Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Swap homes and enjoy budget friendly holidays in 2025

Swap homes and cut the cost of your holidays in 2025

Budget friendly holidays in 2025? By swapping homes rather than booking hotels or holiday rentals, you can enjoy a fabulous break at a fraction of the cost. The thing is, by arranging a home swap, your holiday accommodation is totally free! Therefore, it's not uncommon for Home Base Holidays members to cut their costs by over 90%. Search home swap offers

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What is a home exchange holiday?

Home exchanging is where you agree to swap homes for the duration of the holiday with someone living in the destination you'd like to visit. So they stay in your home while you stay in their home - meaning you both enjoy free holiday accommodation. Home Base Holidays members arrange anything from a weekend breaks, 1-2-week holidays or even a 6+ month longer term home swaps.

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Additional cost savings (cars, bikes, meals...)

Why stay in a cramped and expensive hotel room when you could enjoy the space and comforts of a real home. You'll also have use of a fully equipped kitchen and often laundry facilities. Preparing your own breakfasts or a packed lunch for a day out exploring is an excellent way to make additional savings. 

 

Many home exchangers are also happy to swap cars for the duration of your stay. Some members will also offer their guests use of bikes and other sporting equipment (skis/snowboards, kayaks, etc) during the swap, giving you more flexibility, adventures, and even more cost savings!

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How to arrange a home swap holiday? 

The first step is to sign up to a home swap website such as Home Base Holidays. On signing up, you will add your listing (details about your home and where/when you want to travel). You can then browse properties and start contacting other members to arrange your home swap holiday.  

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Who are Home Base Holidays?

Home Base Holidays is one of the longest running home swap agencies with 40 years experience helping members arrange their holidays worldwide. You'll find thousands of home swap offers including country cottages, city apartments, even houseboats and yurts! Visit Home Base Holidays

 

"Thank you so much Nicola and David for making our first home swap holiday so smooth. We had such a lovely stay in your lovely, comfortable and spacious home. Excellent communication in advance and during the swap, plus lots of tips on things to do, local restaurants as well as maps to help us navigate once we arrived. The bottle of fizz and home made cheese scones you left were very yummy... that was a lovely touch! Thanks again." - Nicola

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Home swap holiday offers for 2025:

Almeria, Spain	Morillon, France	Lake District, England	Napier, New Zealand

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Budget friendly breaks in 2025? Browse home swap holiday offers

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Home Base Holidays: join for free and start home swapping Sign up to Home Base Holidays two-week free trial or select a full membership. Home swap guarantee: second year free if you do not arrange a swap during your membership.

Home swap holidays? Go for it... you won't regret it!

Bell Lane House: Sally's beautiful cottage in Gloucestershire, England

It's always lovely to hear from Home Base Holidays members about their home swaps. Sally Hadley sent in this lovely feedback after just returning from a two month home exchange holiday to the north shore beach area of Sydney, Australia. Sally and her husband are very experienced home exchangers, enjoying their first swap in 1990, with three swaps already lined up for 2025. 

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Thinking about home swapping? Go for it... you won't regret it! "Back in the day - as they say - when our children were young teenagers we ventured on our first swap to Santa Barbara in California. A lawyer’s house with all kinds of goodies. Cars were swapped; we had a blow out at 37degrees of heat in the desert – our kids still remember it. But all was fixed and we had a wonderful time visiting the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Since then we have had a month in Brittany (very relaxed and quiet), ventured to Grenada in the West Indies (very hot and beautiful) and to Australia twice (Brisbane and Sydney). In fact, we have just returned from two months in Sydney up on the northern beaches, high above trees overlooking the yachts on Pittwater and Scotland Island. We couldn’t believe our luck that a couple close in age to us (70s) would want to come to the UK in the winter. But they loved it – even the ice and snow. I think they forged more friendships in our small Cotswold village than we have in the two years we’ve lived here. We loved their house and we were so sad to leave. It was such a s fantastic base from which to visit our family and friends travelling up to the Sunshine Coast and down to Melbourne and Point Lonsdale over the Christmas period and New Year. In addition to the big home swap holidays abroad, we have had lovely swaps closer to home here in the UK. We've swapped to Cornwall, Derbyshire, Kent and Cheshire... all of which have been amazing. No troubles, ever. We have returned each time to find the house immaculate and even lovely gifts left for us. The key to successful swaps is certainly to have a friendly approach with lots of communication, and we always choose to exchange with like-minded people. We have found it excellent to talk on the telephone and to meet the other members if at all possible. We have been approached by people who we felt would not get on well in our cottage or where their offers did not appeal to us, and so we have declined gracefully so that they could contact other members. We have always known almost from the first message we received if it felt like a good match and that they would enjoy our cottage and location. If you're thinking about home swapping, my advice is to go for it… you won’t regret it! We have loved our experiences and can’t wait for more - closer to home; Cumbria, Cornwall – already organised for 2025. Thank you Home Base Holidays… our best investment ever." Sally Hadley

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Photos from Sally's home swap in Australia

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Sally's stone house in Gloucestershire   Bell Lane House was added to a much older house about 100 years ago. It is a lovely 3-bedroom stone built house with a garden overlooking the neighbouring church. It's in the centre of the small town of Minchinhampton, in the south west Cotswolds (the hilliest section). The ancient town is built on top of a ridge with wonderful views over the "golden valley", towards the river Severn and close to Stroud. An excellent location for walks in the beautiful countryside and there is a highly rated golf course nearby.

View Sally's home swap offer in the south west Cotswolds

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Home Base Holidays: start home swapping Sign up to Home Base Holidays and arrange your home swap swap holiday accommodation. Save over 90% on the cost of your next holiday!  Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Home swap holiday in Spain with such wonderful hosts

Pete & Dawn swapped their apartment in Chester for Bert & Heidi's house on a golf community in Spain

We love receiving trip reports from Home Base Holidays members! In this trip report, members, Pete and Dawn, enjoyed a wonderful non-simultaneous home exchange holiday staying in Bert and Heidi's house set within a private golf complex community in Vera in the south of Spain. The two families built an excellent friendship, sharing local tips & recommendations. 

Pete & Dawn's non-simultaneous home swap in Almeria, Spain "This was the second part of a non-simultaneous home exchange holiday with The Bramer family. We had already built up an amazing friendship leading up-to and during their visit to our home in Chester. They are such warm and wonderful people, and such great communicators. They took such great care of our place in Chester. Their home in Vera, a beautiful village overlooking the mountains, was a 1hr 40 mins drive from Murcia airport on excellent and easy roads. The house is part of an exclusive golf complex community, but this small group of villas has its own secure gates entrance, private parking and use of a great pool. On our visit the pool was hardly used by any other residents and we loved having a daily swim to ourselves. We enjoyed drinks at the Golf hotel terrace, listening to the golf gossip! 😀 And had a very nice meal at La Hoya also near the hotel and a just a short walk from the house. Their house is so lovely, super clean and very comfortable, it has everything you could need. We especially enjoyed using the plancha grill on the roof terrace, we cooked several meals enjoying the lovely views from the roof terrace in the evenings. We explored Almeria City, the Alcazaba is well worth it and free to visit for UK. We booked an excellent 4WD tour of The Tabanas desert, Cabo de Gato coastal nature reserve with is stunning beaches and clear blue seas. So many amazing views as you drive through this region. We really enjoyed this beautiful home swap trip which was made extra special by the wonderful messages and helpful local tips shared between the families. Thank you so much Heidi and Bert " - Pete & Dawn

Highlights of the holiday: Mountains & coast: great location for the stunning scenery  Wonderful house with wonderful warm hosts Relaxing in the sunshine & enjoying the roof terrace

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Reply from Bert and Heidi: "Hi Pete and Dawn, thank you very much for this lovely review and the gratitude of your Almeria holiday in southern Spain. We crossed paths thanks to this great home swap website and what a beautiful and satisfying home exchange it was for both of us. It was a great pleasure to see you and Pete enjoying Almeria and we discovered so many similarities in our lives 🌝 Thank you very much for this special holiday exchange with amazing conversations and friendship. Very best wish, Bert and Heidi "

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Photos from the home exchange

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Pete & Dawn's home in Chester, UK Beautiful top floor apartment overlooking the canal basin in the historic city of Chester. View the home swap holiday offer	Bert & Heidi's home in Vera, Spain Lovely home in a golf complex community with fantastic views, roof terrace and swimming pool. View the home swap holiday offer

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Travel Q&A: arranging a home swap for the Xmas period

Arrange a last minute home exchange holiday for Christmas & New Year

Q: Me and my husband are hoping to visit London over the Christmas period and hopefully staying until the 5th January. Most of the half decent hotels and holiday rentals we've looked at have been incredibly expensive. Also, as we're hoping to be in London over Christmas and New Year, we'd ideally like to stay somewhere where we can relax and enjoy a homely festive feel.

We've just started looking at the possibility of arranging a home swap holiday in London, it sounds like it could be a perfect option but ...we are total novices in this! We have a two bedroom cottage in Cornwall (not far from St Ives). My concern is, have we left it too late to arrange a home swap for this Christmas?

Allison

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A: Thanks for getting in contact! Home swapping sounds like it would be an excellent fit for your travel requirements. Firstly, the accommodation is free (except for the small membership fee) and secondly, you'll get to stay in a real London home over the festive period - far more festive than a hotel room!

You'll still find many members that are looking for last minute home swaps over Christmas and New Year. However, it's best to get a move on and start looking as soon as possible!

The first step is to sign up to a home swap website such as Home Base Holidays. You can add details of your home in Cornwall and add your request for a home swap to London over Christmas and New Year. Once you've added your offer, start browsing London offers and contact members to enquire about a festive swap!

• Search home swap holiday offers

You can also add your offer to "Last minute swaps" and also search other members that have selected the Last minute swap option.

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Wonderful 6-week home swap holiday exploring Australia

Jenny & Colin enjoyed a wonderful 6-week home swap holiday exploring Australia

We love hearing from Home Base Holidays members about their home exchange experiences. Here we have a fantastic trip report from Jenny & Colin on their fabulous 6-week holiday swapping to Jarn and Ian's lovely home near Adelaide.

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Jenny & Colin's home swap holiday exploring Australia "When Jarn and Ian contacted us from Moana, near Adelaide, Australia we were thrilled to accept their offer of a 6 week home exchange during their Australian Spring. For many months before the trip, we kept in touch exchanging lots of laughs and information. They did everything possible to make us feel welcome and help us get the most out of our trip. What a delight to arrive at their lovely, super clean, modern home on the coast. It was beautifully decorated with Jarn's photos and treasures from their travels. There was everything you could possibly want for a comfortable stay – including friendly, helpful neighbours. The neighbourhood was really lovely and green, with easy access to a major road leading to Adelaide and the wider areas. We used to catch the train to Adelaide, which was easy and so cheap. During our stay we took the opportunity to fly from Adelaide to Port Douglas, then to Sydney and then on to a week with a campervan in Tasmania and back to Adelaide to spend the remainder of the trip in Moana. £800 for 2 people for 4 flights – unbelievable! We had one week in each destination. Port Douglas was beautiful, warm and sunny with the rainforest coming down to the beach. We took the chance to ride on the Sky train over the rainforest and took a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to have a look at the corals - I shall never forget swimming in the Coral Sea! Sydney was a wonderful exciting city and we saw all the major sights and had some great food. Easy to travel around and fun on the ferries. Prices for everything were very reasonable. Tasmania was much cooler, more like our Autumn back home but still sunny every day. We started at Hobart explored the east coast, then to Launceston and back down the middle to Hobart. Brilliant roads – so quiet even though it was their school holidays. Tasmania is lovely, green and reminded us of North Wales! Beautiful pristine beaches and rolling open countryside. We spotted an Echidna (Tachyglossidae within the order monotremata-egg laying mammals) near the coast. What a privilege. Regretfully, we didn't have time to explore further into the mountains. The camping sites are amazing with camp kitchens, showers, laundry etc. Then back to Moana and a couple of weeks exploring the wider area and Adelaide especially the Aboriginal exhibition in the museum and the parks. A big thrill for us was listening to and seeing birds everywhere we went. Visiting wildlife parks and encountering wild kangaroos in a reserve not far from Moana was a great experience. We even saw a brown snake – an unwelcome guest in an enclosure in Sydney Zoo – not many Australians get to see that! Fabulous home exchange with so many wonderful memories! So grateful to Jarn and Ian who have helped give us the trip of a lifetime. Pleased that their enjoyment of our home and country helped make their first experience of home swapping so enjoyable for them too." - Jenny & Colin

Highlights of the home swap holiday: Wonderful 6-week holiday exploring Australia Encountering the wildlife and people Getting to know Jarn & Ian and staying in their lovely home

Photos from Jenny & Colin's trip to Australia:

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Jenny & Colin's home in Burnham-on-Sea Semi-detached house in Somerset, close to Europe's 2nd longest sandy beach. View their home swap holiday offer	Jarn & Ian's home near Adelaide Spacious new build home on the southern end of Adelaide, very close to superb beaches. View their home swap holiday offer

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Arrange a Winter Home Swap Holiday | Travel Tips

Country or city break? Swap homes and enjoy a fabulous budget friendly winter holiday

Budget friendly winter holiday? Home swapping provides an excellent budget-friendly option for an amazing winter getaway. There are so many tempting offers, including cute country cottages, city apartments and townhouses, and cosy homes by the coast. To arrange a home swap holiday, follow these simple steps:

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1. Choose a Home Exchange Platform   Sign up on a trusted home exchange website such as Home Base Holidays

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2. Add Your Home Exchange Listing Add your listing, with details about your home and area. Upload attractive photos of your home and area. Mention your home's winter readiness (central heating, blankets, etc).

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3. Add Your Travel Preferences Destination: add locations you'd love to swap to. You might be interested in cities with Christmas markets, cosy apartments near ski resorts, a seaside break somewhere warm, or just open to tempting offers worldwide. Travel Dates: specify the dates you'd like to arrange your home exchange holiday and whether you can be flexible on dates/length of exchange.

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4. Search for a Matching Home   Use search filters on the home swap website to find homes in your desired destinations. Look for homes in regions that are appealing during the winter months, such as cosy cottages or homes in the city near attractions. Search home exchange offers

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5. Initiate Contact with members   Send polite and personalised inquiries to members whose homes fit your travel preferences. Include your preferred dates, why you're interested in their home, and what they can expect in your home and area.

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6. Discuss and Finalise the Agreement   Once a match is found, discuss the finer details with the other homeowner — discuss things such as house rules and how the key exchange will take place. Use the home swap website's messaging system but also schedule a phone / video call.

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7. Prepare for the Home Exchange   Clean your home thoroughly before leaving and prepare instructions for your guests on using appliances, heating systems, etc. Make sure you have local recommendations ready for your guests' arrival.

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Start Swapping: arrange your and winter breaks for 2024/5  Sign up to Home Base Holidays two-week free trial or select a full membership. Search the latest home swap holiday offers