Couchsurfing: A "How To"

Couchsurfing is one of those things that will revolutionize the way you travel and even change your life and perspectives. When traveling, not being a tourist on vacation, but really traveling we often try to find out more about those places we pass through or linger in for awhile. We hope to find out more about the culture, history, sites, food, and most importantly people. We count on those small interactions at the market, getting invited to a beer or coffee with a friendly guy at a restaurant, playing with some children in the train, those small interactions make one’s experience. Couchsurfing, check out our article, gives us the chance to get a sort of full immersion in the culture even feeling a part of it, living, eating, and so much more as a local. If you have an open mind and hope to discover this side of a city, country, or culture then go ahead open up a new tab and set up your account.

If you don’t have a couchsurfing account, here’s how to set one up, and if you already have one, but have never used it you might want to check out this “How to” for some tips in guaranteeing you’ll get accepted when you write your next couch request!

Saving Money and Giving Back

It’s great to be able to travel for very cheap but it’s also important to give back at the same time especially to those communities that need it most. Often with couchsurfing (see our post) we end up teaching English, working on a farm, and culturally sharing so many things, but there are many other ways that are often better for communities more in need.

WWOOFING 

Couchsurfing

Hotels, hostels, guesthouses, not only do they get to be pretty expensive but you never get the true feeling of a place, you never get to know the true local culture. Your interactions with people include only the other foreigners where you are staying, or the person that works in the restaurant, the hotel, the shop, or if you’re lucky the random person you met on the street.

There are many options to cut your accommodation cost, but hands down the best is couchsurfing!

What is couchsurfing?

Couchsurfing www.couchsurfing.org is basically a social network for travelers. Couchsurfing is like a “couch” exchange. So, when you travel someone let’s you have a place to stay, that can be either a couch, a bed, a room, a space on the floor, and when you aren’t traveling you offer a place for others that are traveling. Now you don’t have to have someone sleep at your house, some people just use the site to meet other travelers, or to meet locals for a coffee, meal, or drink while traveling.

Is it safe?

I’m sure almost everyone upon hearing about couchsurfing is thinking “what if this random stranger whose house I’m staying at is actually an axe murderer?”. Now the great thing about couchsurfing is it works on a reference system. So once you search for a potential host you can see how many references they have, and read the references. If someone has no references and no pictures and another guy has 50 positive references and pictures with his family, etc you may decide to only send a request to the guy with the references.