What chance is there for a home swap with a European family if you live in a small town in southern Michigan?
Oct 27th, 2006, 09:27 AM
#1
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What chance is there for a home swap with a European family if you live in a small town in southern Michigan?
I keep reading about home-swapping as a great budget way to travel. But then I think about my home in a small town in southern Michigan, two hours from Detroit and 3 1/2 hours from Chicago. Would anyone from Europe (for instance) want to swap homes with us? I find it hard to believe. Has anyone had good luck with this in similar circumstances? If so, which of the home-swap companies (websites) would you recommend I try?
Oct 27th, 2006, 09:47 AM
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can't be too far from Lake Michigan - had three French ladies here in Sept and took them to Saugatuck on Lake Michigan for the weekend and they loved it - gorgeous beaches and a lake that amazed them.
Oct 27th, 2006, 09:52 AM
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Don't give up before you start: you never know when a family connection will bring folks to your doorstep. We had a neighbour in Western Newfoundland that rented her home to Germans. They wanted to be there for the wedding of a relative who lived in the next town.
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:06 AM
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We are 2 1/2 hours from good Lake Michigan beaches. I had forgotten the value of that. Thanks for the reminder. We also have many small lakes very nearby, although those are nothing like Lake Michigan.
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:09 AM
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For instance, someone like me could like to be in a regular neighbourhood in order to practise English surrounded by ordinary people and not the ones who work on the tourist industry 
If a Spaniard goes to , let's say, NYC..probably speaks more Spanish than ever 
If a Spaniard goes to , let's say, NYC..probably speaks more Spanish than ever
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:10 AM
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And sell the point that there are many great forays to take from the house base - overnights in gorgeous northern Michigan - the huge dunes they don't have in Germany and many Germans like to hike or perhaps fish - angling for trout in pristine waters of Michigan's innumerable lakes and stream - northern Michigan's beauty will enthrall Europeans - or kitschy kind of Mackinaw Island - Chicago for a night, maybe even Detroit or Windsor Canada. Or Holland, Michigan with its Ersatz Dutch windmills, etc. Or maybe even to Frankenmuth and its German heritage and down-home family chicken dinners.
If doing the lake be sure to tell the ladies that topless is not OK here - when i took my French friends to the lake they at first started out topless before i told them they could be arrested for that! A German high school exchange student who stayed with a friend on a lake in northern Michigan decided to go skinny dipping and lay nude on the dock - fine at home but also Verboten here.
But i think if you push the extraordinary beauty of Michigans lakes and northern part Germans may really go for it. And perhaps you neighbors in your probably sleepy typical midwest town may also like mingling with the Germans.
If doing the lake be sure to tell the ladies that topless is not OK here - when i took my French friends to the lake they at first started out topless before i told them they could be arrested for that! A German high school exchange student who stayed with a friend on a lake in northern Michigan decided to go skinny dipping and lay nude on the dock - fine at home but also Verboten here.
But i think if you push the extraordinary beauty of Michigans lakes and northern part Germans may really go for it. And perhaps you neighbors in your probably sleepy typical midwest town may also like mingling with the Germans.
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:23 AM
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Well then you can ballyhoo the extensive Amish area just south of you -this may intrigue them a lot and Shippensshana (sp?) Amish area and market. And i think Hillsdale has a neat farmers market - maybe they are race fans so check out the major NASCAR race track near Brooklyn. Or Ann Arbor and its beautiful classical campus buildings and cultural offerings. Or Jackson and its Cascades in summer!
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:25 AM
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Can I suggest you're in pretty much the same position as many people living in Tuscany or the Dordogne?
You've no way of knowing for certain whether anyone's going to want to swap with you (yes, even in Tuscany there are lots of houses that just aren't right for potential swappers).
Joining the major swap organisations costs you very little in time or money. And, whether your house is in central Siena or the wilds of Siberia, you'll have to wait till you're sure someone's going to swap before confirming the travel or the time away from whatever you normally do.
So the important question isn't "will anyone come here?" (Mrs F and I often discuss a month by a lake in a less congested part of the US). But "how can I draft a directory listing that will get the owners of the nicest houses in Provence or Amsterdam to phone me instantly?".
For which PalQ has some excellent suggestions.
You've no way of knowing for certain whether anyone's going to want to swap with you (yes, even in Tuscany there are lots of houses that just aren't right for potential swappers).
Joining the major swap organisations costs you very little in time or money. And, whether your house is in central Siena or the wilds of Siberia, you'll have to wait till you're sure someone's going to swap before confirming the travel or the time away from whatever you normally do.
So the important question isn't "will anyone come here?" (Mrs F and I often discuss a month by a lake in a less congested part of the US). But "how can I draft a directory listing that will get the owners of the nicest houses in Provence or Amsterdam to phone me instantly?".
For which PalQ has some excellent suggestions.
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:30 AM
#13
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WOW, PalQ -- are you from around here? You have hit all the places I should have thought of. I guess I've lived here too long to remember its charms. (I'm embarrassed to say I have never been to Shipshewana! But I mean to go every summer -- have to do that in 2007.)
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:39 AM
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I would think if you could talk up the "Americana" nature of your hometown and nearby attractions it might appeal for someone who was looking for that in a trip to U.S. (you know, baseball, apple pie, shopping malls, etc., not everyone who travels does it only for museums and symphony).
Oct 27th, 2006, 10:48 AM
#15
Kristinelaine - I don't see why not. Providing you don't live next door to a nuclear reactor, a cement works or an oil refinery. Part of the attraction would be to "live like the natives" - not in some heavily touristed hotspot, but in a real town, like real Americans.
Oct 27th, 2006, 11:10 AM
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Well Hillsdale, though not a tiny town, but a small city, is the archetypal proverbial mid-west small town - yup Apple Pie - if on the 4th of July they surely have a fine patriotic parade and the Hillsdale County Fair would enthrall Europeans as well as 'so typically American' - Niagara Falls is a good and very easy overnight but if a family has kids then your number one calling card could be Cedar Point, just a few hours away on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio - this is the Valhalla for roller-coaster lovers - more bigger and faster ones here than anywhere in the world - PBS had a group of U.K. roller-coaster enthusiasts touring the U.S. theme parks and they unanimously proclaimed Cedar Point the king of roller-coasters - even if the family doesn't have kids adults may like it as well - plus the kitschy Americana western shows there. Henry Ford's Greenfield Village - one of America's top Americana parks - lots of old buildings from Ford, Edison and turn of the century factories, churches, etc. - one of the finest of its kinds - and the Ford Museum with its fantastic collection of cars and implements - the chance to actually see cars being built in the Rouge Plant, the world's largest factory under one roof, etc. a pro sports game - Baseball with the resurgent Detroit Tiges. Just don't mention that Hillsdale and its tiny college is a bastion of Neo-Con study and thought - unless they like to hear the likes of Scalia and Neo-Con luminaries pontificate on the dangers of the Welfare State, etc. Lots of small lakes around the Hillsdale-Coldwater area for swimming in the hot summer heat - also until recently i guess a bit unusual for northern Europeans. Or nearby Battle Creek and Cereal World, home of Kelloggs. The Battle Creek Air Zoo and its large collection of planes. I could go on and on and have gone on and on and on and on and
