Couchsurfing

"An excellent way of getting to know a local culture."   the Guardian

"CouchSurfing isn’t just a means of accommodation; it is an entirely new way to travel"   Time

"We saw and learned much more than if we had just gotten a hotel room. You can avoid being “that person” with the folded-out map when you’re exploring the city."   npr

                                                


If you want to travel you need a lot of money. If you want to travel you need to know the local spoken language. If you want to travel you need to read a lot of tourist guides.
Not with this new form of travelling: Couchsurfing. As the word somehow already says, the method is to "surf someone's couch", meaning, to stay for some nights in someone's apartment and sleep on his\her couch, floor,... .

But the philosophy of couchsurfing isn't just to provide a sleeping place for a total stranger, the aim for the host and the traveller is also to meet new people, get to know a different culture and find friends from all over the world. It is common that hosts and hosted one's take a stroll around the city (because in the end the traveller came to visit a place), explore the night life together, speak for hours about the personal life and interests, and somehow form a friendship, maybe not for a whole life time, but for some days.

Before couchsurfing existed, people on the go who couldn't afford or who didn't want to stay in a hotel or hostel, maybe talked to some complete stranger in a bar and ended up sleeping at this person's place. Without knowing with whom they are sharing an apartment and without any security net. The website couchsurfing.org can't provide a complete security net of course, but it gives the opportunity to create a profile, find a place to stay, and rate hosts after you visited them. This way future travellers can see, if a host got positive ratings and therefor is likely to be a good person, or at least a nice companion for some days.

And this is how it works:

How it Works

1. Start by searching for people who interest you.
2. Once you’ve found someone, send them a message, inviting them to your home or requesting to stay in theirs.
3. Then, meet up in person and share a unique experience.
4. And, at any time, join an activity to meet new people wherever you are.
5. 
   

(source: couchsurfing.org)

Couchsurfing.org claims on their website, that they are the "largest travel community". And indeed with millions of members in almost all countries world wide, it has become a huge multicultural community.

If you are interested in joining the group, becoming a host or are thinking of travelling somewhere and want to meet local folk and explore a country and culture not through the eyes of a stranger and tourist, but like a true inhabitant, then visit the couchsurfing website.


the couchsurfing website:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/

for further information read those articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/garden/20couch.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,2045092,00.html#ixzz1grewkXF6


r.s.