Couch Surfing: The Future of Backpacking

Wipe that confused look off your face. I know that some of you are probably picturing some crazy new ‘extreme sport’ that strange ole Sean managed to get involved in (and the strange picture of my Latvian friends and myself probably doesn't help matters). Rest assured, this has nothing to do with souped-up household furniture careening down canyons or anything of the sort.

“Couch Surfing” is an emerging colloquialism amongst backpackers referring to crashing at the homes of locals, as opposed to staying in hostels or camping. It’s to sleeping what hitchhiking is to traveling. The term comes from the website name and address of one of the two flagship internet sites that provides travelers with a search-based forum to network with other like-minded souls willing to lend a helping hand. Participation ranges from meeting for a cup of coffee to giving a tour around town to hosting travelers overnight. The easiest way to think about it is like Facebook for travelers; each person has their own profile with pictures, personal information, travel experience, etc. and after staying at someone’s house or meeting other ‘Couch Surfers’ on the road, you can exchange information and become online ‘friends’ and give each other ‘references.’

The most obvious benefit of Couch Surfing is that it’s absolutely free. As anyone who has ever been on a trip can tell you, the most expensive parts of travel are 1) travel itself (plane, train, and bus tickets) and 2) hotels/hostels. Couch Surfing eliminates the latter and frees up funds for other, more exciting activities.

But the real wonder of Couch Surfing lies in establishing connections. Staying in hostels, you meet a lot of fascinating people from all over the world… the downside is that none of the people you form these transient relationships with are actually from the country that you’re in. With Couch Surfing, you stay with real people in real houses with real jobs, real stories, and real insight into local culture and life. Not to mention the doors that staying with someone in touch with local scenes opens.

If I stayed in hostels through the entire Baltic region, I never would have heard about what it was like growing up under Soviet occupation, would never have stayed in an apartment above an old KGB cell, and wouldn’t have had one of the best weeks of my trip (To briefly summarize, my seven nights Couch Surfing in Latvia included a 2 night hardcore music festival in the woods, a retreat to my host’s grandparents house in the Latvian countryside where we baked in an old fashion water and hot coals sauna and ate home cooked meals straight from the farm before lying out on blankets under the clouds above the pasture, gazing in amazement as my host and his break dancing group lit up the clubs of Riga, and being treated like family by all his friends and relatives).

I could go on with all the stories of my Couch Surfing escapades in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, and Israel, but for now I think you get the picture.

Couch Surfing is really a fascinating opportunity for backpackers to interact with local communities in a way they never could have before the 21^st century. In my eyes, this is one of the most visionary uses of the World Wide Web to date.

Check it out: www.couchsurfing.com