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money and make new friends while seeing the world from a local’s perspective. » The Couchsurfing Project ( www.couchsurfing.com ) Similar to the above but tends to attract a younger, more party-hearty crowd. » Hospitality Club ( www.hospitalityclub.org ) Meet locals worldwide who can provide free tours or housing through this well-run network of more than 200,000 members in 200+ countries. Free Worldwide Housing —Long Term »Home Exchange International (www.homeexchange.com) This is a home exchange listing and search service with more than 12,000 listings in more than 85 countries. E-mail directly owners of potential homes, put your own home/apartment on the site, and have unlimited access to view listings for one year for a small membership fee. Paid Housing —from Arrival to the Long Haul = Otalo ( www.otalo.com ) Otalo is a search engine for vacation rentals that searches across the Internet’s many different vacation rentals sites and 200,000+ homes. Otalo is like a Kayak.com for vacation rentals. The site scours a variety of other rental search sites and aggregates the results in one easy-to-use search tool. > Hostels.com ( www.hostels.com ) This site isn’t just for youth hostels. I found a nice hotel in downtown Tokyo for $20 per night and have used this site for similar housing in eight countries. Think location and reviews (see HotelChatter next) instead of amenities. Four-star hotels are for binge travelers; this site can offer a real local flavor before you find an apartment or other longer-term housing. » HotelChatter ( www.hotelchatter.com ) Get the real scoop on this daily web journal with detailed and honest reviews of housing worldwide. Updated several times daily, this site offers the stories of frustrated guests and those who have found hidden gems. Online booking is available. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013974