Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When you think of a great beach vacation you probably think of the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, the Mediterranean coast or a similar location. But which is your favourite UK beach? With the word “crisis” still in the air, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on the holiday budget and there’s no better way to do that than to combine home exchange with a domestic trip (or a even a few) to save both on accommodation and transportation.

They may not be the as dreamy and warm as the Caribbean’s, but there are hundreds of beautiful beaches in the UK’s 19,000 miles of coastline just waiting for you.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) through its Good Beach Guide gives the following recommendations to enjoy your time at the beach:

* Check the public notice boards for information on water quality, currents and emergency phones.
* Follow any advice from lifeguards and understand the system of safety flags.
* Never leave young children unsupervised.
* Do not swim when the sea is rough, or where there are known currents or riptides.
* Do not use inflatable beds or toys - currents can easily take you out of sight.
* Swim parallel to the shore rather than out to sea.
* Do not swim immediately after a meal and never after drinking alcohol.
* If you’ve been ill after bathing report the illness to Surfers Against Sewage Tel: 0845 458 3001
* If you see someone in trouble, alert the lifeguards, or contact the Coastguard (999) - DO NOT ATTEMPT to rescue them yourself, unless you are qualified and have help.

The MCS also has a list of recommended beaches based on water quality, so it may be a good idea to check if your favourite beach is in their list!

Image by Arvind Balaraman /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sometimes when you return from a trip you have the bittersweet feeling you didn’t do as much as you wanted to do. You didn’t visit as many attractions as you wanted, you didn’t find some of the places you wanted to visit, you didn’t find that little coffee house you heard about, and you start thinking that maybe you should have taken a guided tour or something. Of course, a guided tour may be a good solution but if you don’t want to spend your vacations following someone else’s schedule, there are other options to enjoy your destination to the fullest during your next home exchange. Many excellent travel guides from recognized editors are available online to help you plan ahead and find the best places to visit. Combined with Google Maps or your GPS these online guides can help you select and get to those places you just can’t miss.

Today we provide you with a short list of travel guides from around the Web, but there are hundreds of other online resources like blogs and forums fully dedicated to travelling.

Here’s what the travel guides we selected say about themselves:

Fodor’s - “Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insights and tools you need to experience the trips you want.” http://www.fodors.com/

Frommer’s Travel Guides - “Frommers.com is an essential online destination for those planning the perfect travel excursion.” http://www.frommers.com/

Let’s Go Travel Guides - “For 50 years, Let’s Go has published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.” http://www.letsgo.com/

Lonely Planet Travel Guides - “Lonely Planet is renowned for its first-hand approach, up-to-date maps and commitment to providing the best information for travellers.” http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Travellr - “Travellr.com is a question and answer (Q&A) site for travelers to get answers from locals who know.” http://travellr.com/

TripAdvisor - “TripAdvisor® provides recommendations for hotels, resorts, inns, vacations, travel packages, vacation packages, travel guides and lots more.” http://www.tripadvisor.com/

WikiTravel - “Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide.” http://wikitravel.org/

Paris is far more than art and romance and when we wrote our 10 step guide to Paris, we forgot something that could be the top choice for sport fans: Roland Garros. Getting close to the action of the French Open of tennis may energize you for your museum tour.

Image by skoczek /flickr.com

In the Official Site of Roland Garros 2010 you will find everything you need to know about this Grand Slam: schedules, news, tickets, guides, and much more. So get ready for tennis! You may want to change your workout to strengthen your neck muscles, because we are just 20 days away from one of the ATP Tour tournaments with the most beautiful surroundings.

Hey! If there are some rainy days during the tournament, you won’t need any of the tips we shared in our previous post, just head off to a cafe, get caught by the smell from a bakery and for entertainment, well, we don’t need to tell you that Paris will take care of you for as long as you need: Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower, Centre Pompidou, Seine River and its bridges, Montmartre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Moulin Rouge… The list is so long! Well, I guess you may want to add a little aerobic to your workout too so that the tour doesn’t leave you breathless. At least avoid tired-breathlessness because there’s no doubt Paris will take your breath away.

HomeForHome has almost 700 properties registered for home exchange in Paris alone, but consider other cities nearby. You just need to search and swap!