Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

What's the Record for the Largest Number of Home Swaps - and the Most Frequent?

Diane, a Home Base Holidays member from Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England, wrote last week:

'I am in middle of big clear up as we are off on an exchange tonight to Wales for a week. Maybe you should run a competition to see which of your registered swappees has swapped homes the most. I know we are not the highest but we might be the most frequent ... 14 in 24 months!'

So, can you top Diane's record? If you can, we will have to think about turning this into a proper competition - with prizes!

It's not hard to see why Diane's home is popular with other home exchangers:

'We live in a 17th Century thatched cottage situated in a quiet village in the English countryside in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Just 25 minutes from the beautiful historic city of Lincoln and 1/2 hr. to the sandy beaches of the coast. There are numerous attractions and Stately Homes in the area – many scenes in the current film of the Da Vinci Code were shot at Lincoln cathedral and also Burghley House and Belvoir castle, all nearby sites. Our local town, Woodhall Spa, is famous for its internationally acclaimed Golf course which ranks amongst the top 50 worldwide. Horncastle, our nearest town, has recently become a Mecca for antique lovers since being awarded the title of Britains’ Best Antiques Town—By Millers Price Guide.'

Read Diane's full home exchange offer and see more photos, including a lovely winter scene, HE18628.

Leave a comment below or contact me if you think you might be in the running as the most prolific home swapper, either by the number of exchanges you've had in total or the most swaps in the shortest period of time.

Travel Insurance for Home Exchangers

Today I have a guest author, Sarah Taylor from Go Travel Insurance, who writes about travel insurance issues that all home exchangers, especially those arranging lengthy exchanges, need to address:

When you are considering a house exchange it is important to make sure that you have adequate travel insurance for the entire duration of your trip.

A Single Trip Travel Insurance policy can be tailored for the length of your holiday, anything up to 365 days. Go Travel Insurance offers single trip policies for adults up to the age of 75.

If you are going to be taking more than two holidays in one year annual travel insurance could be the answer, but be careful. Although you can travel as many times as want during the year, many annual policies only cover individual trips of up to 31 days. Go Travel Insurance can extend their annual policy to cover trips of up to 60 days in duration.

If you are looking for a more economical option you could try a backpacker insurance policy. Don't be put off by the name; backpacker insurance is simply a policy which is designed to be more economical for somebody who is going to be away from home for a long period of time, anything up to a year.

A backpacker policy usually has a lower level of cover than a standard single trip policy, so if you are considering this option, do make sure that you check the cover carefully to ensure that it meets your requirements.

Go Travel Insurance is happy to answer any questions you may have regarding travel insurance your trip. If you would a quote for your next trip visit our website or call 0870 421 1521.

Note: Although Sarah, our guest author, is the Online Marketing Manager for Go Travel Insurance (covering the UK and Ireland), her suggestions on what to look out for are valuable wherever you buy your travel insurance.

'Home and alone on the cranky, clanky range': or a Yellow Explosion of Post-it Notes!

Most articles published about home exchange are, for the most part, (naturally) very positive about all the benefits of swapping homes for holidays. However, it wouldn't be realistic to expect that everyone is suited to home exchange or that all journalists would be equally enthusiastic. I came across an article recently published in the Irish Medical Times, which made me chuckle.

The author of 'Home and alone on the cranky, clanky range' clearly admires a friend who swaps homes regularly:

'For the last fourteen years, her annual holiday has been to somewhere relatively exotic where she and her family have lived in someone else’s house.'

Most homes have a few little quirks that the owners just accept and these can easily be explained to home exchange visitors:

'My friend leaves little post-it notes on those parts of her house that might prove challenging to strangers – for instance, the switch for the outside light isn’t immediately obvious… she simply plonks a post-it with "outside light" written on it above the relevant switch. Her house would have maybe half a dozen post-its adorning it before she leaves.'

But, the author continues,

'Mine would be like a yellow explosion ... If I plug in the phone jack from my Sky telly box, everything sits down. No phone, no internet. Just think of the amount of post-it notes it would take to explain it. Particularly if the visitors were foreign ... And I’d also have to tell them about the phone and the rain… if there’s heavy rain, the phone line works OK, but we get an added bonus… we can hear RTÉ Radio One on it ... My poor visitors would lift the phone to ring someone on a wet morning and hear "Good morning, good morning" from Tom McGurk. More post-its. Lots of them.'

And that's not all that would involve a flurry of post-its to explain in the author's home. I don't think she should give up entirely on the idea of swapping homes though as, if she chose her exchange partners with care (gsoh essential), her home would probably provide many laughs and fond memories of a trip to Ireland. After all, would you remember the perfect but bland hotel room or the B & B with the four poster bed made out of toilet rolls? (I'll tell you about that one another day).

Read the cranky, clanky range story in full in the Irish Medical Times.

Wandalust: 'Live at Home While on Holiday'

Extracts from a new post about home exchange holidays on Wandalust, the UK Travel Blog:

'Have you ever wondered how life is for those people who live in quaint little cottages in a quaint little village in, say, Tuscany? What if, just what if, those people are also imagining life in a modern flat amidst the hustle and bustle of, say, London? ... Home Exchange ... a different kind of travel accommodation that provides you with a home away from home, at a cheaper price. And if chosen well, you could gain a friend and not worry about your little plant dying while you are away.'

Read the post in full on Wandalust.

What a Delightful Day for a Blog!

I was really chuffed to hear that Travel the Home Exchange Way had been listed in the Delightful Blogs directory. It isn't every day one's efforts are labelled delightful!

There are many large blog directories but most involve lots of trawling to find blogs of interest. The difference with the Delightful Blogs directory, whose motto is, 'Cutting through the Blog Smog', is that every blog is carefully vetted for delightfulness before being added to the directory. I've already spent much time browsing through many great blogs here. Do check out the directory and, if you'd like to make my day even better, you'll find Travel the Home Exchange Way in the Travel section - it would be ever so nice if you decided to give it a high rating.

The Baby Boomer Generation: Sixty, Fit and Eager to Travel

I never thought I could say I had much in common with Dolly Parton or Bill Clinton, much less George W. Bush, but we do all have one thing in common - we are amongst the first of the baby boomer generation who celebrate our 60th birthdays this year. The BBC Breakfast programme was "talkin' 'bout my generation" all last week and the common theme in the interviews with famous British boomers was, that those of us fortunate to have been born in prosperous countries during the years following the Second World War, are indeed the lucky generation, with more choices and opportunities than most of our parents could have dreamed of.

Baby boomers may seem a little smug to older and younger generations (and maybe we are just kidding ourselves that we can't possibly ever grow old!) But, whatever, we are generally healthier and wealthier than past generations at our age. Many of us still work because we enjoy it. Those who have already retired find ways of remaining active which very often include taking more or longer trips to discover new places or enjoy old favourites at a slower pace.

Journalists, doing research for articles on home exchange, often assume that the majority of home exchangers will be families with children. Families do, indeed, make up a good proportion of the membership of Home Base Holidays (as having the use of a home is especially convenient when travelling with children) but older couples and singles are a very prominent group too (there's the connection with the baby boomer story!) Those no longer tied to school holidays and jobs are ideal home swappers as they can often be flexible on dates and length of exchange, fitting in with the needs of those who may still be restricted.

Many older exchangers still live in the family home which, perhaps to accommodate visiting grandchildren, will often be safe and equipped for the needs of young children. Others will have down sized, with a new, smaller home not suitable or big enough to accommodate children. Such members can easily limit their own exchange offers to adults only and, if they wish, find others of a similar age by limiting search results to the over 55s.