Review: Couch Surfing
As you should be able to tell by my recent posts, I went on a road trip. On longer trips, it can be a strain to fork out cash for a hotel every night. A friend of mine recently left on a one month trip around Europe, which could have ended up being extremely expensive even staying in a hostel for 30 evenings in a row. He turned to the internet and used Couch Surfing to find people who would let him borrow their couch in the various countries and cities he would be staying in.
The concept for Couch Surfing is that you research an area you will be in, find people willing let strangers sleep on their couches (that also have good reviews from past surfers), and e-mail them a request. If they are socially able to let you stay with them, and check to see your reviews as a guest during other couch surfing experiences they reply with a request accepted or possible denied (maybe you peed the couch).
I don’t know a ton about couch surfing, because I just had my first experience using it a few days ago.
Kind of last minute, we e-mailed someone in down town San Francisco a request for 3 people to stay with him. He confirmed that it would be OK and provided us with an address. We were a little apprehensive about it since we were couch surfing virgins and weren’t sure what to expect. It was not some weirdo who’s apartment had a strange indescribable smell and was located disturbingly close to some busy train tracks. We met our host outside and found him to be seemingly normal and friendly. His past user reviews spoke highly of him, and we left with the same attitude. We had a free place to stay for the night, with a host who was just willing to share his living room with some people in need.
Though I rarely find myself in a situation where I don’t know where I will be sleeping, I actually left my recent trip with the feeling that I would be comfortable using www.couchsurfing.org again if I need to and would recommend it to others. As I gain more experiences form couch surfing, I will try to come back and leave updates. Possible I may or may not still recommend it. Hopefully I continue to have good experiences, and you will too if you give it a try.
jon, how did you get the shaft to the little tiny loveseat?
that sounds like a great idea.
question: do you always sleep like that? it doesn’t look very comfy!
i’m off. tata!
Sam the gargantuan took the long couch.
This is a good post, sir. I already registered at the site that the link takes you to and will probably be using this method for the trip I plan to take this next January to Southern Cali. Fun. I didnt realize it but turns out I have “couch surfed” in Whashington State with some members of my dance team on our way to Canada. It was soo much fun. K bye
that sounds like tons of fun but getting married kind of puts the kabosh on couch surfing, i think? maybe they’d still be down for it, we’d only need one couch!
Dude you are crazy! These people could pull a frickin “place the lotion on the skin” situation on your A. You worry me, what if the last time I saw you was the LAST time I saw you? Those cookies weren’t good enough to be a goodbye! Be more careful, people love you who are paranoid.
SWEET!! How creative and SMART for heavens sake. Seriously, I want to travel the world and all that’s holding me back is money, so why not sleep on someones couch. Ha! Brilliant I tells you. So will you do it again? I love the shot by the way, you are far to long for that couch.