BootsnAll Travel Community

LETs - as in Local Economic Trading System

I read once about a guy who managed to travel around the world spending very little as he was able to connect in with LETS groups in each country he visited, trading his skills (as a graphic designer, from memory?) for food, accomodation, transport etc.

Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it go and was it easy-ish to maintain? I'm on such a small budget for my upcoming trip its not funny, but it would also be a cool way to meet locals and experience life off the tourist trail.

Here's a link I've found which might give those who haven't heard of this a bit more of an idea of what I'm talking about: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/local_currencies.htm basically the idea is to have an economy more like bartering than with money as the base. Some groups use points to keep 'score' which works a bit like money, except that you can go into deficit, but saving them doesn't give you any benefits. The idea is to promote community and sharing of skills.

WOW!!!! I've only just read our post and checked out the link u provided. Gotta read it, but first glance it looks pretty cool. Am into all this sustainable travel and giving something back to people and communities we pass through on our journeys in life. Am currently planning (v. early stages) a community channel travel documentary of a 2-3 year long overland RTW trip, visiting upto 70 countries and in every country we pass through spending some time meetin and looking at the lives of ordinary people - either through local charities or community groups. We're currently doing some filming about the plans. So this is an excellent webby 4 me. ta very muchos.
andy

Found those sites I was looking for.

Here's a good list of many LETS groups around the world:

http://www.lets-linkup.com/

Coincidently, it's be set up by that guy I was talking about, and he has his own site with an email list and sells his books on this subject:

http://www.travelwithoutmoney.com/