Home Swappers: The Home Exchange Newsletter

Featured Home Exchange

Phuket, Thailand

Luxurious apartment overlooking Kamala Bay in Phuket. Conveniently located near amazing beaches and highly rated restaurants, Kamala is a top tourist destination and yet still manages to offer that rare combination of complete tranquility and vibrant energy.

Exchange request: England, Cornwall, London, Ireland, Open to offers

Click here to view home exchange listing...

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Save 20%	In preparation for next years London Olympics we are offering 20% OFF membership until the 10th July. Home Base Holidays has the best choice of home exchanges offers in London and throughout the UK... so start planning your exchange vacation today! Join Home Base Holidays! (Enter promo code: LONDONSWAP20)
Offer Expires: 10th July 2011

What is a Home Exchange Vacation?

Animated introduction to home exchange

What is a Home Exchange Vacation?

"15 successful exchanges and still loving it. Have loved all our wonderful past exchanges all over Europe!"

Doreen and Richard, USA

14th Home Exchange - 1 month in the Caribbean!

Home Base Holidays member, Carol, shares her home swap experience

"Just thought I would send you some news of our latest home exchange - this was number 14! We spent almost a month on the wonderful island of Grenada. This was our first visit to the Caribbean and we stayed in the north of the island on the outskirts of Sauteurs (members HE22960). Our exchangers suggested we went over a few days prior to them leaving in order that they could explain the many & various quirks of living in the middle of a tropical forest. They met us at the airport & although it was only 28 miles to their home they explained that due to the road conditions the journey would take us one & a half hours. However we had all failed to recognise that it was Bank Holiday with many celebrations taking part in the various villages along the way! We eventually arrived 2 hours later!

It was a lovely property with lots of space surrounded by a veranda that enabled us to enjoy meals overlooking the Caribbean or views of the beautiful gardens & forest covered in flowers. We often ate breakfast watching butterflies and hummingbirds feeding from the blossoms & as you can see one morning a cricket decided to join us! We were introduced to a wonderful couple called Pam & Chas who run a B & B called Treetops who are the closest neighbours to the property (albeit about ¼ of a mile away through the forest. They were a wonderful couple who did their utmost to ensure that we met up with the real Grenadians by taking us to one of the local rum shops (called the Sailing club - membership is only issued to those without a boat!) We spent many happy hours with them & their many Grenadian friends. We found the local people such a pleasure to be around - always a ready smile and very anxious to assist in any way.

Our trips out in the car were often quite hair raising due to both road conditions and driving skills!! However all the locals loved to act as temporary traffic police and despite rounding hairpin bends to find a village cricket match in the middle of the road or the local goatherd returning home with his flock we lived to tell the tale.

We bathed off 11 different mostly deserted beaches, walked through the forest down to the small but most beautiful hotel & restaurant called Petit Anse and went by local boat over to a deserted island. Our host on the trip to Sandy island was a guy called Dragon who after dropping us off at the beach, went off to harpoon our lunch! He then proceeded to Bar b que the best fish we have ever tasted served to us on a very large Fig tree leaf. We all felt we were living in one of the 'Bounty chocolate bar' advertisements.

Coming from England we did struggle sometimes with the high temperatures and the humidity and found both the sea and our lovely Jacuzzi quite warm despite the fact that we had lots of rain (mostly during the night. However a visit to the some many waterfalls enabled us to really chill out! We saw a 4ft long Iguana ,many brightly coloured Lizards, a 4inch brown scorpion and many different tropical species (often causing much shrieking and screaming from both me & my stepdaughter) We were always serenaded by the crickets & tree frogs - the latter loved to compete with the heavy night time rainfall!! Despite the fact that we had no TV for almost a month we had an amazing time.

Our home is only a small detached house on the outskirts of the ancient city of Gloucester but was much enjoyed during this trip as our exchangers were able to stay close to family & friends but still managed to remain independent. I hope this short synopsis helps to encourage more exchangers to take the plunge and 'go for it' by trying something different!"

Carol Adams

Click here to see Carol's home exchange offer...

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We are always pleased to hear from members and subscribers and to receive contributions for the newsletter and blog - short reports on your exchange experiences, tips you feel would be useful to those new to the idea of home swapping and any questions you have on home exchange.

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