Ever wondered what ride-sharing is like? Hannah and Taran from Nomad'er How Far started backpacking Australia a year ago and share their ride sharing experience with us!
Planning our working holiday in Australia, when we imagined travelling from place to place, we never saw a coach or a plane; we knew we wanted to find cheaper and more creative ways to enjoy the road, not just the destination.
Our first week as working holiday makers began in Melbourne, definitely the city of four seasons in a day. We soon wanted to head to Sydney, chasing warmer weather and the beginning of the beautiful beaches we had dreamed about seeing for years.
How were we going to make the 9 hour trip in one day and not blow our tight budget?
We came across Coseats one afternoon via a recommendation from a fellow traveller, with its simple layout and obvious popularity, we were drawn in immediately. We knew that soon enough we would try hitch-hiking, the disorganized and far less safe form of ride-share, but for now, to ease us into nomadic life, Coseats appeared a great option.
We looked through the many people planning to drive the East-Coast and quickly found someone who was going the route we needed, suggesting a really reasonable price for two seats. A few texts and a phone call later and we had arranged to leave Melbourne at 7am in the morning with Gabriella and her boyfriend.
Come the day of our first Coseats ride, we stood tiredly on a street-corner, nervously awaiting meeting our chauffeur of the next 9-10 hours. A few moments into waiting a man came and stood beside us, very awkwardly, and said nothing, he just stood there, causing us some mild unease. He couldn’t keep the act going for long and soon revealed himself as Tumi, Gabby’s boyfriend; he’d come to let us know that they were parked just down the road waiting for us.
We knew quite quickly that we were going to get on well when we learnt our drivers had pretty great music taste. Our ride began with Sigur Ros as the sun began to rise on another bright Australian day.
The whole journey was a mix of seeing beautiful and barren expanses out the window, the occasional kangaroo (our first sightings of them), all played out to the sounds of the ‘Into the Wild’ soundtrack amongst other awesome music.
We made a few stops along the way to stretch our limbs, but on the whole it was far more comfortable being in a roomy air-conditioned car than cramped into a coach for hours on end. We knew we had made a good decision when we signed up to Coseats, with this ride far exceeding our expectations. From then on we planned to travel via ridesharing as much as possible; we love being part of the unifying social sharing economy that sites such as Coseats facilitate.
Yes, you pay a small price in fuel for your seat, but it still works out incredibly affordable in comparison to other over-priced and less comfortable modes of transport.
This ride brought together a young Australian couple with a young British couple, helping them to share different cultural insights from their part of the world and find common ground in the sounds of the radio and the sights of the beautiful views along the way. I can’t imagine a better way to explore long-distances than making brief but invigorating connections, encouraging generosity in spirit and conversation, shaping your travel experience beyond just getting to the next destination.
Ready to share a ride and make new friends? Post a trip on Coseats and get started!
If you've enjoyed your experience with Coseats and would like to be featured in our blog, please contact us on stories@coseats.com.
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!