Touring a city like the locals is difficult often unattainable. Thanks to Yowtrip and CouchSurfing, this challenge has a partial solution.

Travelers bond easily and there’s an automatic built-in trust and credibility when meeting with fellow travelers during our travels. It’s like forming an instant clan, an instant friendship especially when the travelers are both new to the city. I’m not sure why on the biological level, but it’s probably attributed to our survival instincts or the way we’re designed to group and share. No matter what it is, it’s sweet.

If you are up for crashing on a couch or rely on traveler’s good nature, be sure to check out

YowTrip.com - Travel the world and meet interesting people while doing it. Find a new friend in every city

And

CouchSurfing.com - worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. Alexa Rank 6,54546 (721)

• Couchsurfing the more reputable of the 2,
• Yowtrip is newer and has some social networking tools that you can use to create your own travel page.

There’s a lot more testimonials, read them but don’t get too carried away thinking it’s going to be like “The Holiday” as they of course don’t advertise “bad testimonials”. You just don’t want to end up in “Hostel“

If you are serious about using these services, make sure you

1. Check your host out at popular social networking websites: Facebook, linkedIN, Hi5, Orkut, Friendster, Flickr, LiveJornal, Multiply, or Imeem
2. Talk to them over the phone, IM, or at least email.
3. Ask them for references and check to see if these references have social networking sites
4. Plain Google them to verify they are who they say they are

No matter where you go, just be careful!