World
travel on your bucket list but not in your budget?
I
just read a fascinating book on how you can travel the world on the cheap, paying nothing at all for your lodging. It’s a
new travel trend called Home Exchanges.
Australian
author Ainslie Waldron has written a how-to book called Luxury Globetrotting on a Staycation Budget, and the secret is to trade your home for a home in the country you’d
like to visit. Ainslie lists several websites where you can place your house up
for exchange, and search other countries for houses that other people are
willing to exchange. Always wanted to go
to Ireland? Maybe someone in Ireland wants to visit your home town!
Ainslie says she's done this for years and visited all seven continents (she has a beach house in Brisbane she
puts up for exchange).
It seems like a brilliant idea if you live in an interesting location (for
instance, I live in Orlando, where probably some people might like to
visit). When I started reading the book I was a little leery about having
strangers sleeping in my house, but I guess these home exchange websites vet the people
who participate, so there’s little problem and rarely any theft. (Basic advice
is to keep your valuables in a locked room in your home when you leave or in your bank safety
deposit box.) And there’s a ‘comment’
section on the home exchange websites where you can read about other peoples’ visits to a
particular home you might be interested in.
Like I said, it’s a fascinating concept. Imagine living like a local in
Tuscany or Greece or Paris. Buying fruit for breakfast at the local grocery
store, hanging out at the neighborhood café or using your new house as a home
base to leisurely explore the surrounding area. You’d really be able to immerse
yourself in the culture, instead of seeing it from a tour bus!
My husband is ready to pack his suitcase, but I’m still trying to decide
where I’d like to go. Hmm… Ainslie’s beach house in Brisbane sounds awesome. I
wonder if she’d like to trade for a house close to Walt Disney World?
What about you? What do you think of the concept of home exchanges?
Leigh
