Travel the Home Exchange Way

Home Swappers newsletter: discover your next destination

Looking to embrace the cold months or escape to the sun? You will find a home exchange holiday offer to suit you. Check out the latest issue of our home exchange newsletter for home swap tips, offers and member stories. 

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In this issue of the newsletter:

• Featured home swap offers: Greek island swap on Crete | UNESCO heritage town of Briancon, France | Houseboat swap in Yorkshire, England | Akkaya Lake home swap in Turkey | luxury central London home swap
• Swap stories: our excellent home exchange in Valencia, Spain
• Promotional code: save 15% on your home swap membership

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>>> View this issue of the Home Swappers newsletter

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Swap homes for free holiday accommodation Arrange anything from a weekend getaway exchange or even a long term six+ month exchange. Browse thousands of home exchange vacation offers Sign up today: add your home to Home Base Holidays so that you can start contacting other members to arrange your home exchange. Join Home Base Holidays

My wonderful home swap with Chrissy in Conwy, Wales

Home swap in Conwy, North Wales: beautiful coastal walks

"I have just arrived home from a wonderful home swap in north Wales. We went with friends, one of whom is a keen walker and climber, so could show us the ropes. I was aware how beautiful North Wales is, but was stunned by the beauty of the mountains and seascapes... and so many romantic and historic stories are linked with the area, so much to see and learn.

Chrissy's home is really lovely and very comfortable, I could not believe how spacious the bungalow was.... I am now even contemplating buying one. The bungalow is really well placed for easy access to everything from a mountain top to Tesco!

We have decided to arrange another home exchange with Chrissy in the near future, as they would like to explore more here, and we would love more time there. Many thanks Chrissy for a wonderful holiday."

- Marguerite

Photos from the home swap

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Highlights our home swap in Conwy, North Wales:

1. Stunning mountains and beaches
2. Excellent communication
3. Very pretty, spacious and cosy bungalow

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Meet the members:   Check out Chrissy and Emlyn's (in photo) beautiful cottage home exchange offer in Conwy, Wales.  View Marguerite's beautiful home swap offer in Harrogate, England

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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Arrange free holiday accommodation

Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange a home exchange through Home Base Holidays and enjoy free accommodation. 

• Search thousands of home exchange offers

Travel photo competition: thanks for the wonderful photos

Big thank you to everyone that sent in their photos to our recent home swap travel photography competition. Below is a small selection of the photos sent in by members.

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We also received many fabulous home exchange travel stories with the photo entries. It's always fantastic to hear about home swap experiences and we will be publishing a number of these travel experiences in future blog posts. 

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Have you been on a home swap? We'd love to hear your experiences! Send your home swap experiences to us to be featured on the blog. Contact us 

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Interested in home swapping? Sign up to a Home Base Holidays membership (either a full membership or a free trial membership). Once signed up, you can then start contacting other members to arrange your home exchange accommodation and enjoy free holiday accommodation. Find your next: home swap vacation

Our family home exchange holiday in Majorca

The beautiful Canyamel beach in Majorca

"We enjoyed a home swap holiday in Pere and his families beautiful home in the resort of Canyamel, Majorca. Canyamel has one of the most beautiful beaches in Majorca - a wide, gently sloping, clean beach protected by wooded hills on either side.

The apartment is just a 5 minute walk alongside a picturesque river to the sea front. The views from the back of the apartment are over countryside, with wooded hills and sheep.

The nearest town of Arta is filled with interesting shops, cafes and restaurants and has an excellent weekly market in its historic centre. Capdepera, the next village to Canyamel has a wonderful ancient castle with stunning views over the Mediterranean Sea towards the island of Menorca.

We were fortunate to also swap cars for the period of the home exchange and so found it very easy to tour the island, where everything semms closeby and there is so much to see and do. Historic cities, such as Palma and Alcudia, high mountains, beautiful countryside and amazing coastline. We enjoyed boat trips from Cala Ratjada and visited the Caves of Drach at Porto Cristo, both just 30 minutes from the apartment.

Pere and his family took great care of our home during the home swap and communication was excellent. I thoroughly recommend this home exchange!"

- Alistair and Caroline

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Highlights of our home swap in Majorca:

1. Excellent location near a beautiful beach
2. Helpful and friendly exchange family
3. Car swap so that we could explore the area

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Meet the members:   Check out Pere's beautiful home exchange offer in Majorca, Spain.  View Alistair and Caroline's (pictured in photo with their two children) home swap offer in Cambridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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Arrange free holiday accommodation

Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange a home exchange through Home Base Holidays and enjoy free accommodation. 

• Search thousands of home exchange offers

Q&A: home exchanging over the Christmas period

Q: My husband and I are hoping to visit London or somewhere within easy access to London over the Christmas period and possibly staying until the 5th or 6th January 2019. Most of the half decent hotels and rentals we've checked are incredibly expensive and, as we'd be there for Christmas/New Year, we'd really ideally like to stay somewhere quite nice and welcoming. We've just started looking at the possibility of arranging a house exchange in London, it sounds like it could be a really great option but ...we are total novices in this! We have a two bedroom cottage in Cornwall (not far from St Ives). My question is, how would we go about finding a house exchange and have we left it too late to arrange an exchange for the Christmas period? - Allison, UK

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A: Thanks for getting in touch! 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 far nicer than staying in a hotel room!

There is definitely still time to arrange a home swap over the festive period but 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 where you can add details of your home and add your home swap request (London for the festive period). Once you've added your home to the site, start searching home swap offers and then, rather than waiting to be contacted, start contacting any members in or around London whose offers look tempting.

When searching for offers on the website, you can search by exchange dates to find members in London looking for exchanges late December to early January. You will see that one of the search options in the left hand search bar is ‘Exchange dates’. Enter your date ranges into this box and then click the small magnifying glass icon to narrow down the search results.Although using the date search option narrows the search results to homes most likely to suit your needs, it is always best to keep your searches as broad as possible so that you do not miss any potentially good swap matches (e.g. some members who may be happy to exchange over Christmas will have left their swap dates as ‘Open to offers’). Also, you can mark your offer as a "Last minute swap" and also search other members that have selected the Last minute swap option.

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• Find your next home exchange vacation

‘Loveliness on the shores of Loch Linnhe’ - our home swap in Scotland

Beautiful Loch Linnhe, Scotland

"This location is such a lovely piece of heaven. Trish & Neil's beautiful home is set on a wooded hillside full of natures’ treasures overlooking Loch Linnhe with a huge choice of outdoor activities and good restaurants nearby. We felt very much at home in this peaceful location and warm well equipped holiday home.

We travelled through the very impressive Glencoe to visit Glen Etive where we saw the James Bond ‘Skyfall’ filming location. It is really wild & beautiful. We also visited Ft William and cycled on the cycle way into Glencoe and then over to Corran and back. It was a bit wet but beautiful in between the showers. We went on a day trip to the Isle of Mull travelling through beautiful countryside and very picturesque ferry crossings. Tobermory in particular is well worth visiting.

We walked, cycled, climbed and toured around quite a bit as well as enjoying the excellent food available in different restaurants. The Hollytree Hotel is just a very short walk from the house and serves wonderful seafood. Lochleven Seafood Café is also worthy of special mention.

We were lucky that the weather worked out in our favour as it was dry when we needed it to be. Our best weather was went we visited the Nevis Range. We took the gondola up and walked all over to witness the wonderful views of Ben Nevis & elsewhere in great sunshine. Another day we walked along Loch Linnhe from Dalnatrat to Alpin with beautiful views of Castle Stalker.

On our last day we climbed the hill behind Benderloch to witness more superb views, visited Dunstafnage Castle and then onto Oban including the Oban Distillery experience. There is certainly a fantastic choice of experiences in the area and Garbh Bheinn is really lovely place to stay and so well kitted out. We would highly recommend it and would love to come again."

- Frank and Christine

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Highlights of our home swap on the shores of Loch Linnhe:

1. Peaceful wooded hillside full of natures’ treasures overlooking Loch Linnhe
2. Huge choice of outdoor activities
3. Lovely restaurants nearby.

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Meet the members:   Check out Trish & Neil's beautiful home swap offer in Scotland, located on the shores of Loch Linnhe.  Also check out Frank & Christine's (pictured in photo) home swap offer in Ireland, located in Ballybunion on the Wild Atlantic Way and overlooking the world famous Ballybunion Championship Links Golf Courses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Arrange free holiday accommodation

Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange a home exchange through Home Base Holidays and enjoy free accommodation. 

• Search thousands of home exchange offers