Travel the Home Exchange Way

Home swaps postponed? Take a virtual vacation

With most of us now on lockdown and many home exchange travel plans postponed, we're all having to adapt and find ways to keep our spirits up. Our home exchanges may be on hold for now, but there are still ways to scratch that travel itch without leaving our homes. Shown below are some of our favourite virtual tours and wildlife cams - they're great for all ages and can be an excellent educational way to entertain the kids while schools are closed.

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Go on a virtual museum and gallery tour

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Get a little culture fix without leaving your home by taking a virtual tour of some of the world's top museums and art galleries. Google Arts & Culture have teamed up with over 2500 museums and galleries around the world to provide virtual tours and online exhibits.

Included are exhibitions from The British Museum, Van Goh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Museum of London, Hermitage Museum, The National Gallery, Guggenheim, Tate Britain, The White House, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Global Street Art Foundation, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Musée d’Orsay, and many many more!

• Browse the museum and art gallery tours available through Google Arts & Culture

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US National Park virtual tours

Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

We're stuck indoors but you can still experience some of America's best national parks by taking a virtual tour. There are five US national parks to explore through Google Arts & Culture so that you can still enjoy the great outdoors from the safely of your sofa.

• Browse the US national park virtual tours available through Google Arts & Culture

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Virtual tours of some of the world's most famous landmarks

Photo by Emily Passmore on Unsplash

Love to travel but stuck indoors? Enjoy some escapism by checking out these virtual tours of some of the world's most famous landmarks. Click the links below to start the tour.

• Stonehenge, UK
• Taj Mahal, India
• Angkor Wat, Cambodia
• Colosseum, Rome
• Eiffel Tower, Paris
• Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
• Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro
• The ancient city of Petra, Jordan
• Machu Picchu, Peru
• Chichen Itza, Mexico

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Live zoo, wildlife and safari webcams

Photo by Alexander Ross on Unsplash

Enjoy live streams from around the world from the comfort of your home. Everything from penguins to pandas, African safaris and English countryside cams.

• Animal cams around the world (African safari, bears, birds, sea life + more!) 
• Edinburgh Zoo's 'panda and penguin cams'
• Folly Farm, Pembrokeshire, Wales
• 'Badger cam' from Wildlife Trust, Cumbria, England
• 'Elephant cam' from Dublin Zoo, Ireland
• San Diego Zoo's 'polar bear cam'

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Virtual tours of theatres, concert halls and opera houses around the world

Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

Google Arts & Culture have teamed up with iconic venues around the world. Step inside some of the most beautiful theatres, concert halls and opera houses. Includes The Balshoi Theatre (Moscow), Carnegie Hall (New York City), National Theatre of Korea (Seoul), Theatro Municipal (São Paulo), Burgtheatre (Vienna), Sydney Opera House (Sydney) and many more.

• Browse theatres, concert halls and opera houses around the world

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Space Center Houston interactive app

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Space Center Houston have an excellent free app that provides interactive tours, selfie filters, augmented reality experiences, virtual reality and more!

• Go to the Space Center Houston's website to download the app

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Stay in touch: pencil in your future home swaps In these unprecedented times, communication is more important than ever. Make sure to stay in touch with other Home Base Holidays members to check how they're doing. We've seen many members penciling in home swap plans for later in the year and in to 2021 - we may not be able to travel now but it can be uplifting to plan our future getaways! Stay safe. Stay home. Stay in touch ♥

Lockdown stories: send us your 'home base' experiences

My home office view: can't slack with a cat!

These really are the most extraordinary of times and we just hope that everyone is keeping safe and well. With much of the world now on lockdown and travel plans postponed, we are all having to adapt and find ways to keep our spirits up.

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Please share your experiences: Whether you now find yourself working from home, home schooling or spending your time learning a new skill (perhaps learning a new language ready for your next home swap or recreating some foodie favourites from your travels?)... we'd love to hear from you! Please share your 'home base' experiences with me at: [email protected] We'd especially love to hear from any healthcare professionals and people volunteering in the community - you really are our heroes! ♥

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Keeping in touch: this will be extra important for all of us in the coming weeks and months, so please feel free to contact me any time, even if just for a chat. Please make an effort to reach out to other Home Base Holidays members for a chat and to see how they are doing - we are one home swap family.

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How are you staying safe at home?

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Love and best wishes,

Mark Sealey | Home Base Holidays / Travel the Home Exchange Way

Coronavirus and home swap travel

With information and advice on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) changing almost hourly, and countries at different stages and approaches to dealing with it, it is a particularly difficult time for anyone travelling or planning to travel in the near future. It’s understandable that for many people, travel plans are on-hold for now. 

Have an upcoming home exchange?

If you have agreed an exchange and are due to travel within the next few weeks, please keep in communication with your exchange partners so that you can discuss, and alter if necessary, your travel dates or agree to put your exchange on hold. Check your travel insurance carefully to see if you will qualify for a refund on any expenses you’ve already had if you do decide to cancel a trip.

Need more time?

If the current travel restrictions have meant you’ve had to delay or cancel your exchange plans, please do contact us and we will add extra time on to your Home Base Holidays membership free of charge.

Membership renewal reminders

The renewal reminder emails are sent out automatically prior to and just after your membership expiry date. We hope you won’t feel offended at receiving these messages and, just as in normal times, you choose whether you want to renew or not at this time or wait until later. We do not store credit/debit card or PayPal account details and so you need never worry about being charged without you actively renewing your membership.

Any Questions?

Like you, we at Home Base Holidays are trying our best to keep up-to-date with rapidly changing travel advice but please do contact us if you have any home exchange specific questions and we’ll do our best to help.

Please stay safe and well. Make sure to consult your local official travel and health advisories and international guidelines from the World Health Organisation and take the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your family.

Sending love and best wishes to everyone at these worrying times.

Home Base Holidays ♥

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Useful links

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• British Government Foreign Travel Advice
• BBC: Coronavirus Latest Updates
• Guardian: Coronavirus Latest Updates

Q&A: should I leave a gift for my home exchange host?

Q: In a couple of weeks we're setting off to England on our first home exchange - we're very excited! I wonder if it is standard practice to bring a gift to give to the family we are swapping with? This hadn't occurred to us and then someone mentioned it, so now we're wondering what other members do.  Thanks, Sue (British Columbia, Canada)

A: It can be tricky to know whether to leave a gift for your home exchange partners - with home swaps being agreements arranged between two sets of members, every swap is different. We've seen members that have said that they do not want/expect a gift, all they want is that the member treats their home with care and that the free holiday accommodation they are also enjoying is a gift in itself. However, I always think it is a nice touch to leave a small gift and/or a thank you note at the end of the swap to show your appreciation for the use of the member's home. If you do decide to leave a gift, it does not need to be anything fancy or expensive, just a token of your appreciation.

Another option that many members choose is to leave a small gift to welcome you into their home. The nice thing about this is that you could leave something specific to your area - perhaps a local delicacy or bottle of wine. In your case, living in British Columbia, how about leaving some local smoked salmon (and, of course, BC wine!)?

Note: when discussing your swap it's good to check any dietary/allergy requirements of your guests ...you wouldn't want to leave wine, salmon, and peanut brittle for a non-drinking vegetarian with a peanut allergy!

 

If the members you are exchanging with have children, you might decide to leave them small gifts appropriate for their ages or bring the gifts with you to leave for the children when they return home.

If you arrive to find that your exchange partners have left you welcome gifts (and you hadn't done so), you could avoid any awkward feelings by simply leaving them a small thank you gift at the end of the exchange.

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Leaving basic provisions:  it's also good to leave some basic food supplies for each other on arrival (milk, bread, cheese, fruit, juice, possibly even a meal ready to re-heat)? Discuss this with your exchange partners before heading off on your trip as, if you both agree to do this, you will appreciate not having to think of food shopping immediately you arrive after a long flight across the pond!

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Interested in home swapping? Sign up to Home Base Holidays and cut the cost of your 2020 getaways. By swapping homes you'll enjoy free accommodation plus all the space and convenience of a home from home. Search home swap travel offers

Books and a comfy chair: cosy home swap homes

When someone is being interviewed in their home office for a TV news report, do you ever get side-tracked from listening, trying to read the titles of books in a bookcase behind them? If you do, you are very likely to also be eager to check out the books in your home swap hosts’ home, perhaps looking for common interests, or something completely different from your normal reading matter to dip into.

Books really do furnish a room if you love reading and, on a quick check through some Home Base Holidays listings, many interior photos do include books, often with an inviting comfy chair or sofa nearby.

Small selection of book-filled homes available for home swapping:

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Links to the above home swap offers:

1. Recently converted 1930's Presbyterian church in Shrewsbury, Shropshire,  England. View home exchange offer
2. Home in the pretty little town of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, famous for its many bookshops and annual literary festival. View home exchange offer
3. Large Edwardian family home located just south of central Manchester, England. View home exchange offer
4. 300 year old cottage in pretty village near Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. View home exchange offer
5. Cosy flat in a listed 1920s apartment block in Berlin, Germany. View home exchange offer
6. Large, comfortable home in a beachside suburb, just south of Fremantle, Western Australia. View home exchange offer
7. Bright Victorian 2nd floor apartment in Glasgow, Scotland. View home exchange offer
8. Charming 18th century stone cottage in the heart of a village on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. View home exchange offer

Travel Trends For 2020: home swapping is always 'on trend'

Have you heard of undertourism (if it's even a word) or bleisure trips? No? Me neither!

There are always predictions of trends in travel, whether it be that particular countries or areas grow in popularity or, now that we are more environmentally conscious of the impact on the climate of long-haul flights and wasteful hotels, with rail travel and holidays closer to home becoming more popular. I came across the puzzling terms (and others) in a recent article, 'Travel Trends For 2020', on Entrepreneur Media. The definitions:

• 'Undertourism is a trend wherein travellers opt for a holiday to similar, yet less popular holiday destinations compared to the conventional, mainstream and overly crowded popular destinations.'
• 'Bleisure Trips is a trend that will become increasingly popular amongst the professional segment in mixing Business trips with Leisure trips.'

Our experienced home swap members will probably think this is hardly news - many have been deliberately choosing to exchange with others whose homes are off-the-beaten tourist trail or, even if in a popular location, say London, in a spacious suburban home or outside the city that’s a welcome retreat from the crowds of tourists in central London.

Combining work and leisure has grown in popularity too, and swapping homes is a very cost effective way for members who can work anywhere they have a good internet connection. Bleisure appears to refer more to those who work in offices and still need to go on business trips, rather than 'digital nomads' but, if business trips are known well in advance, there's no reason that a home swap can't be arranged close by at the end of the trip.

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Los Angeles: as well as a lovely garden, this home swap has an office

Many homes offered for home exchange have home offices (and sometimes even dedicated office 'sheds' in the garden). The is an example of a home with an office 'well- appointed for anyone working remotely', a cosy place to combine work and leisure in Los Angeles. View exchange offer

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Georgian House: enjoy the English countryside but just 30 mins from London

And for an undertourism base, how about this best of both home swap: 30 minutes to London and Buckinghamshire countryside on the doorstep. Beautiful Georgian village house built in 1805 is alleged to be a formal Naval college and was an annex to the vicar’s home next door. View exchange offer

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Digital nomad? This home swap offer in London has a dedicated garden office

And our final example, this exchange offer in Harlesden, a vibrant, colourful area of London with good transport links to the centre, could incorporate both undertourism and bleisure: a bright, spacious flat with a home office in the garden (beautiful dog optional on a home exchange!). View exchange offer 

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Interested in home swapping? Visit Home Base Holidays and check out all the latest home swap offers. Keep an open mind on destinations and you will find many lovely surprises.