About me

Hi, my name is Ruth and I have been having travel adventures for over 20 years - not wild ones, just great ones.

It all started when my friend told me she was going to go on a world trip in 1984. I thought she was mad. It just wasn’t in my thinking.

When she came back and told us of all her adventures I was inspired. There was a difference between our situations though. I had two little children and my friend was child free.

I wasn’t planning on anything really big but I had discovered a program where you could exchange houses for holidays and this looked a safe option for a young family. A trip to the US was organised for one month and I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. We exchanged with three different couples which included two hospitality exchanges and one direct house swap and we all had a great time.

The following year we emigrated to Australia and we needed to have budget holidays as we were rather broke because we were building a house.

I organised twelve house swaps all over Australia and it was a great way to see the country and make new friends. Our family was even featured on the Australian Money TV show talking about free holidays.

I discovered that I disliked staying in motels and B&B’s are overpriced so the only way to travel is by swapping homes and Couchsurfing. You meet great people and find out about the local community and culture. The experience is completely different to staying in paid accommodation and we have found that the facilities are always much better. It means you can have a lot more holidays with your holiday budget.

A Couchsurfing Family we stayed with in Toulouse, France

Then recently in 2007 we, Tony and myself, discovered Couchsurfing and started to host travellers. We loved the people we met and then organised a six month trip to Europe. We enjoyed 100 nights of free accommodation which was a combination of Couchsurfing, house sitting and home exchange. It was an amazing holiday and we’re even booked to house sit for Couchsurfers we met in Spain for a month.

The Garden of the House we are House Sitting for in Spain So I'm not into big adventure risky holidays but comfortable fun ones. I find the best way to enjoy one of these types of holidays that I have been talking about is to be flexible and open to ideas and opportunities.

My daughter Alex, recently came back from travelling around the world. I suggested that when she left school that she took a year to travel and broaden her mind. Well six years later she came home and was ready to settle back in Australia.

She is going to talk about her travels and share some of her experiences while backpacking and on the road. These include saving money while living in London so she can travel across Europe and her first visit to a non western country.

Alex in Africa

Anyway this experience has inspired me to write about the knowledge I have gained and share it with others so they can have inexpensive and exciting holidays too. It’s for everyone, Backpackers, families, singles, couples and even animals as they can be cared for while swapping houses.

Leave About Us and Return to Free Accommodation for World travel HOME PAGE