Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Home swap holiday in Spain with such wonderful hosts

Pete & Dawn swapped their apartment in Chester for Bert & Heidi's house on a golf community in Spain

We love receiving trip reports from Home Base Holidays members! In this trip report, members, Pete and Dawn, enjoyed a wonderful non-simultaneous home exchange holiday staying in Bert and Heidi's house set within a private golf complex community in Vera in the south of Spain. The two families built an excellent friendship, sharing local tips & recommendations. 

Pete & Dawn's non-simultaneous home swap in Almeria, Spain "This was the second part of a non-simultaneous home exchange holiday with The Bramer family. We had already built up an amazing friendship leading up-to and during their visit to our home in Chester. They are such warm and wonderful people, and such great communicators. They took such great care of our place in Chester. Their home in Vera, a beautiful village overlooking the mountains, was a 1hr 40 mins drive from Murcia airport on excellent and easy roads. The house is part of an exclusive golf complex community, but this small group of villas has its own secure gates entrance, private parking and use of a great pool. On our visit the pool was hardly used by any other residents and we loved having a daily swim to ourselves. We enjoyed drinks at the Golf hotel terrace, listening to the golf gossip! 😀 And had a very nice meal at La Hoya also near the hotel and a just a short walk from the house. Their house is so lovely, super clean and very comfortable, it has everything you could need. We especially enjoyed using the plancha grill on the roof terrace, we cooked several meals enjoying the lovely views from the roof terrace in the evenings. We explored Almeria City, the Alcazaba is well worth it and free to visit for UK. We booked an excellent 4WD tour of The Tabanas desert, Cabo de Gato coastal nature reserve with is stunning beaches and clear blue seas. So many amazing views as you drive through this region. We really enjoyed this beautiful home swap trip which was made extra special by the wonderful messages and helpful local tips shared between the families. Thank you so much Heidi and Bert " - Pete & Dawn

Highlights of the holiday: Mountains & coast: great location for the stunning scenery  Wonderful house with wonderful warm hosts Relaxing in the sunshine & enjoying the roof terrace

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Reply from Bert and Heidi: "Hi Pete and Dawn, thank you very much for this lovely review and the gratitude of your Almeria holiday in southern Spain. We crossed paths thanks to this great home swap website and what a beautiful and satisfying home exchange it was for both of us. It was a great pleasure to see you and Pete enjoying Almeria and we discovered so many similarities in our lives 🌝 Thank you very much for this special holiday exchange with amazing conversations and friendship. Very best wish, Bert and Heidi "

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Photos from the home exchange

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Pete & Dawn's home in Chester, UK Beautiful top floor apartment overlooking the canal basin in the historic city of Chester. View the home swap holiday offer	Bert & Heidi's home in Vera, Spain Lovely home in a golf complex community with fantastic views, roof terrace and swimming pool. View the home swap holiday offer

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Travel Q&A: arranging a home swap for the Xmas period

Arrange a last minute home exchange holiday for Christmas & New Year

Q: Me and my husband are hoping to visit London over the Christmas period and hopefully staying until the 5th January. Most of the half decent hotels and holiday rentals we've looked at have been incredibly expensive. Also, as we're hoping to be in London over Christmas and New Year, we'd ideally like to stay somewhere where we can relax and enjoy a homely festive feel.

We've just started looking at the possibility of arranging a home swap holiday in London, it sounds like it could be a perfect option but ...we are total novices in this! We have a two bedroom cottage in Cornwall (not far from St Ives). My concern is, have we left it too late to arrange a home swap for this Christmas?

Allison

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A: Thanks for getting in contact! Home swapping sounds like it would be an excellent fit for your travel requirements. Firstly, the accommodation is free (except for the small membership fee) and secondly, you'll get to stay in a real London home over the festive period - far more festive than a hotel room!

You'll still find many members that are looking for last minute home swaps over Christmas and New Year. However, it's best to get a move on and start looking as soon as possible!

The first step is to sign up to a home swap website such as Home Base Holidays. You can add details of your home in Cornwall and add your request for a home swap to London over Christmas and New Year. Once you've added your offer, start browsing London offers and contact members to enquire about a festive swap!

• Search home swap holiday offers

You can also add your offer to "Last minute swaps" and also search other members that have selected the Last minute swap option.

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers

Wonderful 6-week home swap holiday exploring Australia

Jenny & Colin enjoyed a wonderful 6-week home swap holiday exploring Australia

We love hearing from Home Base Holidays members about their home exchange experiences. Here we have a fantastic trip report from Jenny & Colin on their fabulous 6-week holiday swapping to Jarn and Ian's lovely home near Adelaide.

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Jenny & Colin's home swap holiday exploring Australia "When Jarn and Ian contacted us from Moana, near Adelaide, Australia we were thrilled to accept their offer of a 6 week home exchange during their Australian Spring. For many months before the trip, we kept in touch exchanging lots of laughs and information. They did everything possible to make us feel welcome and help us get the most out of our trip. What a delight to arrive at their lovely, super clean, modern home on the coast. It was beautifully decorated with Jarn's photos and treasures from their travels. There was everything you could possibly want for a comfortable stay – including friendly, helpful neighbours. The neighbourhood was really lovely and green, with easy access to a major road leading to Adelaide and the wider areas. We used to catch the train to Adelaide, which was easy and so cheap. During our stay we took the opportunity to fly from Adelaide to Port Douglas, then to Sydney and then on to a week with a campervan in Tasmania and back to Adelaide to spend the remainder of the trip in Moana. £800 for 2 people for 4 flights – unbelievable! We had one week in each destination. Port Douglas was beautiful, warm and sunny with the rainforest coming down to the beach. We took the chance to ride on the Sky train over the rainforest and took a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to have a look at the corals - I shall never forget swimming in the Coral Sea! Sydney was a wonderful exciting city and we saw all the major sights and had some great food. Easy to travel around and fun on the ferries. Prices for everything were very reasonable. Tasmania was much cooler, more like our Autumn back home but still sunny every day. We started at Hobart explored the east coast, then to Launceston and back down the middle to Hobart. Brilliant roads – so quiet even though it was their school holidays. Tasmania is lovely, green and reminded us of North Wales! Beautiful pristine beaches and rolling open countryside. We spotted an Echidna (Tachyglossidae within the order monotremata-egg laying mammals) near the coast. What a privilege. Regretfully, we didn't have time to explore further into the mountains. The camping sites are amazing with camp kitchens, showers, laundry etc. Then back to Moana and a couple of weeks exploring the wider area and Adelaide especially the Aboriginal exhibition in the museum and the parks. A big thrill for us was listening to and seeing birds everywhere we went. Visiting wildlife parks and encountering wild kangaroos in a reserve not far from Moana was a great experience. We even saw a brown snake – an unwelcome guest in an enclosure in Sydney Zoo – not many Australians get to see that! Fabulous home exchange with so many wonderful memories! So grateful to Jarn and Ian who have helped give us the trip of a lifetime. Pleased that their enjoyment of our home and country helped make their first experience of home swapping so enjoyable for them too." - Jenny & Colin

Highlights of the home swap holiday: Wonderful 6-week holiday exploring Australia Encountering the wildlife and people Getting to know Jarn & Ian and staying in their lovely home

Photos from Jenny & Colin's trip to Australia:

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Jenny & Colin's home in Burnham-on-Sea Semi-detached house in Somerset, close to Europe's 2nd longest sandy beach. View their home swap holiday offer	Jarn & Ian's home near Adelaide Spacious new build home on the southern end of Adelaide, very close to superb beaches. View their home swap holiday offer

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Start home swapping and cut the cost of your next holiday Sign up to Home Base Holidays and save up to 90% on the cost of your holidays by arranging a home exchange. Search the latest home exchange holiday offers