Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

House on the Beach Home Swap Offer: Sunny Florida - and Sea Turtles Too!

There are so many wonderful home exchange offers in the Home Base Holidays listings and all have their own special attractions. Some 'extra features' just jump out though and make me think, 'ah, that's so lovely', especially when wildlife is involved. The following new member's description caught my eye for this reason:

'Our section of beach is a "restricted" turtle nesting preservation area which translates to NO motorized vehicles!'

The Reed beach house is located in Wilbur by the Sea, a quiet residential beach town within an hour's drive of Disney, Cape Canaveral, St Augustine and Marineland - and 5 miles from the heart of Daytona Beach. The house has a large screened room and deck with private beach access but the greatest feature is the spectacular ocean views from every room in the house.

See the full exchange offer and more photos, HE17924

Travel With Your Kids: Article - 'Home Exchanges'

'If you can pull it off, there is nothing better than a home exchange.'

This is the first sentence in an article on swapping homes on the newly relaunched Travel With Your Kids website. A further quote:

'You get a chance to really live, at least for a short while, in a new place. You also get the conveniences of a complete house - a way to do washing, a way to buy way-cool groceries and eat a quiet dinner at home, a way to put one’s feet up and flip through the Paris phonebook.' Read the full article.

Erik, the site webmaster, let me know that he had 'recently stumbled across your blog and appreciate the work you've put into it and think it will be a good resource for our readers'.

I am happy to return the compliment as Travel With Your Kids is a very neatly organised site with lots of useful information written by parents for parents travelling with young children: 'Just because you have a kid (or even a gaggle of them) that doesn’t mean that you’re obligated to stay home'.

And, of course, swapping homes is perfect for many families with young children. Swap with another family and your exchange home is bound to include lots of new treasures for your children to explore - toys, books, games, dvds - and often local playmates, baby equipment and babysitters too!

Summer in Johannesburg Offered for winter in New York: Swapping Homes to Try Out a Cold Climate

A recent Home Base Holidays member in Johannesburg writes:

'Why do we want to do New York in mid-winter? Our long term plan, once the son is away from home, is to pack up and work around the world. We were in New York last July, loved it and need to know if our African skins will cope with the city in winter before we plan anything further.'

'Our home is situated on 1000m2 of property in Sandton, Johannesburg, which is an elite part of South Africa's capital city. Although not close to the ocean, Johannesburg is surrounded by most of South Africa's monuments to apartheid, "Soweto" being one of them. The bush is an easy hour's drive away and the major game farms no more than two.

Johannesburg is an amazing city which bears testimony to our multi coloured heritage. December is the middle of summer here and peak holiday season so the vibe is great. Our home is built for summer with huge trees, covered patios, barbeques and swimming pool.' See the full exchange offer, HE17795

House for Exchange in Maine: a Home for all Seasons

Very occasionally Home Base Holidays members will accidentally include duplicate photos amongst the five added to illustrate their home exchange offers. This is an easy mistake and a quick one to remedy. However, recent renewing members from Yarmouth, Maine, included these photos of the same view of their house - on purpose:

'A traditional, comfortable cottage-style home on the Maine coast, only 20 minutes from Portland, Maine's largest city, and 2 & 1/2 hours from Boston. Our neighborhood is quiet, safe, and great for walking and watching sunsets, birds, boats, and islands from our community dock.

We have done six excellent exchanges, and would be happy to provide more pictures and references. This is truly a beautiful area, especially in summer and fall.' See the full exchange offer and more photos, HE14852

Home exchangers who live in areas with four distinct seasons, especially if able to consider home swaps at different times of the year, have much to offer as such locations will usually have some very different attractions according to the season an exchange takes place.

The Home Exchange Guide E-Book

The Home Exchange Guide (How to find your free home away from home through home exchanging) is now available as a downloadable E-book in PDF format. The E-book is available from the publisher, Poyeen Publishing. Click this link for further information on the contents and a direct link to download the E-book.

When The Home Exchange Guide was first published in November 2003, a Home Base Holidays member (an experienced home exchanger) and a Home Swappers Newsletter subscriber (interested in home swapping but who hadn't, at the time, had an exchange), reviewed the book.

From the experienced exchanger's review: 'The second part of the book deals with actual exchanges... This section contains much that is useful even to experienced exchangers.'

From the newsletter subscriber's review: 'For someone considering home exchange as an optional way of organizing travel accommodation, I found it to be an exceptional source of information and advice.'

Read these reviews of The Home Exchange Guide in full plus others written by a professional writer and myself.

Yesterday - Yangebup and Yunderup: Today - Woolloomooloo and Curl Curl

... It can only mean - more new home exchange offers in Australia! The following two homes are both well placed for visitors to Sydney, the first in a central city location and the second beside a beach close to the city:

Woolloomooloo - An apartment offering resort living in the city - pool, gym, sauna, 24 hr concierge and gardens. Stroll to Opera House, Sydney Harbour, Botanical gardens, theatres, art galleries, museums, restaurants, CBD and shops. Short bus ride to beaches and close to public transport. Sydney is a lively, cosmopolitan city with great weather. Photo shows roof garden. Read more about this home swap offer, HE17870

Curl Curl - Spacious family home five minutes walk from Curl Curl beach. Great for swimming, surfing, diving, long walks on the beach and bike-riding. There are two golf courses and tennis courts nearby (10 minutes drive).  A short walk to three beautiful beaches, parks and restaurants where you can enjoy dinner by the sea-side. A bus stop nearby takes 15 minutes to Manly and 40 minutes to the centre of Sydney. Read full details of this home exchange offer, HE17872