I will be exchangin homes for a 3 week stay in Europe next summer and was looking for ideas on a place to locate so that the kids 13,11,9 will have a lot to do. Clearly, we can;t do culture every day at those ages, even if it is mostly castles, etc.

I was thinking of Southern Germany, so that France, Switzerland, and Austria would be close.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Good thinking in my opinion, Aramis. I would like to do a home exchange in Freiburg in southern Germany for the very reasons you cite--it's close to so any interesting possibilities, and it's a beautiful, fairly small university city. Keep us posted on your decision.

My experience has been to be open about where you want to exchange and the time frame. I had a lot trouble pinning down any location for one even though I started a year ago and am a member of a club. We eventually got only a 4 day exchange in an area we had not intended to visit. We did have the problem that we wanted to go in June, while most Europeans with families want to go July and August (and we start school early August)

I agree, it helps to be flexible about your location. In addition, the Aramis famliy has 3 kids and that will limit your choices somewhat -- not every exchange family can (or wants to) accommodate a family that size. We got a fabulous townhouse in London for our exchange quite late in the season (we started planning in March) and I think it was at least partly because we were willing to exchange with a family that had 3 sons! As gb noted, prime exchange season is late July and August (our exchange kids in London didn't get out for summer vacation until July 25).

I use homeexchange.com, what are other good homeexchange sources?

Several years ago my parents, and then my husband and I, used the Intervac catalogue and were very happy with the results. We wanted an exchange in Germany, but because of dates, ended up in Holland. It turned out wonderfully and I fell in love with the Netherlands on that visit! Our exchange partners looked after our pets, garden and car, and the house couldn't have been any cleaner when we arrived home! Would exchange again in a heartbeat.