If you have a flight in the evening, it can be a real drag if you stay in a hotel and have to check out in the morning, then spend the day in an unfamiliar city, with all your holiday luggage.

With home exchange, you don’t have this problem. It makes your time spent travelling a lot more flexible.

The same applies if you do a vehicle exchange too. Clearly, you have to enter into an agreement of trust with the other party. But it frees you up from some of the time obligations and constraints that can cause problems if you’re dealing with a paid-for service. However, make sure that if you’re doing a home exchange that is precisely simultaneous, it can be important to check not only the date, but also the hours of arrival.

Depending on the time of retirement, sometimes it can be difficult to maintain the speed and activity of your social life. If you are amongst the first of your friends to retire, it can feel a little isolating.

Conversely, finding the pace and rhythm of life that suits you the best can often be trying. It can be question of getting around to doing those things that you never had time to do during your working life. Or it can involve enjoying your interests, pursuing leisure or educational pursuits.

Getting involved in new communities and making new friends who are at a similar stage of life is also important. As is travelling. As a home-exchanger, one of the fruits of the process is that you come across a rich variety of people from all walks of life. But as a retired person, it can also be a way of finding new friends within the retirement community, across the globe.

Not only will fellow retired exchangers have the same time flexibility as you, but they will also be able to take longer exchanges. This can easily result in a close and worth-while friendship.

It can also be a way to aid with other common retirement goals. Study of a foreign language, architecture, history, sports, writing, or photography for example. Overseas travel can aid all of these activities by providing ample space and opportunity to develop new skills, draw inspiration, and find new subject matter.

Friendship and personal development are very important concepts throughout the whole of life, but in retirement specifically. Home exchange is a great way to expand upon these within a friendly and worldwide community.