Everybody knows about sites like Facebook and MySpace, where you can build a profile and keep in touch with your friends online, or make new friends in the vastness of cyber-space. But you may not know that there are also several smaller, similar sites, dedicated especially to travel and travelers. Sure, sure, you might say. One more way to waste time in front of a computer screen when I could be out experiencing the real world. But that’s the great thing about these sites – for travelers, they provide local contacts, insider knowledge, floors to crash on, and more, anywhere and everywhere in the world.

As Tim Patterson wrote recently, in his post about the merger between travel blog Brave New Traveler and networking site Matador Travel: “It’s not about building an online persona, but about connecting with people in the real world, building a global network of friends, sharing inspiring stories and collaborating on projects that are going to make the world a better place.”

Here are a few sites that I’ve found useful in connecting with strangers around the world:

• Couchsurfing.com – I’ve posted before about how to score a couch through this accommodation-sharing site, but CouchSurfing’s search function also includes a search for people offering ‘coffee or a drink’. This means those users may not have a spare bed to offer, but they are willing and eager to meet travelers visiting their hometowns. This is a great way to meet a local to show you around for an afternoon, or take you for a night out on the town.
• Craigslist.org – With pages for pretty well every major country in the world, Craigslist is best known as a way to find a sub-letter for your apartment or a buyer for your old couch. But check out the ‘gigs’ or ‘community’ pages for local poetry readings, jam sessions, or other small-scale cultural events wherever you may be going.
• Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree – The Thorn Tree forum is an amazing travel resource, but it’s also a community of travelers who sometimes meet up in the real world – and if you stick around long enough and get to know some of the regulars, you may find yourself invited to the next TT bash happening near you.
• MatadorTravel.com – I honestly can’t say enough about Matador Travel. It’s a caring, active community of bloggers, travelers, writers, activists, photographers, musicians… I joined less than six months ago, and so far I’ve eaten burritos in San Francisco’s Mission district with one of Matador’s friendly founders, camped on the shores of the Saint Lawrence in Quebec’s wild Saguenay region with one user and crashed in the New York City apartment of a third. What’s not to like?

My non-traveling acquaintances may call me crazy and laugh about my “internet friends,” and my parents may worry about me going off with strangers that I connected with online. But the reality is that most people are good, generous and kind, and thrilled to show a visitor around their home. If you want to make the most out of your next trip, it’s worth at least giving these sites a look.