What is Couchsurfing?

Couchsurfing isn't a dating site, and it's not a free hostel search engine either. It's a social network built around sharing all kinds of experiences with locals and fellow travellers.

You can host people passing through your city — spend time with them, swap stories and laughs, talk about anything and everything, learn from their travels and their culture, and forge real friendships with people from the other side of the planet. It lets you travel without ever leaving home.

Or you can be the wanderer yourself — the drifter who shows up at a stranger's door and somehow feels like he's visiting an old mate he hasn't seen in years. You won't know them beforehand, but more often than not you'll leave with a bond.

And if you're not travelling and can't host anyone, that's fine too — you can simply meet a visitor for a drink, join a local event, go for a walk, or just have a chat with someone passing through.

Beyond the one-to-one connection, there's also the whole groups and forums side of things: you can discuss ways to travel, organise events anywhere in the world, or ask locals for advice about a country you're thinking of visiting.

It's the perfect system for the traveller — built on references and mutual trust. A way to discover the world around you, meet remarkable people, and make proper friends wherever you go.