A New Way To Travel With Cultural Exchange

Imagine a concept where instead of exchanging money for travel experiences, you traded in language and cultural understanding. This is the thinking behind Culture Go Go, an online platform in which travellers and explorers receive free room and board with local people in exchange for English practice.

We’ve all heard the phrase “live like a local” and this couldn’t be more appropriate for Culture Go Go. By staying with local people, travellers can immerse themselves in local life and receive unique cultural experiences that you just wouldn’t at a hotel or resort. This is encouraged further by the way in which the English lessons are conducted – because, in fact, they’re not even lessons.

Rather than sitting in a classroom and learning individual words, travellers can teach hosts English by general conversation, doing hobbies, going sightseeing, and doing activities that need communication while immersing themselves in a different culture and experience. It’s also in this way that travellers don’t need to worry about having any teaching experience, but having English as your first language is a must.

Currently, Culture Go Go has hosts in Spain and Latin America, so destinations include Madrid (where it all began), Barcelona, Andalucía, Valencia, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and more, with plans to expand into non-Spanish speaking countries soon. Don’t worry if your Spanish isn’t up to scratch – it gives you a chance to learn another language yourself!

So how does it all work? Hosts and travellers sign up to www.culturegogo.com, create a profile and then search for each other in the directory. Travellers have the option of a free membership (they ask that you help spread the word on Culture Go Go on social media) or to pay US$25 to help run the site. Once signed up, travellers select a destination, favourite the hosts they would like to make contact with, and then do so through the messaging system. After making contact through Culture Go Go, travellers and hosts can arrange their stay directly by sharing phone numbers, Skype details and email addresses. By making arrangements directly between the traveller and host, the trip is tailor-made to suit both, including the length of stay, facilities and style of room.

As an online platform, travellers can use Culture Go Go as many times as they wish, so, in essence, they could travel from Barcelona to Madrid to Seville, to get a true feel for Spain, its cultures and its people. There are opportunities to stay in cities and more rural locations, so you can go off the beaten track.

Did you ever think you’d live in a world where staying in a new and exciting city would be free? Culture Go Go makes this accessible to all – because it’s not just those that can afford it that deserve to be able to travel.