Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Swap Homes - and Learn French Too

'Come and savour the culture, food and wine of France, - and you can even take French Lessons if you wish!'

Now that's an enticing home exchange offer! These recent Home Base Holidays members, a retired couple who moved to France three years ago, have a beautiful home to offer for exchange:

' ... set in 6,500sq m of mature gardens, with a large swimming pool, just 6K from Perigueux, the principal town of the Dordogne region of SW France.

and

... If you would like to learn, or brush-up your French whilst you are here, we can arrange for French lessons for you with our own, excellent and inexpensive teacher.'

See the full exchange offer and more lovely photos, HE18493

Combining Business with Pleasure on a Home Exchange: New Zealand for London

Most people probably still think of swapping homes purely for vacations but, increasingly, we are finding Home Base Holidays members combining work with time off while on home swaps. For many, a computer and high speed internet access is all that's needed to continue working in a home exchange home.

One very recent member, Ewan, a full time artist living and working in his home near Dunedin, New Zealand, is looking for a home exchange in London in November, as a relaxing break after exhibitions of his artwork in Spain and London. Ewan and Sarah offer a taste of Paradise for Londoners who would like to escape the city in November:

'Traditional Pavlova Paradise 20 minutes drive to thriving university town, art galleries, restaurants, bars, theatre etc. We have a 1/2 acre private garden overlooking Otago Harbour and mountains, a spectacular view.

Two bedroomed warm wooden bungalow with all mod cons. We have lived here for 22 years. Birds in the garden are tuis, bellbirds, wax eyes. Two minutes to beach and yacht club. Twenty minutes to Albatross, sea lions, shag colonies and yellow eyed and little blue penguins. Plentiful walks. 15k to Dunedin City.'

See the full exchange offer and more photos, HE18527

If you happen to be in London in November, Ewan's exhibition is opening on the 4th November at 5pm at Darbucka Gallery, 182 St Johns St, Clerkenwell EC1. If you can't make it to the exhibition, visit Ewan's website to view more samples of his work.

Image © Ewan Mcdougall

Home Exchange Offer Messages: Introduce the Family - Briefly

Some time ago a Home Base Holidays member sent me a copy of the general home exchange offer message she sent to members she was interested in swapping homes with. The member (who shall remain anonymous!) wondered why she didn't get much interest in her exchange offer. On reading her message, what struck me most was the total lack of information about her home and location - not even a clue to identify the very attractive area where she lived! This put too much onus on the recipients of her messages to take the time to find and check out her exchange listing to decide whether the offer could be of possible interest. Many busy people probably wouldn't be bothered to make that effort.

What this member's offer message did include was very detailed information about the sender and her family. I'm sure her intentions were good - she rightly realised that it is important to develop trust with potential home swap partners. However, she probably gave just too much information on her family when first approaching other members with an exchange offer. At this early stage, in order to decide if an offer is likely to be of any interest, the most important information is on the home and its facilities and on the location. I thought about this member's offer message again last week when reading the description in a new listing near Rome. Andrea succinctly introduced her whole family (an English family now living in Italy):

'Family of 6 - Marty works for an international firm, Andrea is an English teacher currently at home. Gaby is 12 (drama) and Emily is 10 (basketball) and are starting local Italian school in September. Hari is 3 (football) and will be starting Italian preschool in September - he is the best Italian speaker amongst us. Dylan is 1 (Teletubbies) and stays at home!'

And here is the start of Andrea's description of her home which, usefully, includes information on the closest airport and airlines that fly there from the UK:

'Large four bedroomed Villa in the Castelli Romani above Rome, surrounded by olive groves, far reaching views. Quiet location, 5 km from Velletri. Large garden with fruit trees (kiwi, lemon, apple, cherry). Outdoor pizza oven, terraces and play areas with swing set). Local train takes 45 minutes into Rome. 35 minutes from Ciampino airport (Easyjet and Ryanair).'

Read the full exchange offer, HE18521

Exchange Homes: Doing a Small Bit for Our Planet

Some months ago I wrote about swapping homes as a greener way to travel, International Home Swaps: Environmentally Friendly Travel? Using a home that would otherwise be left empty while the owners are away seems a sensible alternative to staying in hotels whose very existence often spoils much of the areas that attracted visitors in the first place.

All travel by air, especially long haul travel, undeniably does much damage to the environment so, in this context, it perhaps seems that choosing to stay in a home rather than in a hotel when travelling abroad is a minor point; but, when you consider all that is involved in the hotel industry, more travellers choosing to swap homes, making the best use of resources, can have some impact. Ruti Singer put this very well in her article, Home Away From Home:

'Actually, there are also deeper layers of thought to the home exchange idea. When you think about global waste and conservation, the idea of combining resources with other people on the globe has more merits than those you experience on a personal level. Think of all the hotel sheets and towels that are washed every day; of the low-paid hotel workers (often foreigners); of the huge and wasteful industry that has grown around the needs of people who want to experience a holiday in a different country.'

Swapping Homes? Pack Clothes to Suit the Climate

Phew - what a scorcher! The sun is sure shining down on Britain this week, with high temperature records broken yesterday in the South East. Fortunately, I don't generally need to travel into central London during peak times but yesterday, even travelling mid day when it's not so crowded, the Tube felt like a sauna. The older Underground lines are so deep that it seems to be taking forever for engineers to figure out ways of cooling the trains to bring some relief to long suffering commuters in our increasingly hot summers.

I was sure glad to get back home as, although our Edwardian house, like most in London, is not air conditioned, there are places (like the old stone floor in the hall) which are pleasantly cool even in such extremes of heat. As air conditioning is not all that common in hotels here, it is certainly one advantage of home exchange to be able to spread out over a whole house or flat (often with a garden), to find the coolest places to relax, rather than being confined to a small, hot hotel room, especially when travelling with children.

People often seem to have the idea that it's always raining and cool in the UK (even some of my Canadian friends and relatives do!) and I have this vision of many visitors arriving at Heathrow and Gatwick this week with suitcases full of heavy clothes and rain gear. The best plan, for a visit to Britain in the summer, is to pack light, comfortable clothes that can be easily layered according to the temperature.

Wherever you arrange a home swap, ask your exchange partners for advice on the most suitable clothes to bring. If you develop a really good relationship with your exchange partners you might even agree to the use of certain items of clothing to save having to pack something like a heavy jacket 'just in case'. This is exactly what happened when Jan, a New Zealander, exchanged with Londoner, Triona. Having an overlap in New Zealand at the beginning of the exchange (always a nice idea) gave Jan and Triona the chance to get to know each other. Jan recalled:

'Triona admired my shoes and I noticed that we were both a small size 3. I said "if there's anything in my wardrobe you need - help yourself". She told me to use her jackets and coats in London if I needed them.'

Read Jan's full account of the exchange in 'If the Shoe Fits ... Auckland - London Home Swap'.

'Free holidays: How to swap your home for a place in the sun' (article in The Independent)

I have written quite a few posts lately based on recent articles about home exchange. This is developing into a comprehensive resource (see 'Home Exchange: Articles in the Press + TV/Radio' under Categories in the right hand column), which should be especially useful for those new to the idea of swapping homes for vacations.

Two weeks ago I was contacted by Graham Norwood, a journalist on The Independent newspaper, who has written about home exchange in the past. Graham's new article, 'Free holidays: How to swap your home for a place in the sun', was published in the Property section on 5 July.

A couple, who are Home Base Holidays members, were interviewed for the article:

'Dorothy and Steve Brider's home isn't just their pride and joy - it's their passport, too. In recent years they have swapped their Norfolk house with home-owners in Perth and Sydney for months at a time, and are now preparing to do the same with a couple in Queensland in 2007.

"We like the idea of living in a personal space rather than being restricted to one hotel room, and we like going away for three months at a time, particularly during our winter. And it must work out cheaper," says Dorothy, a retired local government secretary.'

Although the Briders use home exchange for long term, long haul exchanges, Graham points out that an advantage of home exchange its flexibility:

'... exchanging homes doesn't have to mean long journeys and even longer stays. House-swappers can come from short and long-haul locations, and can be staying for a long weekend as well as half a year.'

A further quote from Dorothy Brider on arranging an exchange in an area that will suit your needs:

"Do your homework, read guide books, check the atlas, make sure that this is the area you prefer. Write, write and write some more, and make friends with the people before you all commit to booking air tickets."

Sound advice!

See the Briders' exchange offer in Norfolk, England (HE15321) and read Graham's article in full.