Couchsurfing

I’ve stayed in hostels, hotels, motels, even Holiday Inns. The most interesting, funnest, and inexpensive accommodations I’ve ever had, however, have been in strangers’ homes. Couchsurfing.org is a non-profit social engineering project that uses the internet to match adventuresome travelers with willing hosts.

I first learned about couchsurfing when I lived in Europe about 5 years ago. Instead of taking a chance by trying it, I stuck to traditional vacation accommodations, i.e. over-priced hotels. Last year, when I set out to travel the world, I knew I had to keep a tight reign on my expenses to maximize my travel time and minimize damage to my pocketbook. In that vein, I took a leap and couchsurfed in Hawaii last year!

Before dismissing couchsurfing as “weird,” or “unsafe,” consider a few things:

-Odds are high that you have “couchsurfed” before, when you crashed on a friend’s futon after a night of partying; when your Aunt Edna’s childhood friend hosted you for a couple nights on your Spring Break to Miami; when you stayed on the couch at the house of a friend of a friend during your job interview in a different state.

-Couchsurfing.org is a social networking website, much like Facebook and Myspace. Users have personal profiles complete with pictures and testimonials. These people aren’t really “total strangers.”

-Nobody is obligated to host anybody else. Willing hosts pick and choose who they want, based on whatever criteria suits them.

-Nobody is obligated to couchsurf. The couchsurfing.org website lets me, as a traveler, search for potential hosts based on age, gender, location, and many other factors. In other words, I can narrow my options to a very specific demographic. Then, I can read the profiles and testimonials to find the particular hosts that I think will be the funnest and most enjoyable. After that, I write a personalized message to the few remaining and hope one is available and finds me equally as interesting.

-Not all people on couchsurfing.org are there to host or find accommodations. Many people will meet for drinks or take part in group events. As a traveler, you could keep your eye open for fun couchsurfing events or interesting locals to talk with over coffee, while still staying in the comforts of a hotel.

-Couchsurfing is safe. Users get “vouched” if they prove their mailing address to the couchsurfing organization. As a traveler, I can screen potential hosts based on testimonials from others.

-People that offer up their homes, I’ve found, are incredibly generous, outgoing, tolerant, and excited to meet new friends.

Why would anybody allow a stranger into her house? Because it adds some spice to life! Couchsurfing is an opportunity for people from different cultures or backgrounds to make friends and learn a lot. Plus, how great is it to know that you have friends in every corner of the world?!

Hosts can travel to many places, knowing they have friends and accommodations there. Every person that has hosted me or met with me from couchsurfing.org has a place to stay wherever I am (whenever I settle down), and whenever they want. I am grateful for their generosity and will happily host them.

I also feel a certain obligation to “pay it forward” by hosting others as graciously as I’ve been treated.

Why do I think couchsurfing is so cool? Because every single couchsurfing experience I’ve had, now over a dozen, has been fun and very, very interesting.

I’ve stayed with doctors and students and retired folks.  I’ve slept on a floor, a futon, a couch, and several beds. I’ve stayed in a 5-star hotel in an expensive Asian city and a rooftop-access apartment (penthouse?) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I’ve treated a couple hosts to dinner and had a couple hosts treat me to dinner (some insist on it, as they are being  hosts). I’ve setup a Taiwan food tasting event with area couchsurfers and had tea with the daughter of a Viet Cong soldier (she even planned out my entire 30-day Vietnam itinerary). I’ve gone to concerts and experienced things that I would never have known about without a local to guide me. One host taught me how to ride her motorcycle on the crazy streets, something I might not have ever tried on my own (I’ve since rented about 30 days worth of motorcycles in Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand).

There are many other incredible things I’ve experienced as a result of couchsurfing.

Couchsurfing is incredible. It adds extra adventure to traveling. Couchsurfing is traveling on steroids.

Have you tried couchsurfing? Would you consider it after reading this?