.
To find the perfect apartment, just use the wide range of filters on the website! Whether it is Free Wifi or a non-smoking apartment you are looking for, you will find the perfect match! Not only will get a better value for your money (as the infographic shows), but you will also meet your hosts, who will often provide you with some useful tips about what to see and where to go. Renting a local apartment is very easy and is the first step to becoming a social traveler!
