ID51798 Just had three great exchanges in Australia and New Zealand. Australian and New Zealanders both lent us cars even though they weren't using ours. So generous. Home exchange has given us the opportunity to visit non tourist areas which have been superb. |
We just returned, Nov 29th! Our exchange partners, Nick & Cynthia, are like family. We had a wonderful time. Nick and Cynthia have a beautiful home on Anastasia Island, a nature's preserve with lighthouse and alligator farm. It is a short walk over Lion's Bridge to St. Augustine Florida, the oldest town in the USA. During our exchanges, Nick & Cynthia visited their family and we did the same...sharing the holidays! |
This summer we went to Liverpool, England for 3 weeks and stayed in a 5 bedroom house in a very nice neighborhood. The family that exchanged with us had 3 school aged children who had a great time boating and swimming in the lake during a very hot spell. The also invited her brother and nephew who flew in from Colorado. We exchanged cars which was a little unnerving since we both were used to driving on the opposite side of the road, however there were no accidents. We both took side trips for 4 days. We went to London and they went to New York City. The best part of doing an exchange was having a built in tour guide. They left lots of books and maps to help us navigate to places we wanted to go. We really enjoyed learning about the local culture, spending time with neighbors, exploring hidden away restaurants and pubs as well as exploring many of the tourist highlights in area. We mostly enjoyed hiking in Wales and we hope to return to do more hiking next year. On the down side, we left England the day before the bomb threats to planes flying from England to the USA. They left the day after. Neither of us had any problems getting home. 41051 |
We recently had two two-week consecutive home exchanges in northern California, both of which met our needs, that is to have an extended time with family in Sonoma County. I like the idea of putting a few exchanges together. It wasn't easy to do. You have to definitely be proactive. |
We had a wonderful 2 week exchange in Greenwich, UK. We loved our home, the location, and the luxury of 2 weeks of sightseeing in London! |
Even though we are members of several home exchange clubs, all four of the swaps our family enjoyed in 2006 were exchanged through HomeExchange.com. We get many requests for exchanges, but we find that the best offers come from HomeExchange.com members. HomeExchange.com staff are always friendly and helpful. We also love the new feedback feature. Thanks for all the wonderful home exchange memories! Nicole Feist |
IT is a terrific and wonderful thing!! We have met wonderful people over the years and had much more meaningful visits than simply staying in hotels, etc. Thank you for this excellent service! |
Our exchange home in St. Andrews, Scotland was very nice. All needs were met, including an auto. In addition, we arranged to stay with a family in Spean Bridge for 10 days. Hopefully, they will be able to come visit us in the future. This was our third exchange experience and all have been supurb. #53696 |
We made a fantastic exchange to a place in the south of France. Totally lived up to all our expectations. We travelled there by car and directions were perfect. This home was the owners second home and they are going to do an exchange with our second home for the beginning of April 07. I am happy to give you our ID number 27822 but don't think it appropriate to give our exchange number to you without their permission. Thank you for your wonderful sight. We are busy for the next 2 years re holidays but hope do do an exchange again in late 2008/2009. |
AS NEW COMERS IN THE HOME EXCHANGE PROG.WE ARE VERY EXCITED ABOUT OUR FIRST EXCHANGE WE HAVE ARRANGED WITH ANOTHER MENBER IN HILTON HEAD -SC- NEXT SUMMER.THESE PEOPLE SOUND GREAT AND WE ARE CONFIDENT EVERYTING WILL WORK WELL (HELENE MY WIFE IS STILL A LITTLE UPSET ABOUT LETTING OUR HOUSE?BUT I KNOW THAT AFTER OUR FIRST EXPERIENCE IT WILL BE A NEW WAY OF LIFE) ERIC |
I just signed in on your home exchange site 2 months ago and already got a few requests for exchange. Currently we're trying to set up an exchange with some other exchangers in north eastern Australia. We have not been successful up till now, but we'll keep on trying!! Response rate is reasonably high (+/- 80%). Reactions we usually get are polite and positive. Good site! keep up the good work! |
We had a wonderful exchange to Spain for 1 month SISTER & HUSBAND JOINED US FOR THE LAST WEEK. WE ENJOYED THE SUN BUT MOST OF ALL WE WATCHED THE EASTER PROCESSIONS WHICH WERE WONDERFUL. LATER IN THE YEAR WE WENT TO DONEGAL IN IRELAND, THE LOCATION WAS VERY SPECIL,AS WE ATE BEAKFAST AND WATCHED THE SEA CHANGE COLOURS EVERY 10 MINTUS OR SO.FANTASTIC. AT THE MOMENT WE ARE TALKING TO PEPOLE IN CANADA FOR NEXT YEAR. |
We went to Bozeman, Montana from San Diego, which is exactly where we hoped to go. Some good stories...like how we hitchiked local-style to go innertubing down the Madison river. (We had to abandon all our S. Californian inhibitions.) We really felt like we'd been dropped in a foreign-and wonderful-culture of friendly, hospitable, easy-going people. We've done 7 or so exchanges with 6 of them arranged through homeexchange.com. The last two were pretty terrific and interestingly we were contacted by exchangers who weren't yet members but surfed your website. We are home exchanging FANATICS. Our favorite way to travel. I surf the site to daydream. Just trying to finish our landscaping over the next few months so I can update our photos. I fantasize about the day we don't have school age kids at home so we can do long-term exchanges around the world. Thanks for all the cool new features, |
I did a week-end exchange to Venice Beach and a long week-end exchange to NYC. Both were non-simultaneous and well worth it. I enjoy meeting the people I'm trading with, and all my exchanges have been non-simultaneous thus far. I have another exchange set up to Scotland. This will be my 3rd time to this home. These people have become friends, too. #12936 |
40701 We just returned from a month long trip to Europe and stayed with folks in Torino and Paris that were wonderful. These were non-simultaneous and we hope they are able to visit us in our home in the near future, but at this time there are no dates set. Both families were terrific. |
Did a house sit this past july in Provence, found it on the home exchange web site. It was great..the hosts left us lots of info about their home and area and a friend in the village who speaks english..yeah! We cat sat as well...and even tho we prefers dogs this cat was charming...Bouzy..talked to us all the time, very friendly and fortunately did not bring in any live mice or birds that we experienced on one of our other home exchanges. We are going back to france in june 07 and met them this past summer for a super 3 course lunch...It did take us quite awhile to find exchanges in france but we persevered. love exchanging. cheers marilynne |
France is our favourite destination. We have however recently renewed and are hopeful for next year (France/Italy and) Scotland. Hope all this is helpful to you. |
As a bonus, we have made some dear friends through non simultaneous exchanges. |
We exchanged, for the fourth time in January/April this year visiting our family in Perth. Although we did not met our exchange couple, we had many telephone/webcam conversations with them before and since coming home via Skype. This is such a great thing for getting to know each other and costs nothing, other than a webcam. The wife got home to discover she had a brain tumour, luckily benign, and has been quite ill. However, she is now on the mend and we have been able to keep in touch. We have made lasting friends from our exchanges, and in fact now have to make time for our own large family in Perth, as our ex exchange partners always have lots of social activities planned! We are exchanging again in October 2007 and are planning a party for our band of ex home exchange partners, who we are sure will all hit it off. |
Living in Costa Rica, we were contacted about a beach house swap, so we went to the pacific coast and they went to the Caribbean. It was a perfect location and we had a great time. Their's was a larger home with an extra bedroom with bath, so we invited a friend to join us for a few days of the week we were there. This was the only simultaneous exchange that we have done. We just got back from New York where we had a studio loft near Union Square for 11 days. We had a fantastic time and the exchangers couldn't have been nicer or more generous. In December we are off to San Francisco. They were here last July, doing a double house trade...so we will spend two weeks in San Francisco...and from there we are off to Portland for a week! We made a friend in Washington DC by exchanging with her and then hosting her visit to our place while we were at home...it was lovely. |
We have done a lot of independent driving travel in Europe and USA in the last couple of years and it has been wonderful. However, we still recall the fabulous homeexchange visits to both sides of Canada and to England. We look forward to doing more exchanging. |
Last Easter we travelled from Galway, Ireland to Western Massachusetts for an 8 day exchange with a great couple and their four parents. We met them in their home town, they took us to dinner, showed us around their town and home and introduced us to their friends and neighbours. Although we had very different needs (we have a teenager and two small children, they were travelling with four elderly parents) both exchange partners made huge efforts to accommodate the other in terms of cars, food, toys,introductions and pointers on things to do. This was one of our best holidays ever. The house and town were beautiful, the weather was perfect, their family and neighbours made a huge fuss of us and made us feel very welcome - we were inundated with offers of dinner and get togethers for the children. We explored a wonderful part of Mass. that we would never have discovered if it weren't for home exchange. Our exchange partners told us that they realised a life long dream of travelling to Ireland, with all of their four parents, to explore their Irish ancestory. We arrived home a day before they left, and while we had been a little apprehensive about us all being in the house together, it actually worked out perfectly and we enjoyed a great evening playing cards and swopping our holiday stories. Although we are generally more intersted in exploring new places rather than returning to places we have already been, this was such a successful exchange that both exchange partners have said that we would like to exchange with each other again at some time in the future. 38396 |
We made 2 exchanges like all exchangers, we had a good time. |
We arranged an exchange. We had fears that we would be exchanging with “strangers” but by the time we did the actual exchange, they seemed like friends. We are only sorry we weren’t able to spend more time with them |
I once did a hospitality exchange in Northern Ireland, which was wonderful. I've just joined the organization, and have a tentative plan to exchange with someone in British Columbia in the spring. |
We had a wonderful exchange in a small medevial French village in the French alps, called Entrevaux. It was like going back in time. Then we tied togeather three home exchanges for our September holidays in the State of Washington and Vancouver, Canada. I have given a talk last month on Home Exchange at a travel club, and have another one schedule the middle of November. Costa Rica awaits us in February !!!! |
We love home exchanges for all the reasons mentioned before in your news letters. All of our exchanges have exceded our expectations and we tell everyone we meet about the exciting concept Margaret #37586 |
We went to Europe this last August, and rented from a Home Exchange person. While we were gone for 3 weeks we did 2 non-simulataneous exchanges. Two different families stayed at our home in August, we will be staying in Connecticut/New York in April 2007, and Anna Marie Island, FLA in Dec of 2007!! LOVE IT!!! TELL EVERYONE!! Lisa Cox |
Our home exchange from here in Hawaii to Dordogne, France for three weeks in September was overall a very positive experience. |
we have made 2x 8 week trips this year, a total of 9 exchanges, from Venice, Europe to New york Seattle and all in between! All were wonderful and all were different. Now we are waiting for someone to tempt us away again, Micky and Al, New Zealand. |
We've been like kids in a candy store--we arranged nine exchanges in the first few months. We've been on three so far and are leaving tomorrow for a castle in Tuscany. The two best things about home ex: 1) having comforts unavailable at a hotel, like great music, video and book libraries and 2) going to places, in our case Australia, that we wouldn't have chosen without an offer. Australia turned out to be one of our favorite trips, ever. We've been to Amersfoort and Villefranche this year. Next year we go to Alaska, Tahoe, Bievres, Amsterdam, and Florence. How lucky are we? |
We wanted to see Washington DC as adults (minus our 4 children)..amazing what one can see without the kids!..we exchanged our home for a small condo in a perfect location in Alexandria...close to the metro...our exchanger wanted to see our NE foliage...so we were all happy...this was a 2 week exchange. |
Homeexchange.com is still at the top of the list of the homeexchange sites!!! |
We've done about 40 exchanges, most of them very good fits. We're amazed, though, at the number of people, generally from the US, who don't believe that our housekeeper and gardener speak only Spanish. I make it clear when we correspond, but they still think that they must speak SOME English...even though we live in a Spanish-speaking country. Be very clear, also, about the absence or presence of such things as dishwashers, composting requirements, recycling laws. Another good thing to know would be local customs...no halter tops at Sunday church services, e.g., and (especially outside the US), the responsibilities of household help and gardeners. One of our exchange families made our housekeeper very uncomfortable because she expected her to sit down with the family and socialize or eat. I'm more explicit now about cultural expectations than I was 7 years ago:) Sharon |
It was everything one could expect it has gone perfect.The change over, the house was beautiful, the area was much better than we imagined. It was a shame it had to end.PS Onething we like to do is meet the people we are exchanging with and this as always worked out really well, and we have made some lasting friends through this |
Marvelous people- every time. The homes have been just a represented- with no unexpected surprises. We love it! |
I am planning to do a back to back exchange to Austria and Prague (total of almost seven weeks). I have met the husband of the first exchange partners at my house in Malibu. |
I wonder if there are any "boat" exchanges? Houseboat or cruising boat. It's been great. |
We did an exchange August, 06. One of the many positives that struck me upon returning home, was that we could barely tell that a family of four lived in our house for two weeks! If it wasn't for the note and small gift, we wouldn't have known a family had visited! "Exchanging" is a great idea for the adventurous soul who wants more than a room in a hotel. |
This year we made two back-to-back exchanges. We spent 3 weeks in Denmark, near Copenhagen, and 6 weeks in France, near Montpellier. They both worked out very well. Our Denmark family, with three children, had good experiences in our city of Boise, Idaho. They were welcomed in the neighborhood. The French couple, took full advantage of our WV capmer van and explored the intermountain west. |
There is no other way to travel for us! |
This year we have done exchanges in London at Easter, Oregon during the summer and Fredensborg (North of Copenhagen) during our fall break - three very different vacations, but all great! And if we had had to stay in hotels, rent cars, eat out at all meals? Then we definitely wouldn't have been able to afford more than one vacation! So we are busy planning exchanges in Holland and Ireland for Easter and Summer 20071 |
Wonderful !! |
Lady from Toronto, wants to swap with my area in April 07. contacted her, and she was visiting relations near me the following week. Her and her mother came to view my home, have coffee and a chat. Although she wanted April she was very open for an Exchange in August 07. Im now waiting to confirm our exchange with her. this will be her 1st exchange and our 3rd. |
There are a few different homes that we have done repeat exchanges with, which is ideal because you both know what to expect, and it's very comfortable. |
Did a wonderful 6 week home exchange with a family in Yorkshie England. Couldn't exchange cars because of insurance concerns, but public transport was readily accessible. Hoping for another exchange with a couple in Western Australia early in the New Year. |
We made already 37 exchanges and still look forward to the next one. For us, homeexchange is the best way to travel and we can learn more about other cultures, languages and meeting people. |
You are correct about "equal for equal" In February we traded our gorgeous 2500sf oceanfront California home for a rent-controlled semi-rundown apartment in Manhattan. However the apartment was only six blocks from Central Park, and we were there to see Christo's Gates. Because we were so close, I spent a lot of time at the park. On the morning of the first snow, I happened to be at the park when Christo dropped by. Yes, a luxury house for a funky apartment, but the experience more than "evened" the trade! |
We did one exchange for a week in Chicago and another for a long weekend in San Francisco. We actually live in the East Bay only about 40 minutes away from San Francisco. |
We have done about 10 exchanges and all have been wonderful. We have gone to places that were not on our "radar screen" and some that were and have never been disappointed. Perhaps our biggest disappointment at this time is that we are unable to find an exchange partner in London. |
We had three exchanges in Italy in September, and they were all divine. We had a wonderful time, and it wouldn't have been half the fun if we had just stayed in apartments. |
One summer we did a wonderful exchange, people and place great. Because of that, the next summer we rushed into another exchange. the location and neighbors were great. |
Six exchanges over our usual three months spent in Europe (from NZ) There were Bedford and London in UK, Laguna Beach CAL, Sardinia, Moraira in Spain and Seville in Spain. All highly sucessful- two wwere poorer properties but others were so nice they more than made up for them! What a great system- on our tenth year of exchanging now- two to three months yearly. Richard Amery |
A week in Berkeley, CA, a month in Costa Rica, a weekend in Oakland, CA, and more. It's been a great year for home exchanging. Can't believe what wonderful people we keep meeting and staying in contact with. Thanks for all you do to keep this wonderful service available! |
We stayed in a lovely area just North of Victoria, BC. We were close to everything and toured daily. Such a lovely spot and the home was so very clean. Our home was clean when we left and clean when we arrived back home. Loved it! KB |
We were able within 3 months to find a suitable exchange which matched location, dates and number of bedrooms. We went to Switzerland and even had the amazing bonus of their second home in the Alps to use. Awesome time. We plan to exchange again this summer. Meanwhile this idea of weekend exchanges nearer to home sounds great. The Pikes |
As we have downsized our living situation recently, we wondered what the response would be to our new place. It is about one third less in size and certainly less luxurious than our old place. We were pleasantly surprised to have our traders especially comment on how beautiful and comfortable the house was and one of them would like to do it again. The other response I got from our traders(one couple who had done at least 20 trades, another brand new at it)that in future they would include more helpful information for their traders, as they found ours so useful. I try to be very specific about grocery shopping and restaurants including how to get there. It does make a huge difference, especially if you are in a foreign country. The homes we traded for were lovely and where we wanted them to be. We were able to meet the French traders for lunch which was a lot of fun. |
We had the pleasure of exploring one of our favorite areas, the US Northwest, from a beautiful home in Redmond, near Seattle. As the exchange family was very generous and the home large, we were able to ask an adult child and her family to join us for a portion of the time. As we explored the Seattle area and beyond, the exchange couple had the benefit of our smaller home, but beautiful surroundings of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. Our brief meeting over coffee with our exchange couple at the end confirmed our suspicion that these were wonderful people with whom we shared many interests and values. We now feel we have new friends in the Northwest and are open to future visits or exchanges with these same folks. Careful planning, good communication and lots of preparation have been well worthwhile. |
A couple from Tuscany was interested in exchanging with our home at the Jersey Shore. Because we were in the middle of a relocation to another state, we had no time for travel. However the couple asked if they could rent from us, which they did. I think they were very pleased, and we were able to unexpectedly cover some moving expenses just before we emptied our beautiful shore home. All were very happy! |
we are new members, but when we had our previous membership, we had lots of good exchanges, primarily in California. Looking forward to my husband's pending retirement so we can do more extensive exchanges. |
My last exchange has been like every other of the 5 exchanges, a holiday in a lifetime and I hope to have many many more of them |
Sometimes it is easier when we are traveling with friends to rent, and we find the Home Exhange site great for rentals. If we know that the home is a second home, we can approach someone who does not usually rent the house and often work out a deal. Being an exchanger makes it easier, we think, for other exchangers to be open to a rental arrangement. |
It was a wonderful experience being "part of a Community", instead of staying briefly in hotels. |
We wanted to switch with someone in Paris in the spring and while we were in Montreal which is pretty popular with people from France, it appears that everybody in France gets August off! So it was impossible to get a spring trip arranged. However we did use homeexchange.com to locate a very excellent rental. Still cheaper than a hotel! :) |
We arranged 2 exchanges, back to back, last summer, (2006), in East and West Canada. Like our previous exchanges overseas, the exchanges were, we feel, excellent experiences. We look forward to continuing our opportunities for exchanges in the future and our quest for the unique experiences they provide! |
My circumstances have changed, and I am no longer able to offer an exchange. But I know that some of your listers are interested in rentals, as well, so if you have a section with rental listings, I would be happy to hear about it. |
Beware of expectations being too high as some photographers are outstanding at their art and life does not always fully reflect art. However location will out. Others cleanliness standards will not always match your own. Be prepared to always leave better than you found. |
We met the ideal couple who loves our home in the mountains, and they have a home at the beach - we have the best of both worlds now, and we both feel blessed!!! |
i'm new to this. once i joined, i became confused with all the homes that are for rent. it does seem daunting but i'm going to try to do something soon. this letter is good! |
We had two great exchanges in February/March in New Zealand and Australia. Both were in holiday homes on the beach and both were wonderful. We will return to both countries in 2008 and already have two exchanges organised for West Australia. We are looking for a NZ exchange at the same time but if we don't find anything suitable can return to past exchange houses if we wish as the exchange families have invited us to do so even though they will not come to BC again! We have two exchanges arranged for Arizona this coming February. |
It was absolutely perfect. Our exchange family was great and we loved the vacation. No surprises and all went wonderfully well. Would definitely do it again. |
Overall the people were very nice. We cancelled a 3rd exchange, it just didn't feel right. |
Tried to organize an exchange for April 2007 in Hong Kong, however most people already had plans or didn't want to exchange to Australia and one never got back to us. Instead we have booked a hotel for our stay. We are thinking about an exchange to the US in the 2nd half of 2007, but are unsure of exactly where in the US we would like at this stage, and am not sure how many Americans will want to come to North Queensland. We have had a few requests from different parts of the world for our home, unfortunately the dates or destination didn't quite suit. |
The exchange we made over the summer was interesting, my first 3 way exchange. One of my closest friends daughter was getting married in New Paltz, NY. I searched and found a Cape Cod listing who had a primary residence in New Paltz where the wedding located. The New Paltz family were to be in England and their exchange family in Cape Cod house during the time of the wedding. We were able to stay in New Paltz within walking distance from the 1800's church where the wedding was held. Our host family went above and beyond by giving permission to have the rehersal party picnic in their backyard. Our host family is coming to visit our area in February and I am hoping we can provide them with an equally enjoyable trip. |
Your October newsletter was exactly a propos: that is, almost all the exchanges we've ever made were "uneven." Twice we've made short stays at places whose owners never managed to come to our house, but were willing take the chance that it might work out. We've had both longer and shorter stays at host houses than their owners did at ours, during two different (more or less) simultaneous exchanges. In both of those cases, we gave use of our car even though, for logistical reasons, we could not take owners up on offers to use theirs. After four such "exchanges," we're about to make our first truly simultaneous, pretty much like-for-like exchange. |
Super!!! |
It was a great experience overall. We exchanged with a family from Copenhagen and got to meet them at our home before we left. It was our first exchange, but have plans for many more, including hopefully shorter (long weekends, 1 week) exchanges either in the US or other easy to get to desinations. |
Each exchange we have had has been better than the last! We are tryuly hooked on this method of vacationing. |
You find your own level-it always seems to be a fair trade-it would be difficult I think to trade up. for instance, we exchanged last Christmas with a family with a 13 room Victorian mansion in Pacific Heights San Francisco. gorgeous house, gorgeous neighborhood, lovely people, we had so much room we had friends stay with us from Palo Alto, we had a fantastic time, and was so embarrassed that this family wanted to stay in our little 3 bedroom house in LA. but it rained nonstop the whole time we were in SF, while they had gorgeous weather here in LA, and their boys played field hockey and games and rode bikes in our street and huge backyard, which you could never do in their hilly neighborhood. There's benefits to all.We got to see all the sights in SF, in the rain, but nonetheless, had a wonderful time. Home exchange rocks! |
I have made six home exchanges from summer 05 to october 06, five of them thanks to homeexchange.com Only one was a disapponting failure, not the people or the house but the location. The rest has always been great, I would say more than that. That´s why I point 8 and not 10. And everyone staying at our house have said they had a nice time. |
I did a home exchange in Boston for my daughter's graduation from Boston College in 2003, which was the first & only one we have done thus far. We hope to do more. At that time we needed a home that would sleep upwards of 8-10 people. We found a beautiful home one mile down the road from her college & it was so convenient since most of the hotels were overbooked & overpriced at that time. The family we exchanged with unfortunately never followed thru with coming to California to stay in our house in Lake Tahoe. Even though we occupied their house in May of 2003 I would gladly honor their request at any time now or in the future. We are looking presently for a home on Cape Cod Massachusetts in Aug 07 & Italy Sept 07. We have two grown daughters, the eldest will graduate from dental school in June & join dad in our family practice, the youngest is studying in Barcelona this fall & will return to CA to finish her undergarduate work. We love to travel as a family & hope that we will find the perfect locations for our trips in 2007. I enjoy receiving all of the daily updates of the exchanges that may match our requests, we have some leads out & hope they come thru. Fondly Tina |
Four of us attending a large Rotary International conv. in Denmark/Sweden stayed in a charming home where our hosts greeted us with barbequed chicken. We learned more about the countries than those who stayed in fancy hotels. Our hosts are to come to my home in Southern California soon so I can reciprocate. |
