Home Base Holidays members share home exchange stories

The following home swap stories by Home Base Holidays members include direct links to their current exchange listings. Short quotes from many other members are included throughout the website, again with links so you can check out their offers. Home Swappers Newsletter also includes feature articles written by members on their recent home exchanges.

This is a photo of Jan and Ben Stewart's home in Southern California. Jan's account of their first home exchange in August 2002 to England follows:

We just completed our first home exchange! What a fantastic experience! Ben and I exchanged during the entire month of August with the Peutrills - Geoff, Louise, Tom, Katie and Sophie ... oh yeah, and TC the cat ... in High Barnet, just north of London, they to our home in So. California. This was a first time exchange for both. The total experience was absolutely perfect from beginning to end. We feel like we've made lifelong friends. Our families really clicked, they spent lots of time with our daughter and her family, and we visited with their neighbors in England.

We wrote lots of "get acquainted" emails beforehand, answered one another's questions, made plans together and sent information back and forth. We also made several phone calls during our preparations. We all shared the same goofy sense of humor, so that really connected us!

I adored their house. It was built in the 1920s ... was so charming and cozy. They had a family of foxes living in the bushes in the back garden! Every day I put food out for the foxes and watching them appear each evening to eat was a real treat. The house was very close to the "tube", so we were able to get into London very easily and to connect with trains to take trips all over England. We spent four days in Dublin during our month which was great fun and gave us a "taste" of Ireland with an idea of perhaps exchanging there in the future. I took an embroidery course at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court which was fantastic! We had lots of visitors during our exchange month ... family and friends wanting to be in on the fun. We loved going to the local supermarket ...checking out all the different foods and products, going to the pub, talking with the locals, trying out the local restaurants, going for long walks in "our" neighborhood. We even used the library in High Barnet. Ben took a day trip to Cardiff, Wales; we took the train to Oxford; all connections so convenient from our local tube station.

We appreciated coming home to our own home after a tiring day of sightseeing. It was great having laundry facilities available, a beautiful back garden to sit in and relax, and a barbecue ready for a cookout. Each and every little thing was fun and exciting, from watching British telly to figuring out the appliances. All the stuff that makes travel to a foreign country have meaning. The experience was so perfect on so many levels ... it felt good to share what we have here in California, to share our home and family, to share the Puetrills' beautiful home and family, to accept their generosity. It felt politically correct and spiritually magnificent!

Well, that's enough about our exchange. Besides I've got to start searching for our next "home away from home"... Jan Stewart

View Jan & Ben's latest offer (note: the Stewarts now live in Washington state): HE15665

Long-time members Bridget & Yves Poher sent in the lovely photo and message below:

This photograph owes a great deal to Home Base Holidays.

It was taken in August 2001 at the home of a French family in Marseille who were exchanging with Kathy and Mike from Manhattan Beach, California (back row). In the foreground are Sue, Yves, Bridget and Gary. Gary and Sue are from Fort Myers, Florida. Yves and I are from Molineuf in the Loire Valley in France. Both American families and the person taking the snapshot, Eric, had exchanged houses with us. We spent a wonderful evening in each other's company, exchanging anecdotes about home exchanging and sharing jokes about the idiosyncrasies of each other's houses. Perhaps this is the best reason for home exchanging; the opportunity to meet some really wonderful people.

Less than a week after this photo was taken we welcomed Rick and Dianne, Gary and Sue's neighbours from our Fort Myers' exchange and had (another) lovely meal with Suzanne and Patrice, our neighbours, who had entertained all our exchange families up to, and including, our 2001 exchange with Jane and Bill from Berkeley, San Francisco... How complicated!

I should say that we have been really touched by the kindness of the people we have exchanged with and their neighbours. Gary and Sue (Fort Myers 2000) went out and bought a bicycle especially for our youngest daughter. However, it hasn't been without hiccups. Mike (Manhattan Beach 1999), broke his ankle on our stairs two years ago but hasn't held it against us! Jane and Bill left us a garden full of raspberries, lettuce, lemons, blackberries etc. to gorge ourselves on but forgot to mention the fire alarm that went off if you boiled a kettle.

Thanks once again - we're addicted!

Best wishes and keep up the good work,

Bridget & Yves, France

View Bridget & Yves' listing: HE6223

UK member Paul McIlhone sent the message below after his family's first home exchange holiday to Canada:

I am writing to thank you for the excellent service you have provided for myself & my family. We have just completed our first year with you & have just renewed our subscription (best money I ever spent). We have been interested in the idea of a home exchange for a long time & so your website seemed ideally suited to our needs. We initially joined just to find out if we would get any interest in our property; being outside of London (based in Leicester) we feared that our location might not have enough appeal. How wrong can you be, this year we have received numerous offers from people in Australia, Canada & all over the USA, & all this without making any enquiries of our own.

Although as I said we had initially joined just to test the waters, that all changed when we received an offer of an exchange in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. I have relatives there & as it turned out they were only 15 minutes drive away from the exchange location. I had for many years wanted to visit my relations but, both of us having children, it was not practical for us to stay with them, as there simply wasn't the space. However this exchange seemed the perfect answer; I am still today staggered by the fact that of all your clients all over the world we were contacted by people less than ten miles away from my family.

Anyway this being our first exchange we were extremely nervous green-horns who didn't know quite how to proceed. However your website was of fantastic help with tips & information on just about every aspect of our trip. Also our fellow exchangers were a highly experienced couple in there 80's who took it all in their stride. As a matter of fact they had arranged three UK exchanges in a row, two weeks in Scotland, three weeks with us in Leicester & two weeks in London, giving them a seven week vacation. So when I tell you they are experienced you can see I am not joking!

Our three week Canadian holiday was the first time any of us had spent three weeks in another country & also our first transatlantic holiday. Exchanging homes & cars was the only reason we were able to afford such a magnificent trip & has made us true converts to the exchange experience. We are already beginning to look at where we might like to try next!

Thank you once again for your excellent website. Yours is a shining example of the power of the internet to bring like-minded people together. Long may you prosper & grow, continuing to offer us ever widening opportunities.

Members Share Their Home Exchange Experiences