Vacation Home Exchange or House Swaps is a Fabulous way to Travel Around the World.

Vacation home exchange is a great way to organize holidays around the world and the accommodation is free. The only requirement is that you have a home to exchange.

Benefits of Exchanging homes

1. You can save lots of money on accommodation which you can spend on your holiday.
2. You stay in accommodation with good facilities such as: full kitchen, lounge room to relax, kids toys (if a family home), books, music and DVDs.
3. You get a garden to relax in - if it's a house
4. There is a possibility for car exchange (if you both agree)
5. You could meet the neighbours and their friends
6. Someone is in your home looking after the place
7. Your dog, cat or hamster are all being looked after
8. You make friend’s world wide
9. Learn about the local culture
10. Find intersting places to visit that the tourists don't know about
11. The accommodation is FREE

We have had over twenty house exchanges worldwide and look forward to many more. We have gathered some tips and hints for having a successful house swap and below is the story of our first exchange experience.

Our Story and Sue and Jacks story in Australia

The first time we exchanged houses for a holiday was in 1988 and we had a young family. We lived in England and wanted to visit the US. We registered in a house swap directory for a fee and very soon started to receive lots of requests for exchanges.

Most of my friends and family thought I was mad to try and organise this type of holiday with young children. They thought it would cost a huge amount of money but the fact of the matter was that it was easier than staying in a hotel and the cost for accommodation was zero.

The New Jersey Home the Willis Family Exchanged

We spent one month in the US and started off in New Jersey. This was a straight swap and the couple whose house we exchanged with stayed in our house while we were in theirs. We also exchanged cars which worked really well.

During this time we drove north to Buffalo, near Niagara Falls, to visit another couple who had stayed with us previously in England. They had made contact through the same organization and we hosted them. It was really good to catch up with them again and see them in their own country. We stayed there for five nights.

While house exchanging with a family in Buffalo, the Willis family visit Niagara Falls

For the final week we flew down to Florida and stayed with another couple who were going to be staying with us the following month in England. They were so hospitable; we had no car to exchange but they had a spare one and lent us their first car. We went to all the favorite sights such as Disneyland, Seaworld, The Kennedy Space Center and we even saw giant turtles lay eggs on the beach.

This was our first of many vacation home exchanges and is ideal for families and couples. I have kept in touch with many of these people and often visit them.

Over twenty years later I am still organizing house swaps all over the world. I was even featured on an Australian money show on how to save money by swapping houses for holidays. My kids have fond memories of these holidays around the world and we still continue to make new friends.

House Swapping for holidays is a great way of saving money and at the moment with the Global Financial Crisis we need all the tips we can get. Here is another site about being frugal and saving money with some excellent ideas

There are many organizations that provide a database for house swaps. I have used a few different ones. They vary a lot in price. One thing you should keep in mind is the number of members on their database and where these members generally want to go on holiday. You can usually view their database without joining, but you'll need to join to access the members details.

The house in the picture below is one that we organized a hospitality exchange. We stayed there for two weeks while the couple were there and we were completely self contained with our own kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms.

House Swapping for Holidays

what did you think? Tell us about your experience, we'd love to hear about it.There are so many stories about house swapping and rather than hear all ours tell us about yours.

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