CouchSurfing

When I mentioned to my friend Nick that I would be driving cross-country, he recommended that I use the website couchsurfing.org to find people to stay with (for free) along the way. I had never heard of it, and at first didn't really put much thought into it -- it seemed a bit creepy (and almost dangerous) to stay at a random person's house in an unfamiliar area. But after browsing through the website I realized it's such a brilliant idea.

CouchSurfing envisions "a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter." It's an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals around the world. Each user creates his/her own profile - complete with photos, a personal description, philosophy, interests, types of people you enjoy, one amazing thing you've seen or done, and traveling history. Once you create a profile, you can connect with other friends you have made while traveling and give each other references to further legitimize you pages. Once a member (which is free, but you can donate money) with a full profile, you can search for people in a certain city based on a number of factors including age and number of people he/she is able to host. After browsing several different profiles and choosing a person who you think seems compatible and AWESOME, you can request his/her couch for a specific night, and assuming he/she is reliable, you should hear back shortly!

So I actually tried it out and browsed through a bunch of profiles of people who were offering to host in Cleveland. After judging people on their profiles (probably inaccurately), I chose a 21-year-old guy who seems cool and sent him a message "requesting his couch." He got back to me within a day with his address and phone number and now I will be meeting this guy and sleeping at his place in only a few days -- pretty cool! Assuming this experience doesn't lead to my kidnapping, I definitely plan on using CouchSurfing in the future during my travels, and may even offer to host travelers on my couch once I'm settled in L.A. (as long as whatever future roommates I have are okay with it).