Couch Surfing? Has anyone had experience or heard of couch

Just wondering if anyone here has heard of or had experience with couch surfing. A friend and I are planning a trip to Europe next summer and she has been looking into couch surfing. Apparently it is a network of people who will open their home up to travelers and let you crash on their couch (or any other bed type surface they have.) I was just wanting to get some anecdotes of people's experiences as a website devoted to the idea may give me a somewhat biased view.

Please, let me know if you've done it and what your experience was like!

Allyssa

I heard of it, and I met some people while i was travelling who did it, and had GREAT experiences. I'd just be careful, u know. precautionary measures. LoL, but I never heard anything bad about it.

I've been a member of Couch Surfing for over 3 years now. I'm surfed about 15 couches in about 8 countries and I've hosted people from all over the world. I love it! It's the best way to travel! I've met some incredible people. It's important to check people's references and profiles but I've never had any problems.

Thanks for the heads up. I've joined and am anticipating good things!
Cheers

I'm new to it myself, but I have several friends who are very into CouchSurfing and they've had nothing but good experiences (with both hosting and travelling). I agree that caution is necessary, but it's quite a community.

Is this whole idea safe? I also would like to try it someday.

So far I have had very good expereiences. There is a system of referencing people that adds a level of security as well as a verification system whereby, people are registered with the CS system and trackable to a particular address. So far I would definitely suggest couch surfing to anyone hoping to see more of the world and stay out of the tourist traps!

Allyssa

I know I can research about the whole idea over the net, but I would love to hear your wonderful experiences about Couch Surfing. I mean, I somehow want to convince myself, if you know what I mean.

Thank you for the tips Allyssa. I hope I could drop by your city someday.

Hi All,
I started out with the questions about Couch Surfing, and now I know! This summer I was both a host and a surfer and it was a great experience. There were tonnes of adventures to be had that were not in the tour books and that I could only have had by meeting and staying with locals.
One thing to note was that in some cities (and I assume at certain times of the year) it is very difficult to find active hosts who are not already swamped with surfers. I asked more than 30 possible hosts in Rome and wasn't able to find an opening there (asking as much as 2 months to 2 days ahead of time.) Perhaps it was just bad timing, but more likely it was just that the city was just really over run with travellers.
I encourage anyone who is interested to check it out and get involved.

Allyssa