How to holiday for free

Use a bit of creative thinking, embrace the spirit of adventure, and you'll find there are plenty of ways to enjoy a holiday for free.

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Skint this summer? ... Find out ways to take a break for free. Photograph: Klawitter Productions/zefa/Corbis

So summer rolls around again (sort of) and while your friends jet off around the globe it dawns on you that you just can't afford a holiday. All those meals out, new shoes and festival tickets have left you somewhat out of pocket and, regrettably, saving up for two weeks in the sun somehow fell by the wayside.

In this week's Escape section in The Observer we have a three-page guide to summer for the seriously skint, showing that a trip away doesn't have to mean the standard flight/hotel/car hire combination. Use a bit of creative thinking, embrace the spirit of adventure and you'll find there are plenty of ways to enjoy a holiday for free.

Couchsurfing, for example, is taking the world by storm. Sign up to its website and you'll find friends you haven't met yet, all around the world, eager to put you up for the night in exchange for nothing more than your company. Devotees say it's a social and cultural revolution; that it's changed their lives and reinvigorated their faith in humanity.

Alternatively, it's possible to trade your city flat for a sunny villa in Tuscany for a week under a home exchange program, or house sit for people almost anywhere in the world.

Volunteer projects often provide free accommodation and food in beautiful locations for those who are willing to do a bit of hard graft as a farm hand or conservationist. You'll burn more calories than you would in an expensive spa retreat and the warm glow that comes from rewarding work will outshine any gleaned from an organic facial scrub.

For a truly peaceful escape, growing numbers are rejecting over-filled, noisy campsites to head out on their own for some wild camping. Use a car sharing website to get there and you've bagged yourself a free trip.

By opting out of the over-priced travel industry and rethinking the traditional concept of the holiday, you'll discover a new way to explore the planet that gives you more freedom, costs nothing and proves that people can get by and enjoy themselves through simple exchanges and by relying on the kindness of strangers.

It seems there is such a thing as a free holiday. Have you given it a go?