Travel Tip Tuesdays: How to Couchsurf

I want to couchsurf but don’t know how to get started. How do I set it up?

Couchsurfing is a social networking site designed especially for travelers. Like Facebook, you create a profile, obtain “friends,” and join interest groups. However, you won’t be posting status updates about your insomnia or uploading photos of your dog in  a tutu… you’ll be perusing the site in search of adventure. 

There are three main things to do on the Couchsurfing site: finding connections to host, surf, or meet up with other travelers. Here’s a quick beginner’s guide.

First of all, join couchsurfing. It’s free to sign up, although they do encourage you to send a donation, which then confirms your home address. Sign up from this page.

My couchsurfing profile pic

Read all the FAQs and create a profile. You can do both from this page here. Seriously, they can explain it better than I can! If you’re a woman, I think it’s nice to post an unflattering picture of yourself to discourage guys who are attracted to a pretty face. Fill in every slot of your profile with as much information as possible, so people feel like they get to know you.

Before you try to host or surf, meet up with some couchsurfers at an event. There are lots of options explained here. Then the people you meet can leave you positive references on your profile. These are vital to a good couchsurfing experience: they are flags to your potential hosts/guests that you are not, in fact, a creeper.

Three tips for safety:

If you don’t feel comfortable hosting or surfing, volunteer to meet up with people. You can show people around your city, or, when traveling, meet a local who is happy to show you his favorite hiking path, museum, or bar. I started couchsurfing by meeting up with someone at the local ice-carving festival. 

Always read the references. If someone has 85 positive references and 1 neutral reference, you’re probably good to go. If someone has no references, they may be okay but they’re a much bigger risk. 

If you have a bad feeling about someone, then listen to that feeling. Intuition is a great ally in travel, and it’s there for a reason. Even if 165 people thought this surfer was great, but you get a funny feeling, go with your gut.

Elizabeth let my sister and I surf in her sailboat.

Three tips for hosting:

To sort out “mass emails,” ask surfers on your profile to write a password in their request to you. Any surfer who doesn’t use this password obviously didn’t read your profile, and probably isn’t worth your time.

Be sure to let your potential surfers know about your house rules. Fill out your profile completely. If you want them out of the house when you are, say so. Post a minimum or maxium stay. Tell them that you want them to do dishes, or that they should bring their own food. If you’re up front with this information, you’ll attract the right kind of guest.

Try to give your surfer a feel for your personality, your background, and the culture of your city/country. This is the point of couchsurfing: cultural exchange. If your guest is exhausted there’s no need to bus them all around the city, but it’s nice to offer some local advice and give them a cultural experience. My host in Colorado Springs took me to volunteer with a local urban art group, decorating the pillars in front of a building with mosaic tile— it was a fantastic experience I would never have gotten otherwise.

Three tips for surfing:

Send out about five thoughtful and specific couch requests at a time. As you get rejected, send out new requests. It can be extremely time-consuming, especially in popular cities during the high season, to find a couch, but keep plugging away.

I surfed in Amanda's RV, and we visited the Grand Canyon!

If you can’t find a host, try to find a “Last Minute Couches” group for that city and post a detailed message about your situation. That’s how (after about 30 failed couch requests) I got a couch in Salzburg, Austria.

Be a good guest. Do the dishes, fold your blankets when you’re done, make them an origami rose, and leave a nice thank-you note. Feel free to share about your culture, and ask lots of questions. Most couchsurfing hosts have traveled a lot, and should say so on their profile, so “Tell me about your hike up Mount Sinai” is always a good starting point.

This is only brushing the surface, but it should be enough to get you started. With Couchsurfing, whether hosting or surfing, the world is yours. Happy travels!

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Danger in Sunny San Diego

As I crouched down in the backseat of the car, pure fear pounding in my head, the tucked-away part of my mind whispered, This might make a great blog once I’m safely home.

I was sitting in a car in a parking lot in a safe touristy area of San Diego around noon on a sunny day when I met the first real danger I’ve ever encountered on my travels. I’ve nervously eyed a druggie couple in a shouting match at a bus stop, picked my way along a treacherous cliff, and been suspicious of the broken deadbolt in a hotel room, but I had never actually run into a truly dangerous situation… until now.

“That guy has a gun,” was the first thing Zach said.

I looked up from the pamphlet I was reading. Since my sister Mary had been navigating, I was sitting in the backseat. She had gone to run an errand and would be right back, leaving Zach and me sitting in the car in a mostly-empty parking lot. In the nearby marina, boats bobbed peacefully. My intelligent response to Zach’s statement was, “What?”

“That guy, over there. He has a gun.” His voice was strained.

I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a young man step into the backseat of a car parked about ten yards away. There were two cars, actually, and for the first time, I noticed that people were sitting in them. 

“What? Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure.” The tone of his voice left no room for doubt.

My heartbeat sounded loud in my ears as I sunk further down in my seat. “Uh… let’s get out of here.”

Zach turned on the car and we drove away, trying to be casual, trying to get out of the unexpectedly scary situation. I peeked over the back of the car, watching as the two cars in turn pulled out of their parking spaces.

And they started following us.

Maybe they weren’t really. We’d just turn left, and they’d turn… no. No, they were following us.

Every Rockford Files episode I have ever seen raced through my head. This was it for us— the mob was after us now, and they would stop at nothing to kill us for what we had seen. There would be a lengthy car chase… they would shoot at us… they would… I squeezed my eyes shut. 

“Are they still following us?”

I opened my eyes a bit. “Yes.”

Zach abruptly turned onto a side lane marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. The cars followed us, trailing along behind us with ominous shadows thrown over the faces in the windows. We passed a sign that said NO PUBLIC ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT. Surely a security guard would come running out to confront us! Surely we would be stopped and able to point out the crazy people following us! But no, not a guard in sight. Zach kept driving with determinedly calm terror, and I cowered in the back seat and felt like my face would explode with blood. 

Whenever I’m alone on the road and I see someone, I size him up, thinking about whether or not I could take him in a fight. When the other person has a gun, there is no second-guessing.

I looked back again, and the scales tipped. The cars abruptly swung around, peeling out back from whence they came. My breath came out in a long dragging gasp.

“Do you remember what they looked like?” Zach asked.

“Uhm. They were Hispanic. A green car and a gray car.”

“I thought it was a brown car and a gray car. Did you get the license number?”

“No… No. We need to go find Mary. Can you give me your phone?”

We drove out of the Authorized Personnel Only area without ever seeing security of any kind. My hands were steady as I dialed Mary to let her know we were no longer in the parking lot, my I felt like all my innards were shaking. The shock reverberated for a long time, and I spent most of that time kicking myself for being a lousy public servant. And all the the while, part of my mind analyzed the situation and tucked it away for the blog I am writing right now.

No matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, you might run into danger. Yes, it’s important to be smart, but ultimately, there’s no way to be safe all the time, no matter how conscientious you are. This can either make you paranoid, or set you free. Go ahead, take a risk— you take one anyway every time you step outside your door.

~~~