An important part of building your presence in HomeForHome is how you present the attractive things going on near your location. Some lucky people are located in touristic “hot-spots” like downtown London, romantic Paris, the timeless channels of Venice, the Mediterranean coast… But those who need to make their location more appealing must add extra information to catch more people’s attention and receive more home exchange requests.

In view of helping these last people find attractive things to add to their home descriptions, and focusing on the “Points of interest near your home” field, we have the following websites:

BritEvents.com - hosts a calendar of events taking place in Britain. There’s a chance an event taking place in your area is listed here because they seem to have just about everything: sports events, shows, plays, exhibitions, conferences, concerts, gigs, art & craft, and even a section of bizarre events which is presented “From World Gurning Championships to The Biggest Liar Competition, and The Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling Championship to the Bog Snorkelling Championship, we Brits are renowned for devising some of the oddest, most bizarre events imaginable to keep us entertained”. So, give it a chance and you may find an event that “spices up” your location.

enjoyEngland - in their own words “you’ll find everything you need to plan a day out or short break in England. Explore the map for top locations around the country, find inspiring ideas on where to go and what to do or use our day trip planner to find great events happening near you.”

These websites will also be appealing to those looking for a particular event or activity, or those who are not sure what would their next adventure be. Whichever your situation may be, you’ll stay there the cheapest way using HomeForHome.

In a previous post, when 2010 was just starting, we wrote about the top travel destinations for this year. Among the places selected by the cited specialist websites there were two local ones: London and the Isles of Scilly, both in England. Well, London has worldwide reputation and needs no further recommendation, but what is great about the Isles of Scilly? Let’s explore…

The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago 45 Km off the Cornish peninsula, the southernmost mainland point of the UK. They were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1975, so with that title you can’t go wrong. Peaceful, beautiful and uncrowded are probably the most fitting adjectives to describe this paradise. The “outstanding natural beauty” of the isles is protected by the local community by attaining sustainable practices and the establishment of a “visitors Code of Conduct” where mostly green travelling tips are recommended to preserve the natural beauty of the islands and decrease the carbon footprint left behind by those who choose them as their holiday destination.

Photo by Tom Corser

The five larger inhabited islands are Bryher, St Agnes, St Martin’s, St Mary’s and Tresco, and they are surrounded by several smaller rocky islets. Natural tourism is the main economical activity, followed by fishing and early-flower production. Bird-watching is one of the high points of the islands, due to the presence of rare migrant species mostly during October. But don’t let the relaxed spirit of this barely touched gems give you the idea that there are not exciting things to do in Isles of Scilly: golf, tennis, biking, snorkeling, diving, horseback ridding, sea safaris, kayaking, windsurfing and shark-fishing are some of the activities that can give you a sense of adventure as well.

So if your HomeForHome quest sets you off to the southwest for a home swap you may want to include a visit to the Isles of Scilly in your tour and explore an area of sandy beaches, clear waters and undisturbed nature.

For more information, you may visit:
* http://www.ios-aonb.info/
* http://www.simplyscilly.co.uk/

Travelling can be such a pleasant activity, but planning a great vacation takes a certain time. The most time you invest in taking care of the little details the least chance things won’t turn out as you originally wanted.

As HomeForHome is intended to make home exchange an easier alternative for our users, we are constantly looking for ways to help you plan your perfect vacation. That means not only providing you with tips about home exchange itself but also about travelling in general. That’s why we have often posted reviews of places to visit, trends, opportunities, activities, etc. But we are not a specialized travel resource so, what can we do to compensate that? We present you with specialized websites where you can find all the relevant information to prepare your trip. Today, we introduce you to a comprehensive directory for the UK traveller: travelfromHere.com

travelfromHere.com tries to make your travel related web search easier by presenting you the best possible selection of relevant sites from the Web. By following the provided link, you will access travelfromHere.com’s thorough directory of accommodation, transport (including airlines, airports, car rentals, coaches, trains and flight specialists), holidays, cruises, attractions, insurance, travel guides, travel Internet communities, and much more. How can travelfromHere.com make your travel planning a little easier? Just as an example, they have links to organisations that could assist you to obtain a visa, which could save you hours of Internet search to find the requirements, hours spent waiting in lines to get forms or get documents and, above all, the headache of arriving at your destination without the proper documents.

So check it out, and of course HomeForHome is there too!

Everyone deserves to spend time relaxing once in a while and that’s why vacations should be planned so that they are as unique as the person that needs to relax. Some people need excitement to get away from their daily duties, some people need to spend their vacations quietly, maybe sleeping more than they usually do, or reconnecting with family and friends, or just a combination of sun, sea and sand.

What about you? Are you looking for an exciting vacation? Do you prefer quiet destinations to unplug from the city rush? Are you counting the days to get to the beach? What about a romantic escapade to an uncrowded small village? No matter the preference, the right place is accessible through home exchange.

Whether you are planning a family vacation, a few days by the beach, a touring time in the city, an adventurous vacation trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, etc., there is a home in HomeForHome with all you need to complete your custom made “vacation pack”. Even a romantic honeymoon trip may be waiting for you in a home exchange. What would be more romantic than having a complete house for two? No crowded hotel or resort. Just a couple, having their first morning breakfasts in the kitchen with no schedule or timetable, moonlight dinners in the terrace or garden, if you can imagine it you can have it in your swap.

Combinations are also possible. For example, you may have a romantic getaway to an important city, combining the tranquility of a residential area for your “alone” times and the proximity of downtown areas, easily accessible, with cultural attractions, nightlife and entertainment. Get ready to swap and enjoy!

Home exchange has been around for a while now and many people have made it their favourite travel choice. It is quite simple after you get into it, all you need are your communication skills to help you get through. First, you need to write a description to present your home to other users and to present yourself. Your personal information is as important as your home’s. Would you trust a person with your house if they don’t share anything about themselves? This is your presentation card. It should be neat and sincere. You don’t have to make it appealing to everyone, but do make it appealing to those you would like to receive in your home.

You will need to use your writing skills a little bit farther along the way: describe your home. We offer many check-boxes to help you list your facilities, services and home features, so you may want to use the description fields to let people know something else about your home. Is there anything nearby that deserves being mentioned? Maybe the beach is just a stroll away, or a delightful little market/restaurant, or your home’s location provides easy access to transportation, whatever you can think that makes your home stand out should be considered to be included. If you want to get some ideas, look around and check which homes from the listing you find more attractive and mimic their style, what do they provide that makes you consider them good choices? Does your home have any of those characteristics?

There are yet more opportunities for you to use your communication skills, one is contacting other users. If you find a home that you like, don’t be shy, send the owner a message and ask them to check out your own home. That’s a good way to start a “conversation” about a possible exchange. If the other user’s home is exactly what you are looking for, then send an exchange proposal instead. Communication is the key here, it’s the foundation on which the system is built, we just provide you the mean to know who to contact.

Image by Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Does it seem clear by now that communication is very important? Well, the final step is probably the most sensitive one: making the exchange arrangements. You should always try to talk with the other end of an exchange at least once, of course you can use HomeForHome’s built-in contact options, a chat service, e-mails and all kinds of written messages to discuss details but there are so many free PC-to-PC call applications that it shouldn’t be a problem to talk (at least once) to get a direct idea of what the other user expects and feels about the exchange.

Image by Yaron Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of the main advantages of using HomeForHome as your home exchange site is that the registration is completely free. Many people write our Help team asking how does the system work because they can’t believe they don’t have to pay anything. Unlike many other free services, quality is not compromised in HomeForHome and we are always looking for ways to improve the service we provide to our users. We care for every member that joins the community and we try to make it as easy as possible for them to become successful swappers.

As our community expands, we keep looking for ways to improve the site’s functionality and we welcome comments about any details that could make the service we provide a better one. We have our team checking the forums to answer your questions about the service or technical problems, replying to every message you send using the “Contact us” feature, and reading carefully your suggestions so that whatever mean you choose to express your thoughts, your voice is heard. We care.

We have a very important concern right now and it is the fact that some users are not taking care of their accounts as we expect them to. By this we mean that requests and questions from other users are not being answered, which is disrespectful, inconsiderate and wastes time from users that want to make home exchange their main mean of travelling. To find a proper solution to this situation it is important to consider as many ideas as we can and we want to hear your suggestions. We will look into every idea to find the choice that helps the community grow stronger and makes HomeForHome live up to your expectations. We look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all our home swappers! The most romantic day of the year is here, a time to let your loved ones know how much you care about them. Now, are you having trouble writing a card? Well, we won’t write the card for you, but to get you in a better mood we have a selection of humorous quotes about love. We chose humour because even if you don’t have a card to write, you will have some fun anyhow.

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” — Albert Einstein

“No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife is not saying.” — Anonymous

“You can’t buy love on eBay.” — Anonymous

“Men aren’t necessities, they’re luxuries.” — Cher

“If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?” — Anonymous

“There are three kinds of men who do not understand women: Young, old, and middle-aged.” — Anonymous

“To laugh often and love much… to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one’s self… this is to have succeeded.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.” — Alice Reppler

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” — Albert Einstein

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.” — Pearl Baile

“Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Franklin P. Jones

We hope you enjoyed our selection, and remember if you want to find a romantic home exchange deal visit HomeForHome. Our listings include homes in the most romantic cities around the world. If you haven’t registered yet, you can do it in just a couple of minutes (registration is FREE) and you can start contacting other users right away!

By graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few weeks ago we posted the list of the top ten travel destinations for 2010 selected by Frommer’s, Encyclopedia Britannica Blog and Lonely Planet, and they were mostly holiday travelling destinations. But vacations are not the only reason to travel, and if you are looking into a long term home exchange or a non vacation-related trip, we have another list that may seem more appropriate: The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey results.

This list assesses 30 indicators over five categories: Stability, Healthcare, Culture and environment, Education and Infrastructure. Each city gets a final rating ranging from 1 to 100, were one means “intolerable”, 100 means “ideal” and anything above 80 means “few, if any, challenges to living standards”.

This time, 140 cities were evaluated by in–house analysts and in–city contributors. The cities that made the top 10 this year are:

1- Vancouver, Canada (98.0)
2- Vienna, Austria (97.9)
3- Melbourne, Australia (97.5)
4- Toronto, Canada (97.2)
5- Calgary, Canada (96.6)
6- Helsinki, Finland (96.2)
7- Sydney, Australia (96.1)
8= Perth, Australia     (95.9)
8= Adelaide, Australia (95.9)
10- Auckland, New Zealand  (95.7)

Image by Arnold C.

As you can see, Vancouver, host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games taking place right now, has a final rating that is close to perfection. Do you want to discover the advantages of life in Vancouver by yourself? Then take a peek at our listings by visiting HomeForHome and searching Canada (Country) > British Columbia (Region) > Vancouver (City) and find your deal. There are yet other details that stand out from the list: Australia having four cities making the top ten, and Canada having three top ten cities (with No. 1 included). Wow!

Author: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you are already planning your future summertime home exchange, you may have noticed our community has kept growing over the past few months, so the options have widened. There are HomeForHome users all over the globe and in the most varied locations.

There are homes in big cities, like London, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, New York, Madrid, Barcelona, San Francisco, Melbourne, Sydney.

There are homes by the beach, homes near famous locations, homes near touristic hot-spots…

But today we wanted to point out a less known environment: farm homes.

There are various farm houses listed in HomeForHome, and there is probably one near your own location. Farms are a great idea for a family vacation. Most children will be very excited to explore the countryside and it may turn out to be an experience they will never forget.

The tranquility, the animals, the garden, the chance to take a long stroll into the natural wild or a nice picnic by a creek, maybe fishing. The options depend on what is available in and near the farm, but chances are you will relax no matter what. If there are animals in the farm, or a vegetable orchard, you may have to take care of them while you are in charge of the farm, your swap partner may provide you with some basic instructions on what needs to be done and you may have your children collecting eggs, feeding baby lambs, collecting fruits, etc., experiences that would make them more aware of our relationship with the natural environment.

If you are venturing with the family into a farm stay, you may want to bring along some board games, puzzles or card games for them to enjoy in the evenings as well.

Another advantage that would result attractive is that you will not have to buy tickets or souvenirs as you probably would if you get involved in a costly attraction-filled trip. When you are staying in a farm, you are staying in the attraction, with no extra cost!

Tonight there’s a sport event that will catch the attention of almost 100 million people worldwide: the American football Super Bowl. This is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL). There is a growing interest in American football in Britain, to an extent where now there are season games taking place in England on a regular basis and there’s even the idea of having a local team in the league.

But the Super Bowl goes far beyond a sport game. This event has developed into a show that includes live performances from top artists and million dollar advertising campaigns airing during breaks that have become entertaining themselves and are the reason why many American non sport fans watch the game. This year, the half-time show will have a rock band from England: The Who. In the United Kingdom you can watch the game live on BBC One, Sky Sports 1 and HD 1.

This year, for its 44th edition, the Super Bowl will take place in South Florida at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens. This is a very popular area for vacationing, receiving thousands of tourists from around the globe every year. South Florida offers travellers sunny beaches, theme & amusement parks, shopping areas, museums, varied restaurants, entertainment and sizzling nightlife, and there are several HomeForHome users in the area. So, if you catch the show tonight and you happen to get enthusiastic about a trip to the warm sunny beaches of Florida, then come back to HomeForHome, find your home exchange partner in Florida and get ready to pack your bags.