Homestay Tips For Vacation

The first time I visited Jakarta, Indonesia feeling groggy after a 15-hour train ride and disoriented in this unfamiliar city—I was relieved I had arranged to stay with Margaretha and her family. As my local, Indonesian hosts, they welcomed me into their home and shared their customs, values and viewpoints with me, as well as a great city map.

When Margaretha wasn't working, we shopped for spices at the markets, cooked gado-gado (noodles with peanut sauce) in her kitchen, spent time with three generations of relatives, and talked about everything from Javan dance rituals to women's rights. We also explored areas Jakarta not mentioned in any guidebooks, places I never would have discovered on my own.

By the time I left Margaretha's home, three days later, I understood more about Indonesian culture than I had learned during two months of travel in the country. And, I'd made friends for life.

As you plan your next vacation—whether it's to Indonesia or Burlington, Vt.—consider joining a hospitality club. As a member, you can stay with local families or individuals, and swap ideas, build new friendships and gain insight into each other's worlds.

In at least 130 countries worldwide, local hosts take visitors into their homes, and provide safe, friendly environments for cultural exchange. Some hospitality groups are geared specifically to individual or women travelers—you stay with other women around the globe—while others target senior adventurers or travel groups.

When you join a hospitality club, you typically receive a list of hosts in the region you're visiting, with information on each person's background—address, job, family, interests, hobbies and languages spoken, as well as a notation on how many people he/she can host and for how long. Stays can range from two nights to a month or more, depending on the arrangements you've made with your host and how well you hit it off.

During an 18-month, around-the-world journey, I spent anywhere from two days to two weeks with 24 different host families, including a train conductor in New Zealand, students in Indonesia, a doctor in Malaysia, a retired teacher in Thailand, and a shoemaker in India. These were, by far, some of the most profound experiences of my trip.

You can organize your stay before your vacation or once you reach your destination. Since my plans changed almost daily during my trip, I arranged visits en route through letters, e-mail or phone calls.

In some cases, you may spend a majority of the visit with your hosts, taking part in daily life. In fact, people in lesser-visited, rural areas may go out of their way to spend time with you. At other times, you may entertain yourself during the day and spend evenings with your host.

A hospitality stay can be the entire focus of your vacation—visit a sheep herder in Scotland or a social worker in India, and immerse yourself in the culture. Or, it can be one aspect of your trip: If you're planning a 10-day vacation to the Swiss Alps, with just a few days on the slopes, you can spend your extra time living with a local family.

Hospitality clubs are great for travel within the United States and even your home state, too. If you're a Bostonian planning to visit Bend, Ore., stay with a local host and discover what life is like in a small-town ski haven, 3,000 miles away from home. Or, if you grew up on Cape Cod and have never been to the Berkshires, you can spend a weekend with a family in North Adams, for instance.

You typically pay an annual fee to join a hospitality club and, in some countries, are occasionally asked to chip in for food, but you never pay for a place to sleep (which can range from a luxurious bed to a spot on a floor). These organizations, however, are not free-accommodation clubs, and many have a strict screening process—an application and interview—to ensure that travelers are truly interested in cultural exchange, rather than a cheap crash pad.

For your benefit, hosts are also screened before they're allowed to join, to ensure that they can facilitate hospitality stays. If your aims, and those of your host, are noble, the exchange may be one of the most profound and rewarding travel experiences you'll have, and the friendships you make may last a lifetime.