London! Paris! Amsterdam!
Athens! Europe beckons, but for many families the cost of accommodations,
and the logistics of steering children through a vacation abroad—navigating
restaurants, keeping the kids entertained, living out of suitcases in
hotels—quickly tarnish the appeal. Even so, more and more families
are overcoming these obstacles and finding their way to destinations all
over the world through the growing popularity of home exchange vacations.
We first learned
about home exchanges while resting our feet in the café at London's
Tate Museum. Having struck up a conversation with a retired American couple
sitting at the adjacent table, we were dumbfounded as they explained that
they were on their fifth house exchange in as many years, enjoying all
the conveniences of a small home in central London. Our immediate response
was, "What about families with children?" To our delight we
discovered that home exchanges come in every size and shape, and can be
arranged for families with just one child or many children, and for stays
of a week or two, or much more.
The very next summer,
having set up an exchange with a French family, we found ourselves ensconced
for three glorious weeks in an elegant 18th century home in the Norman
city of Rouen. The house was a two-minute stroll along cobblestoned streets
to a colorful open-air market in the plaza where Joan of Arc was burned
at the stake. Our son, then eight, eagerly settled into one of the children's
rooms and discovered a wonderful collection of games and toys, including
the French versions of some old favorites.
With all the amenities
of home at our fingertips, we enjoyed a pleasant balance of busy sightseeing
and relaxing evenings with a day off now and then just to play and read
in the yard. We used the family car to drive into Paris, explore the countryside,
and check out the Normandy coast. And because we were there on a house
exchange, we were able to enjoy this vacation for little more than the
cost of our plane tickets.
The year after, we
were thrilled to find ourselves in a chic modern home in a stylish suburb
of Copenhagen, and last summer we enjoyed a wonderful three-week vacation,
once again in London, but this time in a charming, spacious home near
parks, shops, and transportation.
In addition to these
amazingly successful vacations, we have also had the opportunity to consider
enticing exchanges—that, alas, we couldn't pursue—in Vienna,
Barcelona, Provence, and New Zealand, as well as several major cities
in the U.S. Other friends and acquaintances have completed exchanges in
Paris, Amsterdam, and Florence. The possibilities seem endless. One couple
we know spent a month with their baby in a home 100 yards from the beach
in Sardinia.
For families the
advantages of a home exchange are many. Besides the huge money savings
on both hotels and restaurants, you can arrange to stay in a family neighborhood—and
one you probably otherwise would never have seen as a tourist—rather
than the noisy city center. Our son, now eleven, has had the opportunity
to play with neighborhood children, and we have hired local teenagers,
recommended by our host families, as babysitters, thus giving us the rare
opportunity for a romantic evening out in a foreign city. We have also
enjoyed having all the conveniences of home—dishwasher, washing machine,
television, vcr, games and bikes—and some we do not even have at
home—an immense master suite, electric towel warmers, and convertible
car.
Another advantage
of being in a house as opposed to a hotel, is that we have been able to
balance sightseeing with relaxation. We treasure the memory of coming
back to the house after a hectic day, eating a casual dinner in the garden
room, and enjoying the luxury of spreading out our Stonehenge jigsaw puzzle
on the dining room table while our host family's cat took turns in our
laps.
We have arranged
all of our exchanges through Intervac International which publishes a
series of worldwide directories and features listing of over 10,000 families
interested in arranging home exchanges. Another company, Homelink USA,
provides similar catalogs plus internet listings. For about $100 either
of these companies will list information about your house and your vacation
needs in their catalog. All kinds of homes are offered for exchange, from
modest apartments to mansions. Each listing follows a very detailed format
that provides lots of information about your family, where you live, where
you would like to go and for how long and when, the number of people your
home can accommodate, the availability of various appliances, local attractions,
and whether a car is to be included in the exchange.
Once your copy of
the directory arrives you look for listings in the places you'd like to
visit with matching vacation dates, a somewhat similar family, and an
appropriate house. Next comes the exciting process of contacting these
potential exchange families by phone, fax, email or letter, and working
out the details of your exchange. Meanwhile other members will have seen
your listing and will be writing to you about exchanging homes. It's thrilling
to pick up your phone and have someone calling from Paris or Amsterdam
offering you their house for three weeks. Once you decide to swap homes
with another member family you need to work out all the details. Most
home exchange services offer information and advice on how to negotiate
the details, but they leave the actual arrangements to you.
Here are several
points to keep in mind when planning a home exchange.
1.
Think through your ideal location. Do you want to be in a major
city, a suburb, or a small town out in the country with lots of outdoor
recreational possibilities. As much research as you can do in this regard
at your library, bookstore, or over the internet will prove to be helpful.
2.
Learn to interpret the directory listings. When we first started
investigating Copenhagen, for instance, we discovered there were very
few listings of houses for the city. Only after examining a detailed city
map did we realize that each suburb was listed by its own name, and that
we needed to pay close attention to another part of the listing that indicated
the distance to the city center.
3.
Look for a family similar to yours. The listing information
tells you the number of family members and their ages. If your exchange
family has children in the same general age bracket as yours, you can
arrange to use their strollers, car seats, bicycles, toys, computer games,
and whatever else you need. They, in turn will be thankful to use your
equipment. In our experience, other families have taken very good care
of our house, cars, pets, and possessions.
4.
Develop a bond of mutual respect and trust with your exchange family.
While you are setting up the exchange you will get to know the other
family, their professions, their interests, the features of their home,
their car, even their children's babysitter. Just as you are entrusting
your home to them, they are entrusting their home and car to you. We have
found it helpful to meet our exchange family when they arrive so we could
introduce them to our dog Rosie, and show them around our house. Likewise,
they have arranged for a friend or family member to introduce us to their
home. We do know of people who have exchanged homes without ever meeting
the other party—having crossed paths over the Atlantic—and the
exchanges have worked out fine, but for us part of the joy has been to
make new friends.
5.
Leave detailed information about your house and car. You'll
have time to put together a file folder with information about your home
that outlines the essentials such as trash pick-up, recycling, how to
take care of your pets, where to turn off the gas or water in emergency,
what repair services to contact for fixing an appliance or your car, names
of baby sitters, cleaning service, and who to contact if they have questions.
Remember they know where you are should they need to be in touch! We have
collected a packet of information about local attractions, parks, and
recreational facilities that we leave to help our new friends, and have
equally appreciated information they have left for us.
With these guidelines in hand, we want to encourage you to go forward and arrange the vacation you always imagined, or, perhaps, never dared to imagine. Remember, just as you are dreaming of taking your family to a country estate on the outskirts of London or a Spanish villa minutes from the ocean, there is a family dreaming of spending their vacation in a home far from their own, a home like yours perhaps.