living like a local Choosing homestays for a more authentic travel experience by Roma Patel / photo by Eva Vidan / design by Asli Aybar
12 the buzz
Whether you’re traveling to Italy, Morocco, Argentina or the Philippines, you face the same dreaded dilemma of where to stay. While hotels, Airbnbs and even hostels come to mind, they lack novelty. Bumping into other travelers makes you feel like you never left the country you call home. For a totally different experience, far away from the embarrassing American tour groups with matching lanyards and t-shirts, many BU students have found homestays to be an exciting accommodation while abroad. Homestays are homes where local families host individuals for a small amount of money. Travelers enjoy the hospitality of natives, try unique dishes and drinks from the local cuisine, visit undiscovered gems around town and learn about the the culture, language and religion. Visitors get a more authentic feel for a place as they see the destination through the eyes of locals. “Whenever my family goes to Amsterdam, we always stay with locals,” said Olivia Rolnik (CAS ’20). “Had I not stayed with different families, I wouldn’t have known about so many
