Travel Advice: Locals know best

The sharing economy is transforming travel around the world by sharing all types of experiences, events, outings – even lifestyles. Visitors who meet locals or share experiences come away with richer holidays.

Some of the things you can do include renting a bike for longer from a local through Donkey Bikes. Or you could rent a bicycle, surf board or snow equipment on spinlister.com. Find a lift from place to place in Europe with ridefinder.eu or blablacar.com. Log on to see the lists of journeys people will be making, or you can enter your proposed trip and see if anyone is going your way. It saves waiting in the rain hitch-hiking.

If you are going to be running around a city or trying to get to an out-of-the-way place, a city car rental by the hour might work. There may be a deposit or joining fee. Go Car in Dublin is €50 for a year and from €5.99 per hour. Zipcar. com in London is from €5 per hour.

AirBnB has recently added Trips to its website where you can learn more about a destination from hosts who offer a range of experiences to help you get a real feel for their city or town. Things on offer include truffle hunting in Italy, burlesque dance in London and exploring Miami by bicycle with a keen cyclist.

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Since 1992, local New Yorkers – called Big Apple Greeters – have been giving visitors tours of the city, bigapplegreeter.org. There is a similar organisation in Dublin managed by the Little Museum, littlemuseum.ie.

A new company, Cityunscripted, is recruiting locals in cities around the world to meet visitors and share experiences. If you want explore the best food markets in Bologna, or go bar hopping in Paris it costs from €30 per hour, cityunscripted.com.

Jscales@irishtimes.com