Home exchange will lower the your travel expenses, so why shouldn’t you plan the vacations you have always dreamed of? Why shouldn’t you go after your perfect trip?

Like your perfect:

… Paris - not only for romantic couples or people interested in art and the museums, Paris can be attractive to anyone. And why wouldn’t it be? We’ve mentioned before: Paris does have everything! But at the same time, Parisians are trying to get away from their city and if your hometown is the city that has everything, where would you be interested in travelling to? Seems like anywhere! Paris is the city with the most houses registered for home exchange in HomeForHome. Paris alone has more registered swappers than the UK!

… beach paradise - It can be a vibrant Mediterranean beach, an exotic sparsely populated Caribbean sandy heaven, a hot spot for water-sports and adventure.

… relaxation in the mountains - Clean air, the clear blue sky, the sounds of nature and your nervous system will reset itself.

Image by Evgeni Dinev /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

… exotic trip to a distant destination - Go crazy! You can almost close your eyes, roll a globe, use your finger to pinpoint where your next adventure will take place and you’ll find a swapper there! That’s if you don’t hit water, of course

… Christmas trip - we insist, if you want to swap this Christmas you need to get started…

What is it going to be then?

HomeForHome has many homes in Wales. Do not waste another minute and start looking for your home exchange partner to make Wales you next swap’s destination. Then, to plan your activities, you can use “The official getaway to Wales” (http://www.wales.com) where you will find these great itinerary suggestions:

“Wales in a week” - Seven days with the best that Wales has to offer.

“Cardiff, our capital city” - The capital and largest city, “Caerdydd” is the perfect gateway to Wales. If you plan to fly to Wales you are going to start in Cardiff and if you can arrange a home exchange before August 31st, you will visit the capital during Cardiff Festival 2010 (link below).

“Food trail” - The best Welsh flavours in three days of pleasure.

“Parks and gardens” - In this four-day itinerary, one of the beautiful places suggested for you to visit is the National Botanic Garden of Wales, home of the largest glass single structure in the world: “Great Glasshouse“. If you take a look at this suggested itinerary, you will probably agree with me that four days are not enough!

“North Wales coast” - Nothing says “vacation” more than barefoot walking in the beach.

“Myths and legends” - Three days getting to know the settings of some of the most famous Welsh folk stories.

“The trail of King Arthur” – King Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table… Truth or myth? Find out yourself.

“Haunted Wales” - Take this four day suggestion and become a ghost hunter (if you dare!)

Image by Matt Banks /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our suggestion to plan your home exchange is to visit http://www.wales.com and take a little from each of the above suggested itineraries to make your own custom made unique tour.

Cardiff Festival - http://www.cardiff-festival.com/
National Botanic Garden of Wales - http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/
Visit North Wales - http://www.visitnorthwales.co.uk/
http://www.visitwales.com/

Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is a 600 year old city proud of its past with a vibrant modern present. As we mentioned in our previous post, 2010 was supposed to be the year to visit Seoul but many of the events programmed to attract tourist are probably going to escape any home exchange arranged form now on. However, no matter when you decide to visit Seoul, the city has something for everyone:

Photo by yeowatzup /Flickr.com

Modern Buildings:

- N Seoul Tower (Namsan Mountain)

- Moonlight Rainbow Fountain (probably the world’s longest bridge fountain)

- 63 Building (63 City)

The Five Royal Palaces - All built during the Joseon Dynasty some 600 years ago, they remain completely blended with the surrounding environment:

- Changdeokgung
- Changgyeonggung
- Deoksugung
- Gyeongbokgung
- Gyeonghuigung

Museums - There are over 100 museums in Seoul, just to mention a few:

- National Museum of Korea (with over 150,000 artifacts)
- National Palace Museum of Korea (mostly artifacts from the Joseon Dynasty)
- Cheong Wa Dae Sarangchae (”Office of the President Museum, previously Hyoja-dong Sarangbang)
- Seoul Museum of History
- The War Memorial of Korea
- Choonwondang Museum of Korean Medicine
- Seoul Museum of Art

Natural beauties:

- Hangang Park
- Seoul Grand Park
- Seoul Forest
- Namsan Botanical Garden
- Dream Forest
- Olympic Park
- World Cup Park

With HomeForHome, the year to visit Seoul on a home exchange never ends…

Resources to find more information:

http://english.seoul.go.kr/
http://sdf.seoul.go.kr (click in EN in the top-right corner to see the English version)
http://www.gogung.go.kr/eng/
http://www.museum.go.kr/eng
http://www.visitseoul.net/en/
http://www.warmemo.or.kr/eng/intro/message/message.jsp

2010 is the “Visit Seoul Year“, a part of a three year promotional campaign designed to attract people to visit South Korea. The “2010-2012 Visit Korea Years” are meant to provide unique opportunities to get to know the country, with several festivals, cultural events, political summits and sport events taking place in every part of the country.

Image by J Frasse /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you want to get into South Korea you will definitely have to start with here: Seoul (officially Seoul Special City), with over 10 million inhabitants, is the capital and largest city of South Korea, and one of the largest cities in the world. The metropolitan area, known as Seoul National Capital Area, is home to over 20 million people, and this makes it the second largest metropolitan area in the world. The importance of Seoul to South Korea is demonstrated by the following facts:

- Since South Korea (Republic of Korea) has a population of 50 million, Seoul’s metropolitan area hosts almost half of the country’s population, and Seoul Special City alone, almost a quarter of the population.

- Seoul is the country’s economic, political, cultural hub and is also considered one of the top ten financial and commercial centres of the world.

The city is located in a natural basin in the centre of the Korean Peninsula (shared by North Korea and South Korea). It is divided in two halves by the Han River and guarded by mountains. As a modern centre with a  carefully well preserved heritage and environment, Seoul has everything to amaze  new visitors.

As we mentioned, 2010 was supposed to be the year to visit Seoul, with these events attempting to get your attention:

- G20 Summit (Nov. 13th - 14th)
- Hallyu Dream Festival (Set. 10th - 12th; it takes place every year, so you may catch it in 2011 to avoid a rushed-swap)
- Hi Seoul Festival (Oct. 1st - 9th)
- Korea Food Festival (Oct. 21st - 27th)
- Seoul Design Fair (Sep. 17th - Oct. 7th)
- Seoul Lantern Festival (Nov. 5th - 14th)
- Seoul Grand Sale (going on right now, it started on July 21st and will end next Sep. 12th)
- Seoul International Travel Fair (Sep. 13th - 17th)
- Seoul International Fireworks Festival (Oct. 9th)

2011 will be Daegu’s year and 2012 will be “Visit Yeaosu Year“. So, the invitations were sent, you have received yours now, just take a look at the listings in South Korea and make your home exchange arrangements.

Resources for detailed information:
http://english.visitkoreayear.com/
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto
http://www.visitseoul.net/en/

We continue with our tour through Scotland’s best. Today: Castles and Edinburgh.

Image by Tom Curtis /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There are several castles in Scotland, so if you are looking for a piece of history combined with beautiful architecture, landscapes and decoration, here are some suggestions:

- Airth Castle (near Stirling)
- Birkhill Castle (Fife)
- Caerlaverock Castle (Glencaple, Dumfries)
- Culzean Castle (near Maybole, Ayrshire)
- Drumlanrig Castle (Dumfries and Galloway)
- Duart Castle (Mull)
- Dunvegan Castle (Isle of Skye)
- Edinburgh Castle (Edinburgh)
- Falkland Palace (Fife)
- Fyvie Castle (Aberdeenshire)
- Glamis Castle (Angus)
- Hermitage Castle (Roxburghshire)
- Inveraray Castle (Argyll)
- Kildrummy Castle (Aberdeenshire)
- Stirling Castle (Stirling)

If your home exchange destination is in Aberdeenshire, you may enjoy the only Castle Trail in Scotland, with 14 castles marked by white on brown signs with a blue castle logo. This is a hihgly recommended activity for families with children, as the younger ones would enjoy discovering secret passages, dungeons, haunted rooms and ghost stories. Visit Scotland.com - The official site of Scotland’s national tourism organisation has a Castle Trail leaflet with all you need to know to plan your own Castle Trail tour.

The Festival City

Edinburgh - The capital is one of the single most attractive spots in Scotland, the 12 major annual festivals that take place in the city account for its nickname: the Festival City, and its spectacular architecture make it an art piece on itself. As we mentioned, there are countless cultural events that take place in Edinburgh, the main being: Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. We did not count them all, but there are probably hundreds of events that take place in this cultural hub, and you could certainly find one that matches both your interests and your home exchange calendar so we will refer you to Edinburgh Festivals to prepare your trip.

Of course this is just peek of Scotland’s vast offer to enjoy your home exchange vacations, so imagine all the things you will discover on your trip!

The United Kingdom has a strong presence in HomeForHome, and over 50 of those houses that are ready for home exchange are located in Scotland. In this week’s posts, we will invite you to discover this land full of traditions, history, myths and beautiful scenery that goes from moorlands to mountains and rocky coastlines to peaceful lochs.

Photo by conner395 /Flickr

Scotland occupies the northern third of the Great Britain island and over 700 islands. Its official language is English, but Gaelic and Scots are also spoken; the first prevails mostly in the Highlands and Islands of the North and West, while Scots is spoken in the Central Lowlands.

The summer days, long and warm, present visitors with a range of events that would assure you find a fit for your particular interest: music, performing arts, sports, outdoor activities, you will find something for your own taste. Here are a few of the many coming entertainment events:

Edinburgh International Festival - Three weeks of performances from international artists, in one of Europe’s great festivals offering opera, dance, theatre, music and visual arts. This event alone accounts for a doubling in Edinburgh’s population during the Festival. More details at http://www.eif.co.uk/

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - A three-week long festival where international military musicians take the stage with the majestic backdrop being Edinburgh Castle. The famous ending with the performance of the Lone Piper seems to be the distinctive mark of this world class unique martial music event that takes place every August in the Castle’s Esplanade. Over 100 million people watch the event on international television. For more information, please visit http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/

Aberdeen International Youth Festival - Starting with a colourful parade, this festival allows you to enjoy the best performances from young artists in ten days of literally all kinds of cultural expressions. For more information, visit http://www.aiyf.org/

Arbroath Sea Fest - An annual, 2-day festival to celebrate the Sea. More in http://www.arbroathseafest.co.uk/

The Braemar Gathering -  A series of traditional competitions with a member of the royal family present on the site to support the athletes. More information at http://www.braemargathering.org/

Piping Live! - This international piping event in Glasgow, features several styles from traditional to techno piping. A week of concerts, workshops, masterclasses and street performances, in an energetic environment. Details in http://www.pipinglive.co.uk/

Largs Viking Festival - The place and time for those who wish to know more about the Viking heritage of this area. It includes a Viking Village where the Swords of Dalriada live as the Vikings did, giving first hand entertainment and teaching at the same time. More at http://www.largsvikingfestival.com/

Events about Scottish foods and drinks: Tarbert Seafood Festival, Scottish Food Fortnight, Highland Feast, Whisky Live Scotland, Flavour of Shetland, Taste of Grampian Food Festival.

If you do not find a home exchange opportunity to experience this year’s events, you may want to check next year’s dates in the links provided and mark them in your calendar.

It is party time in Spain. Plaza Cibeles, Paseo de Recoletos and Plaza Colon in Madrid gathered over 250,000 people in red and yellow to watch the FIFA World Cup Final. Plaza España in Barcelona received more than 75,000 fans to watch the match. But as soon as the final whistle was heard in Johannesburg’s Soccer City, even more people formed red and yellow waves in the streets to celebrate.

Spain’s victory in the 2010 FIFA World Cup is something that wasn’t only predicted by the Psychic Octopus but also by the lead in registered home swappers in HomeForHome (see The FIFA World Cup in HomeForHome ).

Our means were not the same, the cephalopod was tempted with food, HomeForHome users were tempted with the advantages of home exchange and our free services for making the swap arrangements.

Not only Octopus Paul got right the championship match’s winner choosing Spain over the Netherlands in the first time he was not presented with Germany as one of the options, but he also made the correct guess choosing Germany over Uruguay for winner of the third-place match. Paul leaves this World Cup with a 8/8 record. It may have been just coincidence but what are the odds for correct random prediction of the result of 8 matches? Well, it is 1/256. Not too bad for Paul.

Congratulations to all our users from Spain and for the rest, you know what you have to do if you get tempted by the images of the celebrations you see in the news. If the images from Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga or Bilbao catch you eye and you decide to visit Spain in your next home exchange, then take advantage of over 5,500 registered homes in HomeForHome and find your perfect swap match in Spain.

Back in April we suggested Aquariums could be great places to list as nearby attractions to add to your HomeForHome home description, and we mentioned a few well known aquariums from around the globe. Well, as the 2010 FIFA World Cup is coming to an end, there’s an aquarium that has drawn the attention of the world to one of its inhabitants: Paul the “Psychic Octopus”.

Image by Allie_Caulfield (flickr)

Paul is a common octopus living in SEA LIFE Oberhausen (in April we mentioned SEA LIFE Berlin but we really didn’t know about this famous creature). Paul seems to have the ability to predict the winner of football matches. Yes, you read correctly, the octopus can tell ahead which team will be victorious. This is how it works: Two plastic containers are presented to Paul, both have food inside and the only difference between them is the flag shown in the front. The tentacled psychic takes a moment and then decides to go for one of the containers to have his lunch and the container’s flag is taken as the flag of the winner. If you are thinking “he’s probably trained to choose the German flag” you are not correct, his last prediction was that Spain would beat Germany in the semi-final and he got it right.

A few facts about Paul:

1. Paul is British, he was born in Weymouth SEA LIFE Park and moved to his current home in 2006.
2. He is also known as das Krakenorakel (German), el Pulpo Paul (Spanish) and the Oracle Octopus.
3. He became a celebrity after predicting correctly the result of all of Germany’s matches in the current edition of the FIFA World Cup.
4. He seems to have improved his “technique” because in 2008 during the UEFA European Championship he failed in two predictions out of the six he made, but during the 2010 FIFA World Cup he made no mistakes.
5. He is a media and Internet sensation, he has made it to appear in the BBC, CNN, and thousands of TV channels worldwide. He is in the top ten trends in Twitter and has both fan and enemy pages in Facebook, the last mainly from defeated teams.

Do you want to meet Paul?

If you are interested in meeting Paul during your next home exchange vacation, you should probably hurry because apparently there are a few offers to buy the tentacled sensation and a few threatening cooking recipes in the countries that he didn’t select. Paul resides now in Oberhausen, a city in Nordrhein-Westfalen, also known for having the largest shopping mall in Germany: CentrO.  If you prefer to wait till the media forgets about Paul to arrange your home exchange, then a good time to visit him would be 5 -10 May 2011, during the 57th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

During the weekend we will find out if his latest predictions were correct: he chose Germany as the winner of the third-place match and Spain as the World Cup winner in Sunday’s match against the Netherlands.

Germany is everywhere these days! Their football players keep scoring too many goals in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, they keep advancing in the tournament and somehow they managed to be present in this new travel destination review in our blog. Why? Because we thought that even though you may not be in the mood to think about partying in Oktoberfest, there are still other great possibilities for you to take advantage of the large amount of German users registered in HomeForHome. For example, if you were unable to schedule your vacation days to travel during the Summer, you may reach October in a rest-only-no-party mood and Germany could still be the destination of choice. While beer and party fans head to Munich, there are other places to enjoy a more quiet home exchange:

Hamburg - Architecturally, Hamburg has a lot to offer, like the five high spires of its main churches that dominate its skyline: St. Peter’s Church, St. Jacobi Church, St. Catherine’s Church, St. Michaelis Church and St. Nicholas’s Church (which was the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876). Also, there’s the Reeperbahn which is Hamburg’s most famous street for being located in the city’s red light district, where there are countless nightclubs and bars. Hamburg receives millions of visitors every year, many attracted by the varied cultural offer, with music performances leading the way.

Leipzig - Another cultural pearl which we reviewed a couple of months ago: http://www.homeforhome.co.uk/destinations-leipzig/

Oberammergau and its Passion Play - In the seventeenth century, the villagers of Oberammergau pledged to perform a Passion Play every ten years. Why? A pandemic outbreak had killed one-fifth of the population and they wanted to prevent that from happening again. To this day, residents who were born or have lived in Oberammergau for more than 20 years participate in the Passion Play to keep their ancestor’s promise. Oberammergau’s Passion Play is taking place now and will last till October 3rd. If you are around, you should not miss it. It takes place only every ten years! For more information, visit the Oberammergau’s Passion Play Website.

To learn about the many attractions waiting for you in Germany you may visit the Official Tourism Website of Germany at http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/

After all the time we waited for the Summer to arrive, it is probably not the best idea to discuss anything related to the coming Autumn. But, since to be successful in the home exchange world you have to think ahead, it is always a good thing to remind you of the activities to come. Something like the HomeForHome coming attractions

If you are a regular visitor of HomeForHome, you probably noticed at our homepage that Germany is one of the countries with the most registered swappers. If you hadn’t noticed this, you should take advantage of this wake up call and start making plans to spend the coming Oktoberfest in Germany!

Starting September 18th (a few events will take place on the 17th, but the traditional official tapping of the first beer barrel will be celebrated on the 18th at noon), this year the party will last till October 4th and it seems like they have planned it “Longer, bigger and with more attractions than ever before!” to celebrate the festival’s 200th anniversary. This may be worth a home swap, don’t you think?

Besides, if you are not much into beer, you may be into Munich and its cultural side. Or in case you were wondering, there are several attractions that will make Oktoberfest appealing for families with children, like the different rides, and also the tents which are not only about beer… Just check out the past years’ Oktoberfest posts and you’ll see.

The countdown is on in the Oktoberfest.de website so make your move and find your swap. If you already made plans to visit another country while Oktoberfest takes place in Munich, you should know you can find Oktoberfest elsewhere as well, since there are several cities worldwide that host their own beer parties in October, and some are just as legendary:

- Blumenau, Brazil http://www.oktoberfestblumenau.com.br/ (in Portuguese)

- Cincinnati (Ohio), United States http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx

- Belgrano, Argentina http://www.elsitiodelavilla.com/oktoberfest/(in Spanish)