February 29, 2008
A couch to crash on anywhere in the world
This article talks about couchsurfing, when travelers stay in a stranger's home (well someone they met online anyway) instead of going to a hotel. It does sounds interesting to get a local person to show you around and to see how a local person lives - no doubt this would teach you something about the culture of wherever you're visiting.
It also has the added benefit of being cheap.
Now I feel like making a bit of a digression and expanding on a relatively minor point in the article.
One student teacher had this to add: "A lot of Americans, they vacation, they don’t travel. I differentiate between vacationing and traveling," Breault said. "You’re learning something about the world, rather than viewing the world."
Here I have a problem. When I was a poor college student I was an elitist traveler like this student teacher. I drove to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, slept in my car every night, ate loaves of bread and unheated cans of spaghetti (totally disgusting by the way), hung out with apparently homeless New Orleans kids for a day, etc. I thought I was a real traveler especially compared to the tourists staying in expensive hotels.
Now I stay in hotels, but I still think I'm traveling. I don't understand people who say you can view the world without learning something. It kind of reminds me of those people who said I shouldn't go shopping when I travel.
I didn't do any shopping when I was 22 and in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Now I shop when I'm on vacation. The experiences certainly are different but I don't think anyone can say one is 'real' and the other is not real traveling.
Anyway, enough about how young people who travel cheap think they are the real travelers. Let me ask a discussion question:
Would you crash on a stranger's couch while traveling in your own country or abroad? Would you invite someone you met online into your home so that they could travel cheap?
Personally, I would have no objection to sleeping in a stranger's house as long as I had talked to them online or something. But inviting someone into my home would be entirely different. I don't think I would. I guess it seems like it would be easy to leave the stranger's house if I was uncomfortable there (partially because I have money for a hotel) but kicking someone out of my house would be more trouble.
Interestingly, I blogged about one of these couch surfing sites 2 years ago. I'm still waiting for hospitalityclub.org to review my application...
Posted by James Trotta at February 29, 2008 10:14 AM | TrackBack
No - not into the couch surfing idea at all. Too many weirdos out there. I think kinda modified 'few degrees of seperation' couch surfing would be a better way to go. If we network well and travel wide it should be possible to stay with friends of friends (or family) or even friends of theirs. Having at least some connection with these people would make a world of difference - somebody who vouches for them not being completely insane.
As for the issue of travelling v. vacationing, I agree fully with the difference, but don't think that travelling means slumming it. It's more what you do than how you do it. I am aware of people who travel to parts of the world, stay in hotel resorts, rarely leave them and hang out with people of their own nationality and eat food of their culture while there. This is NOT travelling, it's like living in a pod away from home. Staying in hotels and shopping are find but don't do them just in resorts, go and explore where you are - then you are a traveller.
Posted by: Joseph at March 5, 2008 11:57 AMI hate shopping in resorts!
Posted by: James Trotta at March 5, 2008 12:01 PMI'm an active member of Couchsurfing and I think it's a great system. Not to say that I use it when I travel unless I'm desperate... I prefer the freedom of not being obligated.
But in a pinch, it's a great system to have! The site also allows you to find locally-living people who are willing to have a coffee or take you around town.
There's also a rating system, kind of like the "6 degrees of separation" thing. Everyone gets rated by their friends as legit, trustworthy, etc. You can decide if you want someone in your house by looking at their past reviews. I have had people stay with me in San Francisco, but I lived in a great place with lots of roommates and I made it clear that people who surfed our couches would have to fend for themselves in the city.
I have recently changed my status to no couch available, and I get lots of requests just to hang out and give advice about the city. And I can freely refuse if I like (though there is a feature of the site that shows the percentage of requests I've responded to - possibly to tell others if I am an active member of the community and am deserving enough to stay on their couches).
It does make for a different kind of travel experience. And if you're looking for unique, off the beaten path, real experience, this is the kind of thing you should look for.
Posted by: Lily Harmon-Gross at March 8, 2008 2:23 AM