Home Swap Stories

Here are some stories from our members about how a home swap has helped them have some wonderful holidays. There are more member comments about home swapping our Testimonials page.

UK home swaps are fun too!

As we have just renewed our subscription for another year I thought you might be interested in hearing about our exchanges during 2011 even though we still have one left as we are exchanging over Christmas for the first time ever!

Our first swap of the year was in March when we spent a week in Cardiff for Paul’s 60th birthday. We wanted to explore “our” capital so it was ideal and we had a lovely week. We met them at a pub about halfway between our homes and got on very well. This is a thing we try to do with UK swaps as it is always nice to put faces to exchangers.

Easter found us in Acaster Malbis near York at a lovely old house. Our daughter and family came too, so we had a houseful! Luckily they left a few days before us so I was able to do all their laundry before we left. I didn’t want Annie to come home to launder bedding and towels for seven! The boys loved the trampoline in the garden, the gym with home cinema and the study with X-Box!

In July we spent a super two weeks in Norfolk again meeting our exchangers en route. Norfolk was entirely new ground for us and we really enjoyed it.

At the end of August we had our only foreign trip of the year to Bergen op Zoom where we swapped with a lovely old house called (in Dutch) The Brown Dog! It is right on one of the market places in the town so Thursday mornings are noisy from about 5am, but the market is wonderful, so we didn’t mind the early alarm call! We went by train and explored by train as we didn’t exchange cars. We went to lots of towns and cities in the Netherlands and Belgium. On our way home we spent two nights in Brussels which gave us the opportunity to visit Ypres, which was very interesting and moving especially the Menin Gate. When we got home we found that our exchanger had painted a watercolour of our house, which we have had mounted and framed see attached.

October brought two exchanges: the first week we went to Frisby on the Wreake. We made use of our Leicestershire base to visit a few cousins who live in that part of the Midlands as well as doing some lovely walks. At half term we went to Roughton, Lincolnshire to Hilltop Cottage (UK53767) - again, new ground for us and we loved the walking opportunities that the Wolds offer. Our final exchange of the year will be in Yarnfield (UK67515). It's only about twenty minutes from our daughter’s home and we will be there over Christmas. We plan to meet our exchangers on our way to Staffordshire. Like us they have two cats and that is also a big plus now that one of our cats, Dylan, has to have a tablet every fourth day. So far all our exchangers have managed very well with his pills even the non-cat people!

We have four swaps lined up for 2012 so far: Easter at Roslin, near Edinburgh (UK53926), May at Upton on Severn (UK54187), June in Bavaria (DE009345) and early September in Poole (UK67476). Our daughter is getting married in early August, so we are not able to swap in July or most of August - only four swaps how will we cope with only four holidays?? If it wasn’t for HomeLink I think we’d be lucky to get more than one! Many thanks again for all your hard work making HomeLink so efficient.
Paul and Jean, December 2011

Rugby World Cup 2011 home swap

Hi Caroline, yes we have tickets - been to all Scotland's [Rugby World Cup] games so far. Had a hospitality exchange in Christchurch, couple took us to Ruby Bay for a few days to stay with their friends and arranged for us to stay with another friend of theirs en route from Invercargill to Christchurch. Amazing welcome so far in NZ - currently on an exchange in Wellington, then on to an exchange in Hamilton on Thursday for 2 weeks, an exchange in Auckland for 2 weeks, one in Melbourne for a week and one in Tasmania for 10 days. By the time we go home via San Francisco we'll have gone around the World in 84 days, so will probably not venture too far next year! Been telling folk about Homelink.
Mrs McG, Ayrshire, September 2011

Perfect Italian home swap

Dear Caroline, I’ve been meaning to tell you what a great exchange we had. This was hands down the nicest exchange we had. We exchanged interesting and humorous texts regularly fortunately their English is excellent. Now we have a problem though as they said this was a benchmark of the perfect exchange. The location was fantastic, the house impeccable and the hosts couldn’t have been kinder or more helpful. They left our house in perfect condition too and with many ideas on how we could reorganize (Paolo is a super homemaker and has given me some ideas...). I see a trip to Ikea in the very near future.

Of course, I’m already browsing for next summer. My health was great in the mountains so much better than in this damp, grey climate but of course we won’t mention that to our Mediterranean friends.

Thanks again for all your help and your wonderful organization we can’t recommend you enough!
Mrs S, Oxfordshire, September 2011

Home swap gives a kitten a new home!

I just want to let you know that we have had the most amazing experiences with our home exchanges and been very lucky with the ones I have been able to organize. Our first swap was to a beautiful apartment in Montmartre in Paris, with a view of Sacre Coeur out the window. We have also had an exchange for a ski chalet in France, an unforgettable condo on the beach with a pool on Grand Cayman, and for our summer holiday this year we are going to a house on the beach in the Bahamas. In April, we did a local swap with a family in Lincoln and they were happy for us to stay in their house with another family, so there were eight of us in their fabulous house and we had a cycling holiday there. The best thing about that swap was that we looked after their cats, and my kids and I fell in love with them so that when we got home we got ourselves a gorgeous kitten, who is now the new lord and master of the house! Thank you for running such a fantastic site and I hope to enjoy many more wonderful years of exchanging!
Ms C, London, July 2010

New Zealand home swap

We returned to UK on 4 April after a great 9 weeks in NZ. We stayed with Homelink people the majority of the time, met some very interesting & hospitable folk. The 9 days when we were not in Homelink homes highlighted how comfortable & relaxing the swap homes were. We are great fans of Homelink & try to promote it whenever we get the chance. We reckon we saved about £3,500 on the cost of accommodation & on the strength of that we gave ourselves a few treats!
Thank you for all your hard work.
Mrs & Mrs T, Surrey, April 2011

A Year in Provence... on a home swap!

We always travelled a lot before we had children but then we found it far harder to afford the kind of destinations we wanted - until we discovered Homelink. In the last 3 years we have been to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, France (twice), Germany and Austria as well as Yorkshire, London and Manchester. And every single swap has been amazing. So when the opportunity of a year in Provence came up we just knew we couldn't pass it up. Home exchange for us has been a completely life altering experience and we are completely evangelical about it.
Mr & Mrs R, Whitby, April 2011