Couch Surfing - Inexpensive Way To Travel Around The World

Best Authority Sites On Couch Surfing 

Where to start your research on couch surfing

The Top 5 couchsurfing websites

Cheap and sociable, but a stranger's home? Sally Howard reports from a futon in New York

Google

Of course, you can't miss this one...

Answers.com

Wikipedia "relative", with a nicer face...

Ask.com

They use different technology and sources than Google

DMOZ Search: couch surfing

The first and still the best directory

Google Groups: couch surfing

Groups, forums, discussions...

Yahoo! Search

From Yahoo My Web Beta

Delicious.com

Great source. Fresh!

Technorati.com

One of the best sources. Follow their RSS feed on couch surfing.

Flickr.com

Interesting pics from couch surfing parties

Reddit: couch surfing

One of the best sources on couch surfing!

StumbleUpon

Another good one! Look at those with most reviews...

Twitter

Why didn't you think about this one? Excellent!

Couch Surfing - Questions And Answers 

Ask questions, get answers,

Yahoo Answers!

From Yahoo.com

Askville

At amazon.com

Live QNA

By MSN

Google Answers

You'll find everything at Google

Answerbag

Less known, but great too!

Couch Surfing - Lots Of Interesting Articles About The Beauty of Couchsurfing 

Sleeping with Strangers

From goodmagazine.com:

"Wearing only boxer shorts and sandals, a tall man steps onto the landing of an apartment in the outer Plateau Mont-Royal, a working-class neighborhood in Montreal. It's an early August morning, the streets are just beginning to stir, and the young man-a traveler from Germany who arrived late last night-slips a hand-rolled cigarette between his lips, scratches his head, and surveys the traffic humming along the wide lanes of Rue St. Denis. It's his first glimpse of the city in daylight, and from where he stands, he can see row upon row of tidy brick apartment buildings with winding metal staircases that curve up two or three flights, tentacles of steel that gleam pink in the sun..."

Website Finds Touring Bands Crash Space

From spin.com:

"The Shackeltons spent 109 nights on the road in 2008 -- and only paid to stay in a hotel once. The rest of the time, the Pennsylvanian post-punkers crashed at private homes, sometimes with friends, but more often with strangers they found through couchsurfing.com..."

Why I CouchSurf

From worldhum.com:

"... I must admit, CouchSurfers can be a crazy bunch. While they have a routine get-together in Union Square each Thursday night, they also organize events every other night of the week, whether it's a rooftop masquerade where you will not be admitted sans costume, or a unitard pub crawl. Sometimes I can't keep up and the thought alone stresses me out. That's when I have to sit back and remind myself that I don't have to respond to every email I receive through the site (though I often do anyway), nor am I required to make it to every social gathering ..."

Couch surfing: not as lazy as it sounds

From The Maneater Student Newspaper:

"..."Couch surfing is designed to get people to shake hands from all over the world, he says. "It's about being a good neighbor wherever you are." The philosophy behind couch surfing is not just about a different way of traveling or of doing things. It's a different way of seeing the world, literally and figuratively. "The world is so tiny," Dougherty says. "This is a great way to connect all the pieces."

Tai Shan on the CouchSurfing Tour

From seattlesoundmag.com:

"... There's this great story about the Knights of the Round Table. They went to look for the Holy Grail all together and couldn't find it. They realized that they would all have to go the darkest part of the forest, alone, and then they would find the grail. That's how I practice my craft-I look for the scariest, darkest moments I can find, the moments when I'm insecure, and then I write a chord or a lyric out of them. So that's also how I try to tour. I sleep on these strangers' couches and I'm terrified, but I feel like I need to live by heading into the forest. The fact of the matter is we're all gonna die someday-I could die driving down the freeway-so I can surrender just a little bit here. I mean, getting up on stage is fucking terrifying but the best stuff that comes out is the stuff you could never have predicted. So why not live like that?..."

The Mostly Happy Couch Surfing Tour

From cahootsmagazine.com:

"... I marched on down to the Thistledown office and said, "I'll tour it. I'll grab a Greyhound Bus Pass, sleep on friend's couches, and do readings and signings at their favourite bookstores, or bars, or WHEREVER. And thus, The Mostly Happy Couch Surfing Tour was born. Thistledown pulled together the cash to buy me the bus pass and friends across the country offered up couches and spare rooms. The amazing Taylor Leedahl, Thistledown's publicist, booked me into bookstores across the country. I lined up a few readings at bars, and one private salon in Saskatoon, for the cast of Cheryl Jack's play At the End of Her Rope, who missed the initial launch because they were onstage. Together, Taylor and I booked twelve events. Then, we had to figure out how to get more than three people to attend. We did the regular stuff--sent out press releases and so on. But I knew I had to do more..."

Couch Surfing, the Hang Loose Way to Travel

From earthwalkersmag.com:

"...Trent Collins has surfed in Finland, Estonia, Brazil and England - Africa, Greece and Spain, too. And he does it all without a board. Collins is a Couch Surfer. "I first heard about CS (Couch Surfing) while stuck in a hotel in Finland 150 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle," wrote Collins, a couchsurfing.com volunteer, in an e-mail. "It seemed like the perfect escape from being stuck with nothing but an empty bar or a tiny TV in the corner of the room. I'd get to see what was going on in the place I was. So I signed up as soon as I got back to civilization, and after I got to know it, I started to get more involved in the running of things and helping out around the site..."

Sleeping with Strangers - The art of couchsurfing

From reddit.com:

"...I am in love with couchsurfing. I would marry couchsurfing. To me, for me, it is the best thing that has ever come out of the internet. I have been vagabonding around europe for 5 months now and have stayed on couches in germany, czech rep, italy, france and spain. I have been treated like a friend, brought it from the cold, and given grand tours by people who really know the town they live in There is no more authentic way to travel (or cheaper)..."

CouchSurfing 101

From Psychology Today Blog:

"... Couchsurfing is a way to ease isolation and build social networks. Research consistently shows that those with larger social networks are healthier, happier, and live longer. Those who attend church regularly also get these benefits, and this may be due the sociality and fellowship that follows worship...."

Maps for your couch surfing 

From MapQuest

You can travel on screen, print the maps, share and do whatever you want with the maps.

Or just used Google Maps or Google Earth. But with those I doubt you'll be inclined to leave your own couch. You'll be couch surfing at home; it's that addicting!