Ever wish you could just pick up and be an international globetrotter, but thought you couldn't afford the lodging, much less the travel expenses? Or wished you could stay in the home of local folks when travelling abroad, so that you could get new perspectives not available to most tourists? You can! GlobalFreeloaders.com offers free homestays and hospitality exchanges world-wide to all who are likewise willing to open their hearts and their homes to extend this same offer to fellow GlobalFreeloaders. Happily, since Yahoo converted us from a Club to a Group,they have made many improvements, including reinstating a "links" page, and adding "chat" capability, among other things. Feel free to make this group your own, by suggesting other improvements as well. I want to recommend some of my favorite links here for you to check out at your next opportunity: www.GlobalFreeloaders.com , www.CouchSurfing.com, www.HospitalityClub.org, & http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomeShare. Originally, this yahoo group was set up as a support group to direct yahoo members toward the GlobalFreeloaders web site, but in the last couple of years the web site that has become my personal hospitality exchange group of choice is www.CouchSurfing.com . Membership in that site has swelled to almost a quarter million members and rising, & it has sought and been granted official status as a nonprofit organization in the U.S.A. It has embraced the concept of people helping people, and incorporated the voluntary assistance of its membership as ambassadors and in other capacities in order to improve communication and service to the public. It has also begun to organize local groups in real time in each locality so that this has become a very effective social network, both on the net, and on the ground. Because of it's nonprofit status, it has not become anyone's private little kingdom to be sold for a tidy sum one day,but has stuck to its ideals, & become a model site! Please check it out today!