Image by healingdream /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Along with green travel, which involves reducing the environmental impact of our trips, came another interesting and related trend for those wishing to get the most out of their journeys without “buying a package deal”: slow travel.

What is slow travel? Well, simply taking things slow as we travel (what else!). You may be wondering about its benefits and you will find it interesting that there are several good reasons why slow travel is becoming a trend:

1. Slowing down allows you to savour each moment. You will smell the roses, you will really taste the food, you will enjoy the wine… You will find yourself discovering unknown places instead of jumping from one tourist site to the next.
2. If you stay at a place for a long period (meaning more than one week) and you take the time to get to know local people, you will find your trip more rewarding than just a touristic voyage. In slow travel you dedicate time to making new friends and you try to experience the local daily life.
3. Taking the time to DO everything as if you were at your hometown (cooking, cleaning, groceries…) also cuts some expenses. No restaurant meals everyday (maybe just a few to try out the local cuisine), no room service, just you living your regular life in a different, exciting new place, as if you were starting a new life there.
4. Taking things slow is less stressful than rushing from one site to the next and packing/unpacking every two to three days. Slow travel is the best way to relax your body and mind.

Home exchange seems bound to slow travel, as it allows for longer stays, getting immersed in the local community, and experiencing life in a different place that is also a home. In a way, the home exchange community has been exploring slow travel for a while now, with options such as long-term and permanent exchanges becoming more popular… But that’s for really slow travellers.

We looked around for a while and we finally made our choice. Our first recommendation for this summer is the Black Sea Coast.

Being a summer destination it needed to have water. And being we are expecting a hot summer, the more water the better! So, what does the Black Sea Coast have to offer?

Photo by Petro Vlasenko

- Miles and miles of clean sandy beaches
- Warm sunny climate
- Ancient sites
- Small towns
- Mineral baths, thermal springs and even some famous rejuvenation treatments
- Stunning landscapes, with mountains rising behind the shoreline
- And it goes easy on the budget!

The Black Sea Coast has been steadily growing as a touristic destination since the end of the cold war. There are several cities and towns along the coast. Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey are the countries that share the privilege of having Black Sea shores. To help you with your HomeForHome search, here are just some of the many cities lying along the coastline: Sevastopol, Sochi, Batumi, Samsin, Burgas, Varna, Mariupol, Constanta, Novoazovsk, Odessa, Yalta.

There is also growing interest for archaeological exploration, since the Black Sea has excellent conditions for preservation of submerged materials and was sailed by several ancient seafarers, including Greeks, Persians, Scythians, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Ottomans and Hittites.

Do you need anything else? Start your search right now and prepare your home exchange to the Black Sea.

HomeForHome is getting ready for some changes. Thanks to all who have contributed ideas and suggestions, the website is going to have some improvements really soon. But, as this is a really busy time of the year for all of our registered users, we wanted to make a small clarification that will be important for many of you.

As you all know, there is a limit to the number of home exchange proposals you can send every week to ensure there is no bulk requesting. But, as important as sending requests, is checking if you have received a home exchange proposal yourself. Well, HomeForHome can send you an e-mail alert when someone sends you a message or proposal. To receive such an alert, you need to mark a check-box in your profile that does not have a “clear” label right now. The current label is:

“I want to subscribe to the newsletter”

Image by Francesco Marino /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, if you want to receive an alert in the e-mail address you used to register in HomeForHome when another user contacts you or sends you a home exchange request, you need to mark this check-box. We believe this will be very helpful to those expecting answers from other users or waiting to come across a perfect proposal.

That’s all for now, keep swapping!

Image by tom.snaps /flickr.com

I was trying to find some statistics related to airplane travelling and I found this great tool called FlightStats. What is FlightStats? Well, it is a website that provides global information related to airports and flights. There’s a list of the busiest airports and destinations, the most popular destinations and several tools, including an attractive map search tool.

There is an interesting Travel Tool section, in which I explored the Flight Status tool that allows you to search by flight (need airline name or code, the flight number and the departure date), by airport or by route and provides near real-time information and reports of anything that could be affecting a flight. There are other tools worth trying, like Airport Information, which seems to be able to provide delay information, flight status, weather conditions, driving directions (with traffic conditions), car-park options and user ratings. Seems interesting, right? I will try it next time I plan a trip, and I look forward to receiving your comments if you try it too.

If you are just starting to plan how to get to your home exchange destination, you may want to take a look at the Travel Planning tool (currently in the More at FlightStats.com section), it offers the following options: Flight Availability, Country Information, Travel Warnings, Travel Advisories and Consular Information Sheets. Here is what they say about these tools:

“FlightStats has a set of applications that can aid you during your initial stages of planning for travel. Before traveling internationally make sure you view the latest travel advisories and warnings, and research the country you are thinking about traveling to.

Country Information - This application summarizes some of the other country-related applications. In addition, you can see a map of the country with major airports, and learn about disease prevention based off of information from the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Travel Warnings - Get the latest travel warnings published by the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

Travel Advisories - Current and past news and security alerts for countries around the world.

Consular Information Sheets - The latest information about a country published by the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.”

Photo by mikecogh /flickr.com

If you are planning to take a flight to your summer home exchange destination then it won’t be bad to read today’s post and prepare to grow some patience, unless of course you actually have wings of your own or you know a scientist with a tele-transportation device in test phase. As we said the last time, patience is a quality that is never over-rated when it comes to travelling, specially in an airport. Why? Well, not always what’s scheduled with weeks of anticipation goes as planned: delays, cancellations, gates that suddenly change, baggage getting lost… We are not saying going though all these is a requirement to get out of an airport, and we certainly hope your next flight leaves and arrives on time, but being prepared for what your next trip to the airport may bring to your life implies taking some patience in your carry on.

Patience not to scream when you can’t get across to the airline staff - this is fundamental, they are probably trying their best to help you and they don’t want to have you stay overnight at the airport or anything, so give them a moment to find a solution, explain your problem nicely as many times as you need and smile for a change.

Patience to go through all the required security checks - they have to check everyone, your safety depends on it too, so give the security staff a chance to do their job correctly, and again, smile.

If you need some encouragement to get you through an airport problem, just remember where you are headed: you are flying off to your home exchange, an experience you will never forget!

Image by djcodrin /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When one first comes across this whole “home exchange” deal, the first one wonders is “Would this be right for me?” In past posts we have often pointed out good qualities a swapper should have: patience, flexibility, communication skills, thoughtfulness, a sense of adventure, curiosity, honesty, respectfulness, among others. But first things first: if you just can’t help thinking about the terrible things some strangers may do while in your house, then probably home exchange is not right for you. To be confident that you can to create a solid “bond” with someone to trust them with your house is the foundation to hold your swap “career”. If this is not your case, then you will have to pass on this and choose a different mean of accommodation. Hey, we don’t have anything against what hotels, home rentals and resorts offer, we just prefer home swapping to those options.

Now that we established some ground, I think there’s another pillar to succeed at home exchange: patience. You will need it for many steps along the road: to set your HomeForHome account, to add your home to our listings, to surf the site looking for interesting offers, to participate in the forums, to evaluate proposals carefully, to arrange  the swap details once you get lucky, and maybe to wait enough time for your first opportunity in the home swap world to crystallize.

We are not discovering anything recommending patience as a “must” virtue for any traveller, anyone that has been to an airport recently should know what this means, right? But let’s leave patience in the airport for next time.

Jessica Watson got home. Who? Come on, you really don’t remember one of the girls sailing alone around the globe? We wrote about her and Abby Sunderland last month. Well, the good news is that Jessica completed the challenge, arriving at Sydney this weekend.

Her journey around the world took her through 23,000 nautical miles (something like 42,000 Km) in about 7 months, and she received quite a warm welcome when thousands were cheering her as she navigated through Sydney Harbour before disembarking at Sydney Opera House. Even more people followed her blog and website, plus there was a live TV broadcast in Australia. Well, given the Prime Minister was at her arrival it’s safe to say the girl is a celebrity now.

Image by Michal Marcol /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

She did it, 210 days of solo, non-stop, unassisted sailing. So, what are you going to do with your next 210 days? An option is to set route to that exciting destination you’ve always wanted to visit and have your dreamed trip! You may try it solo and non-stop if you want, but for sure you can use HomeForHome’s assistance to find a home exchange deal before embarking on your journey!

If you want to read more about Jessica’s trip, visit her official website: http://www.jessicawatson.com.au

And if you want more inspiration, then remember we have another teenage girl sailing around the world: Abby Sunderland. So, where is Abby now?

Image by jscreationzs /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

HomeForHome aims to become the largest home exchange network, and so far it’s going great! (or shall we say “growing great!”?). There are over 13,000 houses registered, from almost any place you can imagine. And this time we won’t miss it like we did when we reached 10,000 homes, as soon as we reach to 15,000 we’ll shout it up!

How does the HomeForHome picture looks like now?

Spain has taken the lead, with almost 5,000 houses registered!!! Wow, that’s a lot of swappers searching for “intercambios”. Second in offers is France, oh “la France” so beautiful, there are so many things worth seeing in France, Paris alone (note: with 750 swappers it has more offers than most countries!) probably has 10 “musts” for most travellers not to count its Mediterranean coast, the wines, the cheeses, the bread… Third, achieving the bronze medal (for now) is Italy with over 1,600 homes. Italy is another country with much to offer: Rome (116 offers), Milan, romantic Venice, and pizza everywhere. Following in number of offers are UK, Germany, USA, Canada, Australia and Argentina.

For exotic places where there are HomeForHome home exchangers: Madagascar, Uruguay, Barbados, Azerbaijan, the French Polynesia, Alaska! Many you probably didn’t think of till now, and many more you can discover using HomeForHome’s map search tool. Give it a try!

Image by Salvatore Vuono /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It is “high season” for home exchange, so you may want to give the following tips a quick glance to help you succeed in your next swap experience. If you are an experienced swapper, we’ll be happy to include your own tips to success so drop us a line!

* Communicate with your home exchange partner, it is the most important key to the deal along with honesty. For an exchange to be successful you need to get to know each other before the swap so you can experience your own vacation at ease.

* Be aware that arranging a home exchange takes time. It is not like booking a hotel when you just call and make the deal, there are no “givens” here, you need to arrange every detail, from dates to who pays for repairs in case they happen. An example of a very small detail: what type of fuel does your car require? Be pro-active, don’t expect everything to be proposed by the other party.

* Prepare your home for the exchange:

-> Clean your home. Leave clean sheets, towels, toilet paper, and anything you can think of.
-> Write small instructions for your swap partner to easily operate the house appliances (TV, DVD, computer, washer, dishwasher, etc.) and don’t forget the alarm system!!! You may call the alarm people and arrange an alarm code just for the swap.
-> Leave a welcome “basket”, or just water and fresh food as a courtesy.
-> Clear some space in the closets and maybe even a drawer so people can take things off their suitcases.
-> Take special care in having valuable items locked away or secured somehow.

* Remember to pay your bills or make arrangements for someone to pay them while you are away.

* Ask someone you trust to be the “contact” for your exchange partner to call in case something comes up or if they need help with anything related to the house.

* Write down any important phone numbers and leave them by the phone.

* Check your insurance coverage (both for house and car if the last is involved in the exchange)

* Once you’ve gotten to know your partner, discuss how you would handle forced cancellations. If something comes up and the other party already bought their airline tickets, you could make arrangements to stay some place else during the swap and allow your partner to complete their part of the trip. It’s good to have a back-up plan, both ways of course.

We hope this helps!

Last week we tried an online inspiration tool to get some ideas for our next trip, but maybe be you didn’t find a destination to match your expectations, so this week we decided to take you back to some of our older posts and reviews as the are also inspirational. Maybe your next home exchange will take you to a place mentioned in these pages:

Warm Thoughts invites you to visit Argentina, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand.

Home Swap in Amsterdam

Surrounding Beauty: Landmarks features historical UK sites.

Late Destinations… recommends Australia for its nightlife.

Exchange for London an introduction to London’s best attractions.

Final (or not?) Destination… just a short invitation to discover Monte Carlo.

Destinations: Leipzig

Short Guide of Spain (1) with the second part still to come!

Glamour and Vacation takes you in a film festival tour around the world.

The Isles of Scilly - Blossoming Natural Beauty

HomeForHome's Search on Map

This is just a small selection of places we reviewed since we started this home swap dedicated blog in 2008, but you can use our archive to find other great destinations in Spain, Iceland, Germany, Brazil, USA, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, South Africa and more…

You can also use HomeForHome directly for inspiration: try our “Search on map” tool and navigate through the listings in a completely different way.