My daughter is on spring break from her university in Istanbul, Turkey, and with a friend is "couchsurfing" around Turkey.

I didn't realize until recently that couchsurfing isn't just a term for staying with friends or friends of friends, but a social networking phenomenon.

At http://www.couchsurfing.com there are more than 1.8 million registered couchsurfers, including over 400,000 in the U.S. and over 150,000 each in Germany and France (the top three couchsurfing countries.)

There are even 91 in Belize.

Couchsurfing is an international non-profit network, established in 2004, that connects travelers with locals in 237 countries and territories around the world.

Hosts are not permitted to charge their couchsurfers; anyone who does will be removed from the couchsurfer site. Most couchsurfers do thank their host with a small gift or an act of kindness (such as cleaning the house or cooking a meal), but this is not required and should not be requested by a host.

Should you want to get involved, either as a host or as a traveler, the first step is to register your profile on couchsurfing.com. There are no fees. Couchsurfing survives on donations.

Should you want to investigate it, on either the travel or local side, visit www.couchsurfing.com.

Perfect for you Lan...you could cut out the comps.

Alias Jones! Ask E, if you don't understand.......

Dear old Jesse-- he's such a sweetie! Always something positive and nice to say about forum members! Bet Jesse even makes his couch available.

--Lan Sluder

This would have been wonderful when I was young and roaming the world! Isn't the internet a wonderful thing, so enabling.

Though I believe this term used to refer to people who "surfed" (using TV and newspapers in those days, as the internet didn't exist) INSTEAD of actually going to do it, rather than in preparation. Another term that's abruptly changed its meaning?

Too cool

Brad from Extreme Adventures (Parasailing) is hosting "couchsurfers" at the moment...

I spent from around 1974 through 1989 trying to get rid of couchsurfers...

the only couchsurfing I do is in the furniture stores

While couchsurfing skews to a young demographic (average age is 28), more than 50,000 registered couchsurfers are over 50 ... so it's never too late, even for us old fogies and codgers on this forum.

My daughter's first experience with couchsurfing in Turkey was positive. The host's home turned out to be unavailable after all, so he put my daughter and her friend up in a friend's hotel (for free) and provided a free tour and a free trip to a local beach. The Turks, like many Belizeans, are incredibly hospitable, my daughter says. Over the last several months, she has met a number of Turkish families who have literally opened their homes to her and have gone out of their way to make her time in Turkey a great experience.

--Lan Sluder

I checked out the site , Lan. It looks interesting and I am going to spend more time on it. It is a great idea.