Home exchanges can be used to celebrate a variety of special occassions, whether you go en masse or as a single family unit.

Something unique to couples however, is the idea of an anniversary exchange. If you are interested in celebrating a wedding anniversary or a relationship anniversary of any nature abroad, then home exchange is an economic and romantic way of doing this.

You can have a lot of fun in the summer if you have access to a kitchen.

There are some really great fun treats you can do with the kids (or whoever else may be childish enough to enjoy this kind of fun, aka: most adults ).

For example, mini lolly making.

You can buy for about 50 cents a bag of lolly sticks, and a couple of packs of fromage frais (i.e.: Petit Filous). Then, with the kids (or the adults, whatever!) you can have great fun piercing a tiny whole in the lid of the yogurt, and inserting the lolly stick so that it stays completely upright. You then carefully place them in the freezer with the lolly stick poking upright.

Wait for a few hours, and then take them out. Now, what you need to do is turn the lollies upside down and remove the yogurt pot. Hold the lolly stick at the bottom and you will have a frozen mini-yogurt free of preservatives, delicious to taste, refreshingly cold, and a snappy and creative task that you can have a great time doing!

This is something that you can uniquely do with a home exchange, where you have a kitchen to play around with. In the summer, having access to a freezer counts!

Watch life go by sipping wine in a bar in a medieval European street

Tennessee local news has come up with a great concept for something that sounds like very avoidable boredom. “Stay-cations”.

The inhabitants of East-Tennessee, because of the credit-crunch, are taking vacations across town, rather than across country or continent. The local business owners have said that the increased interest in local tourism by the local inhabitants has lead to a spurt in business.  People still need to keep their kids entertained, even if they have near-on empty pockets.

This is where the concept of home swap is screeeeaming out to you. If you’re not averse to taking a few days out in the summer with your kids, to go for ice-cream or to a gallery, then you could do this for absolutely no cost with home exchange, apart from the travel expenses.

Rather than stay in your local area and go to the sites and parks that you’ve already been to hundreds of times, you could do a free home exchange and have a brilliant time not spending any money.

Let’s not forget that we live in the era of cheap flights and budget airlines, and these low-cost travel opportunities are soon to be offering cross-atlantic flights.

So when it comes to “stay-cations”, you just don’t have to! Go and spend your preciously saved summer pennies in a different part of the world or country, where you can really enjoy the parks and cafes and galleries on a real holiday, at an exceptionally low cost without any accommodation costs!

In the few days just before setting off for your home exchange, there are some areas that you need to think about preparing for the incoming family. As a big part of home exchange is based upon reciprocity, it’s important to think ahead about how you would like to be treated, and then try to provide that for your exchange partner.

In an exchange, one of the most central aspects is offering a clean home. So before you set off, think not only about leaving your home tidy, but also well cleaned. Little details like cleaning the oven and the microwave really make the world of difference.

If you are precious about your towels, then take a few minutes to consider how many people will be staying, and then find enough towels - that you don’t mind other people using - for them all to have.

You could also think about occassional problems that you might have in your home. For example, if you live somewhere where you have to suffer the intermittent power-cut, think about leaving out some torches or candles for the incoming guests. Alternatively, if you have noisy neighbours, you could suggest to the guests that they bring earplugs with them.

To make our home exchanges the best that they can be (which is pretty darn great!) then allow yourself some time to think about the small touches that could raise the quality of your partners’ stay from good to excellent.

This idea, in turn, will give your own holidays that extra touch of wholesomeness. It’s what home exchange is all about.

When we travel, we have to prioritise on what we pack into the suitcase. Days out on holidays are not the same as days out at home, where you have everything you need at your disposal.

For example, a day trip to a farm in your local area isn’t going to be as tricky to prepare for as when you do it in a foreign country. When considering the bare necessities as you fold and squeeze things into your suitcase, a giant pair of wellies for everyone in the family is perhaps not at the top of the agenda.

But when you’re doing the outdoor activities with the kids, the range of equipment you need can be extensive. If you go somewhere muddy, you need wellies, or at least sensible footwear. If you go for an actvity in the country, you need to wear macs. You may need umbrellas or you may need parasoles.

Another advantage of home exchange is that if you exchange with someone who has a similar life-style to yours, you can always strike up an agreement whereby you can exchange some of the heavier holiday necessities that can come in very handy.

If you maintain contact with your exchange partner a few times during the holiday, then even better. You can help each other out with advice as you go along discovering the area, and you can also ask for things that you might need and they can let you know if they mind or not!

All good, and all about communication.

One of the fine things about going on holiday is the nouveau gourmet. Trying out the new restaurants, bars, cuisine, the different variety of dishes available.

But one of the advantages of doing a home exchange is that you can actually learn to cook the new dishes yourself, with the fresh and correct ingredients from that region!

If you stay in a hotel your certainly don’t have the facilities to practise the new culinary tasks that the new location or culture have set you. Even if you take some vacations by staying with a friend, you don’t reeeeally have the freedom to put your Quiche Lorraine to the test.

But if you do a home exchange, you’ll have every kitchen utensil you need at your disposal, and you’ll have the space and time to try new things out. For example, fresh shrimps from the Galician coast in Spain. Learning how to cook them and trying them out with the real McCoy ingredients. Real Italian tomatoes as you learn to weave a real thin, crispy, home-made pizza base.

This gives you the opportunity to take what you see and experience on holiday right into your heart. It gives you the chance to learn new cooking skills, and to walk like a native for that one day as you plod the route to the open market, in the sunshine, watching the people go, listening to the strange words in the music of a foreign language… Then to go home, and really live as someone within that culture, going through the same motions as them, preparing the local tradition foods.

It’s something that is a particular treat for the Brits of the North Americans, as our food markets are already so globalised that the notion of a national dish is pretty much forgotten.

It’s also a great thing to do with your partner or family, and it makes a wonderful memory that you can take back with you into your own home and keep hold of forever.