Many of you were interested in Home Exchange. Here is an article I have written which may be published in the Star Travel section.
HOME EXCHANGE - the way to go..
The first obvious benefit of home exchange is you don’t pay for costly hotel accommodation, and you won’t have to eat every meal at a restaurant. But the real advantage is that you become part of a neighbourhood with its own shops, supermarkets, and – as in our Paris exchange – the best boulangerie.
Downside:: you are on your own (except when you are met at the airport by your exchangers,) – no convenient bus pick-up or tour guide pampering. You are on your own in a strange city armed with nothing but a guide book.. What can happen? How about this:
“Here we are – this is the zoo,” announced the exasperated Lisbon cab driver.
“You can’t let us out here,” I protested.
except when you are met by your exchangers, except when you are met by your exchangers, “The address you gave me is not even in Lisbon, it’s in the suburbs” he replied angrily.
“But my friend in Lisbon said he lived behind the zoo,” I said.
“So you’re here,” replied the now furious cabbie.
The upside: new friends: Alberto, mathematics teacher and aspiring artist, with the elusive address in Lisbon. Trees and Dick in The Hague. Henri and Michele in Paris, Debby and Lu in Hengelo, Ken and Caroline in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mary in Brussels, Gianni in Treviso, Leonard and Anne in Auckland, and Mike and Pam in Aberdeen.
Where there is “overlap” we pick each other up at the airport, then home for a jet-lagged nap and a meal, and. a brief orientation tour of the neighbourhood.
. How is it done? We belong to two major home exchange organizations. You have access to all the listings on the website. Ours are HomeLink and Intervac, two of the biggest, but you can find more by googling Home Exchange.
If you have an apartment in a prime location like Paris, London, Rome or maybe Barcelona, offers pour in..
We solicit, sending dozens of Emails to preferred locations. We travel only in “shoulder months – never in summer – so we miss many potential exchanges. Many listings are for people with families who want July or August. exchanges.
Another question: “Don’t you worry that strangers will come to your home and do damage?” I remind them that we are also in their home and living with their possessions. So far, not so much as a glass has been broken and usually the place is left as neat and clean as when we left.
What really matters is that we make friends. On our way to Venice we stopped for a couple of days in Amsterdam. We invited Trees and Dick in The Hague join us for dinner. Her Email response: “We will be at Schipol airport (arrival time 7:30 a.m.) to take you to out house for a couple of days. You didn’t see Vermeer’s :”The Girl With The Pearl Earring,” and you didn’t get to Delft.“ Two days later they drove us back to our Amsterdam hotel. They did it again two years later picking us up, staying in Amsterdam then driving us all the way across Holland to Hengelo.
Pretty little Hengelo just across the border from Munster in German was a treat and devoid of tourists. Here’s where another feature of home exchange saves money. Debby and Lu offered a car exchange – not unusual if the exchange is in a small town or the countryside. We were able to tour the back roads and discover an unpublicized part of Holland which just happened to include one of the world’s great art parks, with a collection of Van Gogh’s bigger than the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Debby and Lu of course used our car to tour but not in the city.
In New Zealand, our stay was in an elegant big house in Auckland. The only way top see New Zealand is to tour – we used their car, and they used ours.
Just one note about the ”elegant” house. Some people complain that they will only exchange for something that is comparable to your home. So if you have tennis courts and a swimming pool, your exchanger should have them too. Forget it. Better you should stay at George V in Paris. You’d hate the cozy little stuio we stay in.
We’ve stayed in everything from a tiny house in a small town in Belgium, to the Treviso “villa” with the marble floors and winding wrought iron staircase.
In Lisbon Alberto’s atelier was, in a word – cozy. If your inclination is toward five star luxury. Forget home exchange. We want the experience and the visit and the neighbourhood and the people.
Our former Paris exchangers Henri and Michele maintain a very chic studio apartment in the Port Maillot area with a permanent home in Chantilly. We have an open invitation to stay whenever we want. He is a designer, artist and photographer. The home in Chantilly is breathtaking combination of fun and high-tech design. He picked us up at Charles de Gaulle and after waiting patiently for more than an hour for lost luggage. drove us to Chantilly for an elegant al fresco lunch, then all the way back into Paris to their apartment.
In Charlotte Ken and Caroline “hosted” us. They offered to vacate or we could share the space. We had our own bedroom and bath in a big house with two charming hosts. Every morning, Caroline would have fresh oatmeal and coffee waiting.,
In Treviso., Gianni met us art the airport and took us to his elegant marble-floored villa in Treviso, about a 15 minute train ride from Venice.) He lives our of town in his country home. One sunny afternoon we spent picnicking on his property complete with chilled bottles of Proscco.
Mike and Pam from Aberdeen stayed with us last summer after a holiday in Muskoka. They repaid us with eight days of Scottish hospitality. They drove to see all the castles. We visited the Whisky Trail. One night when I decided I had to cook we went to the supermarket. He wouldn’t let me pay.
Try getting any of these experiences through a travel agent.
By the way, the Lisbon stand-off worked out? Finally we agreed that he should drive us to the suburban address. Enroute, a nagging thought. : I had envelope with Alberto’s key in it. I opened it. The correct address was there.
Yes, he did live behind the zoo.
