Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Top Money Saving Tips for Visiting London with Children

One of the best ways to save money when visiting London with children is to arrange a home exchange with a London family. And there's no better place to find a great choice of home swap offers than on Home Base Holidays - a London based service! Browse over 300 current exchange offers in London.

Once settled in, there are many ways to cut down on expenses (for a start, you will have a fully equipped kitchen and can prepare some meals and packed lunches 'at home'). I am now delighted to introduce guest author and Londoner, Janis Curry, who provides valuable tips on making the most of our great city:

Visiting London? There are some experiences and attractions you really shouldn’t miss, but there is no reason to pay full price. If you plan on visiting The London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Tower of London, London Zoo, St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Legoland and other major attractions, we’d highly recommend buying tickets in advance from Attractiontix – they guarantee the lowest prices and they’ll send you an e-ticket right away so you don’t need to worry about your tickets getting lost along the way.

You can buy tickets to individual attractions, but we’d recommend getting a pass (1, 2, 3 or 6 day passes are available) – you’ll save money, even if you only visit one or two attractions per day. With the passes, you also get some extra discounts for London restaurants, free movies, free bowling and skating, and a glossy visitor's guide. Better still, you won't be wasting time standing in a neverending queue when you could be out enjoying yourself - with a pass you just skip straight to the front of the queue. They also have some fantastic discounts on dozens of hit West End Theatre shows like the Lion King, Les Miserables, Billy Elliot and other must-see performances.

Click here to visit the Attractiontix website.

Get an Oystercard and enjoy cheap bus and tube journeys
Walking is a great way to see London, and you’ll find that Central London is actually pretty easy on foot, with lots of points of interest and places to stop for a bite to eat. You could even take some guided walks with London Walks - there is a brilliant Harry Potter walk every Sunday afternoon that your children will love. If you want to go somewhere a bit further afield, by far the easiest and cheapest way to get around is using public transport. If you’re planning to do quite a bit of travel by bus and tube, you should consider getting an Oyster card for each adult in your group and just adding enough credit to get you through the holiday – these smart little cards cost about £2 each (plus your fare) but will not only save you a lot of time and hassle, but they automatically recalculate your fare to make sure it’s the cheapest possible, so you save a lot of money. The £2 isn’t wasted either - you can also keep the card for your next visit to London. Kids under 10 usually travel free on public transport – there are a few odd exceptions which you can read about here.

For those with impaired mobility, baby buggies or lots of suitcases, click here for an accessibility guide showing which stations have step-free access. Planning in advance will make your journey much easier!

There is also an excellent tube map showing all of the public toilets and baby changing facilities on the underground – click here.

Visit some free museums, galleries and attractions
London has some of the most remarkable museums and galleries in the world, and many of them have hands-on exhibits and family activities as well as baby changing facilities and buggy access. Some also have lovely soft play areas for the really little ones. For the most part they are absolutely free, and even have picnic areas for you to enjoy your packed lunch.Click here to read about family friendly museums and attractions.

And finally…
We can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be rained on while in London. It’s part of the charm, really. Luckily, there are plenty of things to do indoors without feeling cooped up – click here for over 100 rainy days out. You’ll thank us!

This guestblog was brought to you by Janis Curry (a.k.a. MumVersusKids), Director & Founder of ReallyKidFriendly.com, the guide to great places for your family.

House Swapping Blog

I came across the House Swapping Blog recently and, although it has only been publishing since May and not prolifically (less is more!), it is developing into a good source of information on home exchange, especially for those new to the idea.

 

With our blog, most posts should be relevant to most home exchangers, with topics covered based on feedback from hundreds of home exchangers over many years.  Home Base Holidays members’ listings (and links) do figure prominently in many posts as samples, and to demonstrate points, and so we wouldn’t claim that Travel the Home Exchange Way is unbiased. But then, the majority of independent home exchangers writing about their exchange experiences can’t make this claim either; however useful the information, inevitably the experiences of one person or family, even prolific exchangers, will be based mainly on their own particular circumstances, needs, and influenced by where they live. Unless swaps are arranged independently, most personal accounts will also be based on limited experience of one or two home exchange services  – so hardly unbiased!

 

For this reason it was interesting to come across a blog on home swapping where the author seems to deliberately limit personal opinions (‘The author does not say much about himself’) but rather has mostly published general information of relevance and use to anyone interested in home exchange. Check out House Swapping, including the post published on Tuesday (15 Sept)  - simple tips on preparing for an exchange, what to do at the end of the exchange before leaving your exchange partner's home, and the follow-up after you return home.

 

Do let us know if you find other independent sources of information on home exchange that you feel would be useful to draw attention to on our blog - the wider the range of advice, the better.

 

Five Years of Travel the Home Exchange Way

 

It hardly seems like five years since I started this blog to supplement the information on home exchange on Home Base Holidays and in Home Swappers newsletters.

 

Although there’s been a little slow down in posts published over the summer (Twitter is a distraction - do follow us on Twitter!), there are always lots of topics about home exchange to cover (or return to), both to answer questions those new to the idea of swapping homes often have, and for experienced exchangers. Some upcoming developments at Home Base Holidays, including a new (and very prestigious)  partner site, have also been keeping us occupied in the last few weeks.

 

Please do keep sending your suggestions and adding your comments to posts. It is particularly useful to get  feedback, often giving a different perspective on a subject, from experienced home exchangers.

 

September to early December tends to be a very busy time with many new (and renewing members) signing up with Home Base Holidays – some, at this time of year, are looking for home swaps over the Christmas holiday period, while others (facing the nights drawing in and cooler weather in northern hemisphere countries) looking ahead to exchanges next summer.

 

It’s never too soon to start planning a home exchange. Do browse listings in countries of interest and check out the latest exchange offers often. Note: the ‘New’ symbol you will see in listings indicates that the member has joined or renewed during the last month. When viewing the detailed exchange offers, you will see exactly how long each listing has been (registration date), and will continue to be (expiry date) in circulation. Don’t be taken in by sites you may come across (especially free sites) that may appear to have masses of exchange offers. Unless you can see both the join and expiry dates, many listings could be very out of date and no longer available.

Update: Watch the film of a US-UK Home Exchange on BBC TV

The summer home swap between Home Base Holidays member, Susan (and a friend) from Ocean Pines, Maryland with the Lillywhites who live in a typical Edwardian house in West London, was shown on The One Show last Friday. Now you can watch it here.