I was with my friends Nicola and Rebecca the other day and we got to talking about travel. They are both well-traveled Renaissance women that I met on the road, Rebecca at a convention in Nashville, TN and Nicola at an audition in NYC many years ago (whom I've worked with at many special events through the years from NYC to LA to Vegas). All three of us have a fire inside that draws us to living in cities like The Big Apple and have the hunger for adventure. We seek jobs and gigs that give us the opportunity to see the country, the world and experience life 110%.
But sometimes even we freelance workaholics want to travel on our own terms, dare I say "take a vacation"? That's where we have to get creative. When your employer isn't picking up the tab, travel can be quite pricey. The most expensive part seems to be lodging. Where to stay? It's great to have friends in other cities and hostels have been a popular option for many years but can be annoying once you're past the "college backpacking stage". Craigslist offers a "housing swap" section which works fabulously if the city your traveling to and the dates match up, but how else can we see the world when we are broke? With the abundance of social networking sites it seems like there has to be a way. And then Rebecca told us about Couch Surfing.
Couch Surfing is a "worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit". CouchSurfing International is a non-profit organization that started back in 2003 by original founder, Casey Fenton, who bought a cheap ticket to Iceland and then realized that he had nowhere to stay. After spamming 1,500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik and asking them if he could crash on one of their couches and receiving several responses from groups of friends offering to show him 'their' Reykjavik, the CouchSurfing Project was born. With the help of many other founders, a crazy crash, and the CouchSurfing Collective, version 2.0 (which is what we see today) was launched in July 2006. You can read more about the website's history HERE.
The site's mission is not just about free furniture and a free place to crash, it's about community building and participating in creating a better world by "opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives" to "create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures." Sounds like a pretty smart idea and goal to me. Now the next question I am sure you are thinking, is it safe? It is definitely a valid reservation to have with the slew of sociopaths and serial rapists out there, but rest assured Couch Surfing has got it covered. They have developed a self moderating community, which means they work like a neighborhood watch program by keeping each other safe. The website provides you with a long list of references to explain how the system works which includes personal references, verification and vouching. For a complete list of FAQ's and to learn how to build your own profile so you can start surfing, click HERE.
As of today, the statistics on their homepage state that there are 1,317,621 current couch surfers using the site, 1,341,748 successful surf or host experiences, 1,518,589 friendships created, 2,432,432 positive experiences, 231 countries represented, and 63,690 cities represented. And if you don't have a couch to host any travelers now, you can still sign up on their website and volunteer to meet for coffee or a drink. It is FREE to join and a great way to see the world through the eyes of a local. I am so excited to have learned about such a fabulous service. Have any of my fellow Brooklynites been part of the Couch Surfing Community? If so, please share your stories and experiences in the comments section. See? There are people out there who truly believe we can change the world, "one couch at a time."
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