Jessycat

I am interested in doing a home exchange. Do any of you fodorites have experience with this? Tell me your experiences, sucess, failures, etc. Tell me, tell me, tell me.. Jcat

Gerry

OK Jcat, here I am as promised. I share this not because we are able to do it but because I find it so fascinating and thought provocking.

Here's how my dentist does it. He lives in Concord, CA., not normally considered a hot touist destination. He has a guest room (I wish I did). So he invites them(Europeans) to come first any time they want whether he's home or not. He explains to them that his house is 3 blocks from the BART station which they can use to go to most San Franciso bay area locations(and no pickpocket problems--my addition). They can rent a car to go to Yosemite, Napa Valley, Monterey etc. When they arrive he introduces them to his neighbors and everybody helps them with their sightseeing and trip planning. He invites them to dinner, if home. If they have children, the neighbor children entertain them. They leave sooo happy! As a result he has open invitations to stay at their homes in places like Vienna, London and France to come whenever he wants and stay as long as he wants. He recently spent 1 month in Vienna and got the same treatment he gave them. I don't know about you but this makes me want to buy a house with a guest room near the BART station. It really has me thinking.

Any one else have experience with this?

How about one in Rome Jcat?

Gerry

John

We've signed up and have gotten umpteen offers (mostly from Belgium - why do they all want to leave Belgium?) but haven't had the occasion yet to do it. However, some British friends of ours have swapped houses several times - we've traveled to meet them in various places in the US - and they've had universally excellent experiences, except for the elder US gent who crunched their lipstick red Jaguar in front of their Yorkshire house - problem with keeping to the left apparently. Doh!

The biggest exchange service is HomeLink International, http://www.homelink.org/ which has a good explanatory website.

It's a good way to save money, definitely upgrade your accommodation, experience life truly as a local, meet new dogs and experience new washing machine technology - in short a blast.

Jessycat

Thanks guys.. I do have a guest room! Yeah. I usually host a foreign exchange student each year so I am use to the process. This year my college student was from France so, her mother invited me to come stay in Limonges at their house at no cost. She said she had many friends my age that would take me out dancing, etc. She also said that she had friends in Paris that would pick me up at the airport and take me to the train station. Sounds like quite a deal doesn't it. I think this all sounds fabulous. I think I'll try it. I have also checked out a link on Vacation-Homes.com.

Thanks for finding me Gerry! You are a industrious man. J

xxx

Yep, we've exchanged before and thought it was great. We went to Luxembourg for a month and they came to the SF Bay area. We're planning to do it again. Anyone in Freiburg Germany interested in exchanging in the SF Bay area in the early summer of 2002?

kalena

Yes it's not too late to think about 2002! We are homelink members and have had three wonderful exchanges. Funny, people want to come to Hawaii. We highly recommend it.