Couch Surf Your Way Around the World

April 20, 2006 — -- On your next travel adventure, consider ditching your fancy hotel or crowded hostel in exchange for a chance to meet new friends from all over the world and experience a home stay with friendly natives. If it seems too good to be true, it's not. You can find it all on the Couch Surfing Project, a Web site that has created a way to meet other adventurers and get a unique taste of local life.

The project is the brainchild of Casey Fenton, who refused to let limited cash keep him from traveling to Iceland. Fenton got hold of a university list serve and e-mailed hundreds of local students asking for a place to crash. Within minutes he was inundated with dozens of e-mails from students offering their couches and their friendship to this stranger.

Couch Surfing is a free, nonprofit service with more than 60,000 members who host people from all seven continents and close to 200 countries. The site is even posted in 12 different languages.

Whether looking for a place to sleep or a brief meeting for coffee, this no-strings-attached online network is a useful and fun way to connect with others and learn about places off the beaten path.

David Hauslaib, a recent college graduate and Web editor, used the site for a recent visit to West Africa. "Despite the fact that the person I was communicating with didn't have electricity or running water, he was a member of Couch Surfing and was thrilled to be able to invite me into his home and show me his country," Hauslaib said. The visit provided an authentic experience that Hauslaib said he wouldn't have had if he'd stayed in a commercial hotel. He stays in regular contact with his hosts and one day hopes to be able to show them New York City.

Another surfer, Michael Olson, may be the extreme example of couch surfing. Olson, a consultant for an accounting firm, is in a different city every week. He doesn't own a home. Olson learned about the site about a year ago and now depends on it to find his lodging in each place he visits on business, both domestically and internationally. "I've only had positive experiences doing this, and it's much more fun than staying in a sterile hotel watching TV by yourself," he said.