Europe sans hotels

I’ll just bet couchsurfing is easier with one bag…

Social networking first significantly influenced the world of travel in 1999 with the start of Couchsurfing, a service in which members offer a spare couch — or bed, or floor space — to fellow Couchsurfers, at no charge. It spawned a social phenomenon, and today counts almost two million people in 238 countries as members. - read more at nytimes.com

And if you want more than a couch, the above story is mostly about renting (cheaply) private accommodations that are quite nice, assuming you can avoid the odd psycopath.

Comments

[Little J]

I happen to be a member of CouchSurfing. I mostly host, but I have been a guest several times as well. I find hat those who are attracted to CouchSurfing share a very similar mindset, and that is comforting when on the road in a strange new place; it is like staying with family, albeit those second cousins you never see.

One bag travel does make this easier, especially since you are usually sleeping smack dab in the middle of someone's living room.

Also, CouchSurfing is not necessarily cheaper than the local hostel would be. It is expected that you "return the favor" to your host, which can take the form of anything from purchasing a meal (either at a restaurant or the ingredients to cook at home) to bringing a physical gift from your home to sharing some of your skills (play music, create physical art for the space).

Treating a CouchSurfing residence as you would a hotel room - come and go as you please, use but don't replenish, leave it worse than you found it - is highly frowned upon, and there is a review system in place that will quickly "out" a guest for their mooching or freeloading ways. You are, after all, a guest in someones home. That the someone is a stranger should not be an excuse for poor manners.

That said, as a host I have NEVER had guests who were anything less than absolutely gracious and polite. It isn't that I have been blessed, it is that I have refused the requests of those who indicate that they would be less than ideal guests.

Sorry for the mini-rant. As CouchSurfing has gained more and more media attention of late, I've noticed a rise in people who are looking to CouchSurf for the wrong reasons (mainly they view it as a free 'hotel' room of sorts and are willing to put up with the non-ideal sleeping surface as a trade off for the free pricetag). CouchSurfing is much more of a home stay than a crash space.

Thanks for entertaining my ramblings. :)

[Andy Mesa]

I've been to 50+ cities in Europe, and I've never stayed in a hotel.

Hotels shelter you from the place you want to experience. You can always rent a private room in someone's house for cheaper, and get better service.