Couch surfing is a term which is used to describe a very cheap way of staying at persons house or flat for free.

It sounds like a very cheap way of seeing a new place, and I have used this method of travel, at least in offering my place to stay anyway.

For me, it started in about 2003 when I purchased my first house. I was living in a lively part of Manchester (UK) which had plenty to do and I was having a great time living there. The internet was a big part of my life at work and I used to surf the web as part of my job. I also used to be very much into the travelling scene, in fact, I was just about to depart on a 8 month round the world trip. With my up coming trip arriving, I wanted to be part of the travelling community on the internet. One site I came across was Couch Surfing [http://www.couchsurfing.com/] which was the site that introduced me to couch surfing.

The idea of couch surfing was to register and put up your sofa (couch) for people to stay (sleep on!) at for free. Which is to say, that people were able to contact me and ask if they could stay on my sofa for a night or two. The email that I got was from 2 Canadian guys who were landing in Manchester the following week. I was pleased that I got an email and accepted the offer of them wanting to stay.

I gave the 2 guys information on how to get to my house (on the bus as its the cheapest way) and I went to pick them up from the bus stop. The only problem was that I told them that it was only 30 minutes on the bus, but it turned out to be an hour, so they were a little confused to if they had missed the stop or not! Anyway, that out of the way, I showed them my house and left them with a key and I dashed back to work. That evening, I took my Canadian guests into Manchester and showed them the city and also got them drunk! It was a great night and we all had a good time.

If you are interested in couch surfing, I recommend it, but make sure you use a reputable site to do it.

Modern Leather Suite
Chesterfield Furniture