trip switcher

Frequently Asked Questions

It's a term that we coined for foreign friends who enjoy acting as each other's "travel guides" during leisurely trips to their respective countries. TripSwitcher.com is simply a medium where these foreign friends can find one another.

Think about it. You have always wanted to go to... Greece, for example. Your friends either don't have the money, the flexibility from work or maybe even the desire to go there with you. What do you do? You can join a tour group but they're expensive, you'll be stuck with a bunch of strangers and it's hard to find good ones if you want to visit smaller or less popular locations. You'll also be restricted to a scheduled agenda and won't be able to go where you want, when you want. Having a close friend living in that country who's willing to take the time to show you around will solve all of these problems.

Even if you do have friends or family that have decided to come along, you will experience more real culture and the true essence of a foreign country if you have a friend there to show you around.

Pen pals are for kids. They typically intend to write letters or emails. It's fairly rare that pen pals ever end up actually meeting. Trip switchers are responsible adults that have the means and the desire to make new friends in other countries with the intent of eventually visiting with them.

While it's true that many of our members do meet and end up in a romantic relationship, the main purpose of our site is to help others see the world, not perform match-making.

The most popular type of trip switch thus far has been between opposite sexes (man visiting a woman or visa versa), however, the best feedback have come from those who sought same sex friends to go hang out with in their foreign countries. Without the complication of emotional involvement, members have said that they were able to enjoy the culture, the entertainment, the food and the sites much more. That being said, our members are free to use this site as they see fit, as long as they're traveling abroad!

Trip switch members are adults over the age of 18 that have the means and flexible schedules to either visit a friend abroad or show a visiting friend around their city. These adults should be helpful, responsible and sincere friends to the people they are meeting.

This is true. Although I, personally, have not had any issues in the many times that I've tried it, I'm almost certain that this is not always safe. However, I do believe that there are enough kind and decent people in the world to make this work. The same reason that house swapping websites work. The same reason that travel partner finding websites work. Heck, it's even the same reason that babysitter ads in newspapers work. You have to believe that there are good people out there and use the many ways to make sure you bypass the bad ones. Patience, background checking websites, asking a lot of questions and using common sense will go along way.

Of course not. Many members here actually prefer just having their friends come see them or prefer just flying out to see their friends. If this is the case, please make it known to your potential friends up front. Some countries, such as China have great difficulty gaining visitors visas for certain countries and in these situations, we ask that you please understand and excuse your friend from not being able to visit you in return.

The concept of trip switching is just that, a concept, the real rules of engagement are set by you and your foreign friend.

While it is not uncommon to stay at a friend's place during a visit to their country, we recommend that you get a hotel at least for the first encounter between you and your friend. Your friend may even be able to help locate some clean and relatively inexpensive lodging for you in their area.

Furthermore, different parts of the world have culturally different views on when it is acceptible for a friend to stay at someone's house, so do not take it personally or get upset if your foreign friend does not offer a room to you.

Then I guess they are not much of a friend now are they? It has been reported that some tour guide agencies have been using this website to gather clients, but these encounters are very rare. If you come across one of these incidents, please contact us immediately with their member name and their accounts will be suspended.

Your friend should NOT charge you for showing you around their city. It should be their pleasure to spend time with you and engage in fun activities together. Offering to pay for the hosting friends meals or entrance fees is a common pactice but not a rule. That being said, there could be many cultural misconceptions here. In some regions, it's frowned upon to let the visitor pay for any meals. In other's it could be the opposite. Some cultures bring gifts from their countries, some do not. Like most rules, you'll have to sort this out between you and your foreign friend.

Absolutely not! Firstly, your general wealth has nothing to do with your ability to trip switch. If anything, trip switching potentially saves you a great deal of money over more conventional methods and is a novel concept for lower income members. Your foreign friend will know how to get you better deals on things like merchandise and other travel expenses, possibly even room and board. Furthermore, you don't have to go to, say, Paris, Tokyo or London on your trip switches. There are other much less expensive regions that offer great beauty and adventure, such as China, India and South America. If you're on an even tighter budget, why not trip switch between two cities in your own country? Simply taking a weekend excusion to meet your new friend a few hours away would hardly break anyone's bank.

As for being single, trip switching actually works wonders for couples, especially if you are trip switching with other couples. You can do many romantic things together and see plenty of sites that you normally wouldn't if you weren't with your loved one. Traveling with friends or a partner is a great way to decrease costs, as well.

Everyone and their mom has email. Unlike other sites, we thought it would be just silly to recreate all of those features into a poorer version of an email client, like Yahoo or Gmail, on our site. If you want to use email that badly, simply open a conversation dialog with another member and tell them your email address. It's that simple. Our conversation system is more of a way to show your interest in someone, exchange a few lines of dialog to determine if you two are compatible enough to continue the communication via other means, like phone or email. While some members use our dialog system exclusively, it was really only meant to be used as an ice breaker.