The weirdest places I’ve slept for free around the world

Travelling doesn’t have to be expensive, you just need to be a little creative sometimes. If you can give up fancy hotels or Airbnb’s, you’re already halfway there, but why not take it a bit further?

Whenever I travel, I always try to do it as inexpensive as possible. I book flights with multiple stopovers to lower costs and I always stay in the cheapest available accommodation, and sometimes even Couchsurfing. While Couchsurfing is a fun and free way to spend a few nights, after trying it in Australia and Japan, I’ve discovered that it isn’t really for me as I always feel an obligation towards the hosts to hang out with them and do stuff that they want to do. And while that can definitely be fun, it can also be extremely overwhelming if you don’t click with that person, and I really love to do my own thing once in a while. So, what can you do instead of Couchsurfing for free accommodation?

Well, let me tell you, I’ve done quite a few crazy things in order to skip a night of paying for a hostel. Here’s a list of all the crazy and fun places I’ve decided to sleep in order to save some pennies while on my travels around the world.

Camping for free in the wilds or at camp sites

Not such a crazy thing to do, but something I absolutely love to do to save some bucks. I’ve camped in the snow in Norway, all over Åland and all over the Faroe Islands, including on two camp sites on Sandoy and Svínoy that were free. At those two, my friend and I actually decided to sleep in the kitchen as we were too lazy to put up our tent!

Sleeping in airports

Whenever I have a morning flight, I always choose to sleep in the airport the night before. There are actually multiple reasons for why I do that. First of all, I save a night of paying for accommodation. Secondly, I don’t have to get up reeeeally early to pack my stuff and travel to the airport in order to be there two hours before departure. Thirdly, I don’t have to stress about morning traffic. Fourthly, sleeping in airports is extremely safe due to the high security levels. And lastly, an airport has almost everything you need (well, apart from a bed!). There’s wifi, food, water, toilets and so on. In fact, there’s even a website that can tell you all about the facilities for sleeping in all airports in the world (click here!).

I’ve done it all over the world. From Oslo to Beijing. And I’ve never had an issue doing it. Only once, when I wanted to stay overnight in Gimhae International Airport in South Korea, I experienced getting kicked out as they closed the airport at night, but I just went to a 24-hour café and sat there all night instead. And when it was about to happen to me again in Luxembourg Airport, I got really creative (see no. 7!).

Okay, I can agree that it can be quite uncomfortable to sleep in an airport, but I personally think it’s worth it to save money. I wouldn’t do it for an entire trip, but when I have a morning flight, you can be sure to find me cuddled up to my backpack in the airport!

Sleeping on overnight busses/trains/boats/flights

Here is one genius way of travelling if you want to save money – exploring by day and travelling by night! There are so many options to do this. You can book a night flight or take trains, boats or busses from one destination to another during the night. While you will miss out on seeing the views along the way, you’ll save money on accommodation as you can just sleep right there!

I do this as often as possible, so I can’t even remember how many times I’ve done it, but I do remember doing it in Iran, Sweden, Poland, Malaysia, Japan and Peru. Just imagine all of the money I’ve saved!

Sleeping for free on ferries

If there’s an option to go on an overnight ferry without having to pay for a cabin or couchette, I will always take it. Unfortunately, I’ve only come across this opportunity once, when I took the Hurtigruten ferry from Tromsø to Svolvær in Norway.

I had chosen not to book a cabin as I was travelling on a budget as always. But luckily, I found myself a nice spot on a sofa and used my jackets as a quilt, and then slept through the entire night! That was a very safe and cheap place to spend a night and I wish I could do that more often!

Sleeping in a rental car

Okay, so you’ve already paid for the car, right? Then why on earth would you also want to pay for accommodation when you already have a perfectly safe and warm place to sleep? I, for one, would always choose free car sleeping over paying to sleep!

The first time I slept in a rented car was in Iceland with freezing temperatures outside. One of the spots was in the center of Reykjavik and another one was on the main highway in the Westfjords during a snowstorm. I’ve also slept in a rented car in multiple US states. In Las Vegas, my friend and I just parked our car in a random parking lot and slept through the night until we were woken up by two security guards at 5.40 AM. And in the Grand Canyon Village we got ourselves first-class accommodation by sleeping in the car, just a few minutes away from the canyon, where we watched both the sunset and sunrise. We also slept behind a hotel, in a Walmart parking lot and in a state park – we got very creative on that trip!

Sleeping in a car can be hard for your back, but there are so many ways to make it comfortable, especially if you are only one or two people sleeping in it. You can either sleep in the front seats if they can be pushed all the way back, in the back seats (so comfy) or even in the boot.

Sleeping on a train station

Before doing this, you need to take precautions. Be absolutely sure that the train station is either locked from the outside or in a safe place where you won’t get hurt or robbed. I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless you’re 100 % sure it’s safe.

When I was travelling from Lofoten Islands in Norway to Slagnäs in Sweden back in 2015, I had to stay overnight in Narvik. I had read on wikitravel that it was possible to sleep free of charge in a church, but I didn’t know which church and the city turned out to be a little bigger than expected. I decided to go to the train station instead, where I got extremely lucky! It was 8 PM and the last train had already left, but there was still a worker on the station. I asked him about the church, but he didn’t know it, so instead he decided to open the train station only for me, so I could sleep on the benches. He locked the doors from the outside, and I had a long and comfortable night sleeping by myself in the train station! Oh, and there was even free wifi!

Don’t expect to get that lucky everywhere in the world, but it’s definitely a possibility. It doesn’t hurt to ask – you might just get as lucky as me!

Sleeping in a toilet

Okay, I’ve only done this once…. And it wasn’t really by choice.

I had a morning flight to catch from Luxembourg to Copenhagen, so I didn’t want to pay for another night at the hostel. Instead, I went to the airport despite knowing that it closes from midnight to 4 AM. I could’ve just waited outside for those four hours, but I was tired so I decided to get creative instead.
I decided to lock myself in a big and clean toilet at 11.45 PM and despite shaking from fear of getting caught all night, I actually managed to get some sleep, and no one ever noticed what I was doing!

I guess you can actually do this in most places as there are public toilets everywhere, but I’m not sure I would recommend it. I’ll leave that up to you to decide 😉

Now I’m curious – which places have you slept for free? And would you ever resort to sleeping in a toilet to save a few bucks?