Cycle Touring Hospitality

In 2006, during my second trip to Europe, I discovered Couchsurfing.org a travel hospitality site. The best description of what Couchsurfing (CS) is all about is posted on their website:

CouchSurfing is your ticket to explore the world — from the road or from your own home. Over a million members are out there waiting to learn about your culture and show you some of theirs. Eat borscht in Odessa. Watch kangaroos in Adelaide. Find the best noodles in Tokyo. Show travelers the best live music near your home, or your favorite hiking trail. Meet locals in your own city who share your interest in travel and the world.

Why am I writing about CSing here? Well — ever since I CS’ed in Switzerland while snowboarding in Europe, I’ve hosted people in Rochester, NY, where I live. And as summer touring season heats up here in the Northern USA, I’m starting to get cyclists coming through Rochester. As these people visit me going forward, I plan on writing about some of them.

Here area 3 such sites that have similar goals of connecting willing hosts with travellers:

1. CouchSurfing – The largest hospitality site in my opinion. I’ve hosted about 25 people over the past 3 years and surfed a few times out of the country.
2. Warm Showers – A cyclist only hospitality network (+1 for their iPhone client ) I’ve hosted 4 times – a few couples a few singles.
3. Hospitality Club – I haven’t used this site but have heard good things

Before I tell you about my warm showers guests over the past 2 days now is a good time for some perspective regarding these hospitality sites. The way I look at hosting/surfing is a two way street. It’s all about engaging, just like the hacker community. When surf somewhere, the draw for me is getting a “locals” tour from someone who lives and plays in a city every day. For example when I went to Switzerland, I got the tour or Bern from 4 college students who love showing people the less travelled places I would have never found. I enjoyed a restaurant I would have never found on my own. I got to hear some unique history of part of Bern I would have never learned without significant effort.

Conversely, when I host — the number one thing I enjoy is the conversation. I have recently met some fascinating people. I don’t mind sharing my fridge, shower, and washing machine with these people. Last month were Lucie and Torrie, 2 twentysomethings from Montreal, who 2 weeks prior had finished biking from Alaska to the Southern Tip of South America. We had an awesome dinner and I learned what it’s like to tour for 17 months. Check out their adventure at Pedaling South. I was even happy to fix their WP blog for them 🙂 They trusted me with database access to troubleshoot a broken page for them 🙂 Little do they know (kidding 🙂 )

This morning, I had two X-Country cyclists of a whole different breed come through. Amanda a Greg where interesting in their whole unique way. It’s common for many of my guests to be vegetarians (which I am not) We took Amanda and Greg to a local restaurant called the Owl House. Best thing about this is they serve many dishes 3 ways (vegan, veggie, or w/meat). The coolest thing is that Greg once a month does a reservation only fixed menu vegan restaurant menu to about 40 people each month. Amanda introduced me to the idea of bicycle co-ops which I’m going to end up writing another post about (think of hackerspaces for cyclists!) You can catch up with Greg and Amanda on Twitter.

Here’s a pic of Greg and Amanda:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight I have Ruthie, the Cycling Coder coming through town!