Home exchange is a great opportunity to go on a cultural holiday. This can be a fundamental part of enriching your children’s development. For those culture vultures out there that really like to explore the history, old buildings, grand churches and the archaic historical sites, doing a home exchange in a rustic part of Europe is a brilliant opportunity.

But do children really enjoy it? There is plenty to be gained from visits to cultural sites, and it’s evident that they can really capture their imaginations in a way that all the interactive media in the world could never do.

However, if they’re really little, then they’re not yet capable of making these mental leaps, and can end up getting very tired, bored and unhappy, especially when they’re far away from what is familiar.

So a way of combining educational visits with something more fun is to go to a farm. There are some really impressive antique farm houses that are still alive and kicking in mainland Europe, especially in France. It’s a great chance for little children to make the connection between the brightly coloured cartoon animals in their young learners books, and the bigger, life sized, smelly noisy real farm-yard animals. Not only do they get to learn the names, sites and smells of all kinds of farm-yard paraphenelia and life-forms, but they also get to see the processes behind the scenes. These can be really fascinating, engaging, and children tend to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

So if you’re hoping to do take advantage of the cultural nature of a home exchange, then bear in mind a farm trip as a fun and educational day out for the children.

When you go on vacation, the question of what you should do with your pet can be a bit tricky. Whilst taking them with you brings its own questions, leaving them at home had some of its own issues.

When considering whether to take your pet on a home exchange with you, the first thing you need to check is whether your exchange family accepts pets. If not, then you should talk to them and ask whether they would consider looking after your pet if you were to leave it in the house. If they agree, then you will need to assess whether you think your exchange partners will be able to manage to give your pet the level of care that it may need.

If however your exchange partners accepts pets and you are travelling only by car, then remember to make plenty of stops and take enough bottled water, toys, and reminders of home (familiar smells, objects, etc) in order to reduce the anxiety experienced by your pet.

If you have to cross borders, then it’s worth-while looking up getting your pet a pet-passport, but make sure that you do this with plenty of advanced planning (a minimum of 6 months before the time that you plan to take your vacations.) Also, you will need to research which airlines will cater for animal transportation.

The important thing to weigh up is the discomfort that your pet may potentially experience. Whilst travelling can be a stressful experience for an animal, leaving them for weeks at a time can make them feel disconcerted and depressed. It depends on your pet. There is no single formula - you have to make a judgement based on your journey and on your pets needs.

At least with home exchange you will have the opportunity to talk with prospective home exchange partners who will allow you to take your animal to stay with you in their home.

Pets can prevent people from going on holiday. It´s a sad truth. Whilst no one wants to blame their cat for high stress levels, anxiety, tension headaches, or lethargy…it´s easy to start resenting the responsibility if it stops you from going on vacation. (Especially if the cat has been giving you shifty looks for the past couple of days… You know it´s up to something.)

So what can we do with these fluffy  (or leathery) creatures that for 50 weeks of the year fill our hearts with love and our house with hair? Well. With home exchange this is not a problem. Travelling with pets has never been easier!

The first thing to bear in mind is that with home exchange, you can often take your pets with you. Plenty of families either travel with animals, or accept animals in their homes. If it´s within the same country then you don´t even have to think! But these days you can even take animals between Europe and America. All you need to do is get your animal their very own passport. There is a period of six months in which you will need to have your pet monitored and vaccinated, but after that you will be as free as your bird. http://www.pettravel.com/immigration/England.cfm Imagine!

Alternatively, if you don´t want to take your pet with you, you would ask if your exchange partner will care for it for you. Whilst some people might be averse to the idea, for the majority it can be an extra perk of the holiday!  Plus, it´s a real treat and learning experience for the kids.

If you´re not thinking of doing a simultaneous home exchange, it´s easy enough to find someone to come round and feed or walk the animals. Neighbours or friends´ children often welcome the opportunity to spend some time with your pet. People love to be needed!

What´s in it for your animal? Well, if they´re lucky, a free holiday! ;-) But if you decide not to take them with you, there´s always the added bonus of the special treats you can bring them back from foreign pet shops! And of course, the inevitable bit of spoiling that always happens when someone comes to baby-sit… So stop using your pet as your excuse for not taking the holiday you deserve. Home exchanging with pets is more than possible!