Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Runner-up in 'Win a Kindle' home swap story competition: 'US East Coast home exchanges - jam packed with wonder and delight'

This is the third runner-up story in the Home Base Holidays 'Win a Kindle' competition. It tells of three home swap experiences on the East Coast of the USA by Barry Fox, a very experienced home exchanger from Melbourne, Australia:

 The beauty of The Fall in Concord, Massachusetts and (below)

Collecting the New York Times in snow shoes, something not required in Australia!

Our home and car Exchange Number 5 saw six outstanding months living in Boston on the U.S. East Coast. Concerts, lectures at Harvard and JFK Library, top quality church services, attending political rallies with Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, plus the 2007 inauguration of Deval Patrick as Governor of Massachusetts, the picturesque coastline, shopping duty-free in New Hampshire, the beauty of The Fall, waking to big snow falls, spring bursting out all over. These all made for daily enchantment.

Home Exchange Number 10 saw another three deeply nourishing months in Boston. We remain keen to return a third time.

Home Exchange Number 12 was three months in Potomac, Maryland, only 20 minutes' drive from Washington DC. What wonders filled our lives each day. 54 million tourists visit DC each year. It is jam packed with the national monuments of the USA, many of which are free to visit. Plus the underground Metro gets you around cheaply and easily.

Each of our exchange homes and cars have been first class; each of our U.S. exchange partners have become friends; each of our U.S. East Coast stays have been jam packed with wonder and delight, plus the Americans amazingly generous time-and-time again. We cannot recommend home exchange to Boston and Washington DC highly enough.

Home exchange is a wonderful way of life. - Barry Fox,  Melbourne, Australia

Barry's home (in photo) is in a bushland setting among eucalypt trees, in a twisting hilly street, in a dormitory suburb known as The Bellbird Area. Blackburn Lake, 130 acres of natural bushland as Melbourne was pre-European settlement - is only 200 meters away at the end of our street, and makes for delightful Australian bush walks each day. See Barry's full home exchange offer.

He writes:

'We have completed nine wonderful exchanges over recent years, all 110% successful. Duration was from three weeks to six months.'

It has been great to hear so many wonderful home swap stories as a result of our competition. Look out for the September issue of Home Swappers newsletter for the winning story and details of the happy recipient of a new Kindle!

Runner-up in 'Win a Kindle' home swap story competition: 'Adopted by the locals on an exchange in Australia'

This is the second runner-up in our recent 'Win a Kindle' home exchange story competition; another delightful report by Home Base Holidays members:

We did a great swap with a couple from Berri, South Australia.  While in Berri, we participated in our host's walking club.  Our walks always concluded with a cappuccino at a cafe at the town center park.  What fun.  We also were 'adopted' by a young woman working at the local tourist information office. She and her entire family took us to lunch and gave us a tour of a large vineyard which her father managed. A second vineyard manager fostered homeless kangaroo joeys, which we were able to hold.  Incredible! We also met and 'spoke with' a cockatoo named Charlie and held a python house mate.  We had so much fun and have since had this wonderful family visit us in Arizona.

Our Berri host family's daughter and son-in-law gave us an incredible tour of a huge winery  - from grape delivery to wine sales.

We loved our New Zealand and Australian swaps, where we had so many wonderful experiences!!!

Whenever we talk traveling with anyone, we always say. "You must do a home exchange!'

Thanks for enabling us to meet such wonderful people and to have such incredible traveling experiences. - Carol & Lauris Plath, Vernon, Arizona

The Plath home is located on a secluded, heavily forested 10 acres, 20 minutes east of Show Low, Arizona (east central AZ). The Sitgreaves National Forest, which is two miles away, has excellent hiking, quad(ATV)riding, and elk sighting. The 1800 sq. ft. house (in photo) has a 20 x 26 family room that has walls of windows to enjoy the tall pine forest, and a huge deck with a large spa. The yard is the forest - no grass to cut. :-) Read full details of their home exchange offer in Arizona.

After being notified that her story was a runner-up in the competition, Carol wrote:

'I'm tickled to be a runner-up.  We truly did have an incredible time!! We had swapped with three couples and spent time on both islands of New Zealand and in New South Wales, in addition to South Australia. Our total time gone from our home was 2 and 1/2 months.  Fabulous!  I could write a short book on the wonderful people we met and the fantastic scenery we took in.'

Runner-up in 'Win a Kindle' home swap story competition: 'Our First Home Exchange'

The 'Win a Kindle' competition, promoted in the August issue of Home Swappers newsletter, attracted much interest, making it very difficult to choose a winner. The winning entry will be published in the September issue of the newsletter but, meantime, we are delighted to publish stories by the three runners-up (who each won one year's membership to Home Base Holidays). Here's the first of the stories, a report on a first home exchange:

We have just completed our first ever home exchange to the Sunshine State of Florida. What an amazing experience! As new exchangers we were understandably slightly apprehensive, but we could not have enjoyed our holiday more.

After a long journey (involving planes, trains and automobiles!) we arrived in Englewood, Florida. The house was so welcoming and we loved having our own private pool. We exchanged cars as well, which was great and we explored as much of Florida as we could during our four week stay there. We found some fantastic places including the most beautiful sunset at Venice Isles, whilst watching wild dolphins. Some memories will stay with us forever.

We really don’t have any negative comments to make, but we particularly liked the fact that you have so much freedom and so many home comforts available during home exchange.

We have another exchange organised to Switzerland for Xmas and New Year and we are very excited about this – and the world of opportunity which home swapping opens up. - Anne Shearer, Scotland

Anne and husband Danny (photo above) live in Braehead, a beautiful 200 year old country cottage which has been recently refurbished with much love and care. The house is located in an idyllic village, which although rural still offers easy access to both Edinburgh and Glasgow and there are many lovely market towns and villages close by. The garden is almost one acre, with a pond and the village stream running along the bottom. It is very tranquil and quiet. We have a spacious summer house (in photo) with a wood burner, and a small hot tub in the garden. Read full details of their attractive home swap offer.

 

How to find home exchange members who want to swap homes to your area

Q:  We are in Cornwall and have a 3 bedroom converted stylish and chic Chapel.  It has an open plan upper living area with a wood burner, 2 bedrooms with en suite and a small decking area outside. We would like to do a swap but as we're selling it next year it would only be for a maximum period of a year.  We are building again and it is likely we will look to do the same, but this time it would be a 4 bed house with 1 bed annex.

Rather than looking at what houses are available, I would like to view people in countries that are looking for what we have to offer in Cornwall.  Is there a list I can view for people seeking Cornwall? At the moment we are specifically looking at Christmas 2013.

Many thanks, Debra

A: Hi Debra, I'm sure you would find much interest in an exchange to your converted Chapel! Here's how to find current members who have listed Cornwall as a destination choice:

Go to the main search page. Choose 'Search more options'. Type Cornwall in the box beside 'To find members looking for an exchange in your location ....'. Then click Search. You should see about 45 listings for members currently looking for exchanges to Cornwall.

Note: This is a good way to start your search for members most likely to be interested in your exchange offer but it won't include the many members, especially those outside the UK, who list England or the UK as a destination (rather than specify by county) as well as all who are 'open' on destinations they will consider.

As you are looking for a home exchange for Christmas, and this is a popular time for swaps, it would be a good idea to join soon so that you can start contacting members to suggest an exchange.

You can always change your details to describe your new home when you have moved next year or, if there is a gap between selling your current home and being ready to swap your new home, your offer can be temporarily hidden during this period.

Please get in touch if you have any further questions. I hope you will decide to join Home Base Holidays - your home sounds stunning!

Book review: ‘The Promise of Provence’, a story woven around a home exchange theme

Recently we sent out copies of the new novel by Patricia Sands, 'The Promise of Provence’, to the two lucky winners of a competition promoted in Home Swappers Newsletter. We've now received our first review by winner,  Eveline Winthrop from Auckland, New Zealand. As the novel has a home exchange theme (the author is an enthusiastic exchanger), it was ideal that both book winners are themselves experienced home swappers.

Eveline's review:

I think the cover of the book is very special and depicts the French content.  Although the story line was a little on the slim side from my point of view, the author wove a lovely picture and story around the French element in that I was exclaiming many times how much I agreed with all her very good descriptions of scenery and market places, and the numerous sights in the French countryside which you can only really appreciate if you have been there.  To me, that was the highlight of  the book.  We spent five months in a campervan travelling around Provence in the main although other areas as well, and Patricia Sands certainly gave the home exchange idea a very good recommendation to her readers.

Read more about 'The Promise of Provence’ on the author's website.

See Eveline and husband, John's, exchange offer in Auckland. Their home (in photo) is on a very quiet, tree-lined street in the suburbs. The couple are can offer non-simultaneous exchange so that exchange partners in England can come during the New Zealand summer while they travel to England during the northern summer months. 

The Home Exchange Newsletter - 100th issue of Home Swappers, August 2013

The August issue of Home Swappers Newsletter is now available. Topics:

• Featured listing: Koh Phanghan, Thailand - surrounded with stunning  jungle and sea views
• Win a Kindle + free memberships! Celebrating our 100th issue of Home Swappers (see newsletter for details)
• Swap report: We would recommend home exchanging to anyone!
• Exclusive offer: Join a second home exchange agency for free

Read articles in this issue in full and previous issues of Home Swappers Newsletter, in the Newsletter Archive. Subscribe to receive the newsletter as published.