Couchsurfing.com

Hotels.

Am I the only one who thinks they're all overpriced?* For example, even low-end places like Motel 6 cost $40-$50 for one night's stay, which seems outrageous to me considering what you can buy w/ $50.

Some examples:

• 100 lbs of rice
• 10 items of clothing from a thrift store
• 10 burritos from a local taqueria
• A monthly Muni pass in SF
  
• An excellent selection of artisan cheeses
• Enough gas to drive you from SF to Tahoe, Pt Reyes, Yosemite, and other fine destinations
  
• Lots of other things
  

While I value a good night's sleep as much as anyone, it doesn't matter too much to me where it occurs. On the floor, in a car, in a sleeping bag...all of these are good options, much better than renting a costly bed. Which brings me to my point:

I'm now a huge fan of Couchsurfing.com. The service is free, you meet new people, and you get an inside perspective on wherever it is you're traveling.

Without this excellent networking website, Mike and I never would have met Van Zijls and Leandra, a great couple who've hosted us for three nights here in Cape Town. They even climbed Table Mtn w/ us, which all of us thoroughly enjoyed (even though it was 3 hrs of laborious effort on what seemed like an endless staircase).


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* One possible exception is the time I got a hotel room in China for US$1.15... now -that- was a deal, and the bugs weren't even that bad.