Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just curious if anyone has ever couch surfed and what your experience was like?
For those of you who aren't familiar some people offer couches others are looking for couches to crash on while traveling.
It's a cheaper way to travel although I dont think its about savnig money so much as meeting other travelers, meeting nad connecting with other people, from the perspective of a couchsurfer getting a local to be your tour guide, styaing with a local instead of a hotel and hvaing a more authentic experience in a city.
Just curious if anyone has tried it either as a host or as a surfer and what your experience was like?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,705 posts, read 58,031,425 times
Reputation: 46172
I have done similar (private guest homes) for 25 yrs +, I would 'do' or host counchsurfers in a hearbeat if I lived in town, but I live in the boonies. Many Couchsurfers are the younger set who don't have wheels, or international travelers who need transportation. If I run out of guest home options I will couchsurf. There is a profile on the host, so you can pick situations that you are interested in. I often use farms, musical families, alternative energy, teachers, gardeners... as that gives me opportunities to participate in their lives. I have been known to stick around and help folks on a farm for a few days, or even to stay at their home and do chores so the owners can get away.
It is a very rich experience to share a home with a stranger. (no 'axe murderers' or 'thieves' yet...)
I have both couchsurfed as well as hosted couch surfers.
We stayed with a 40-something French woman and her 10 year old son.
They were gracious hosts and we saw parts of Nantes that we never would have seen on our own.
The last surfers we had were such nice, polite guys that we let them stay a whole week.
At my age (56) I am in the oldster crowd but there are others besides me in the Couchsurfing ranks, both as surfers as well as hosts.
I know this is an old thread, but I'm glad to see there are other CouchSurfers/hosts here! We hosted our first Surfer for Christmas; it was a 30-ish year old single mom and her toddler son, from Germany! We host exchange students, so the concept isn't foreign to us at all.... it was just opening our home to an adult instead of a teenager! We're going to Europe next year and plan on doing a little bit of Couchsurfing, just for the experience of it all! (We'll also be staying with some of our previous exchange students, so we won't be there purely as "tourists" anyway.)
Anyone else hosting/traveling with this organization?
During white rule, South Africa used to be great for that. South Africans couldn't go anywhere outside the country except by flying to Europe, and didn't even get television until the mid-70s, so the only contact they had with outsiders was to pick them up on the road and take them home.
Quite a few times, Ive taken hitchhikers home and put them to bed and set them back out on the road in the morning, my wife saying "Who's that on the sofa?"
The Japanese in Africa were very adept at that. A Japanese NGO worker knew all the other ones, and you could couch surf with one one night, and he'd give you a reference to the next one down the road on your itinerary.
By nature, I'm not a very gregarious or extroverted person, so at least half the countries I"ve been in, I've never been inside anyone's private home. And quite a few US states, too.
I've never used the couch surfing website but I have met people along the way in my travels without any problems. I plan to use couch surfing this summer in Europe.
No thanks. What if it is some deadbeat weirdo? I have enough "couchsurf" family members and friends.
I had to laugh because I was thinking the same thing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
