One of the brilliant things about Home Exchange at HomeForHome is that you can receive all the benefits of taking very low-cost vacations, and it’s all available to you as part of our free service.

So if you’ve had a good home exchange experience, and if you like the website, then you could let your friends know. That is, if you think that they’d be interested and up for a home exchange! If you or people that you know are finding the economic crisis is really starting to grate and make things difficult, then you could offer a little bit of help or advice by introducing them to the idea of home exchange.

You could easily paste this link into an email and make the suggestion to some of your friends http://en.homeforhome.com.

Considering that membership is completely free, they’ve got nothing to lose. Plus, if they sign up and have some fantastic vacations then they’ll be very grateful! They might even bake you a cake

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet have done it. In the film The Holiday they are both single women desperately in need of a change in climate. To get this climate change, you simply sign up online and go and stay in someone else’s home, whilst they’re in yours.

In The Holiday, as neither Cameron nor Kate’s characters go particularly prepared, they each get to know a new charming man, fall in love with him and end their vacation with a new relationship.

Are you also single and fed up things? Maybe you feel that you need a bit of a break somewhere, because either at home or at work you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall. Then leave it to home exchange, and take advantage of a new environment. You can go to a new place, live like the locals, meet new interesting people, and maybe even meet a new partner! Even if it doesn’t come to love, you can definitely make some new friends

So, what do you say? Could it change your life, bring winds of change into your life, or simply help you get to know new places? Home exchange is a great way to take a cheap vacation. Give it a try.

In the days before 24 hours news, people tended to worry less, let´s say. Going out bike riding in the country wasn´t riddled with so many dark fears of harmful predators lurking in the bushes. Similarly, the reign of the indoor multimedia exercise-killers wasn´t so rife. Video-games, DVDs, television, games consoles and the internet weren´t there to distract us and our children from getting outside into the clear air in order to enjoy being alive. But now, times have changed. It is often reported that our children are a little on the flabby side, unfit, and declining in strength and motivation. So taking your kids away on a holiday is something that can not only stimulate their interest in sport and outdoor activities, but it can also spark their interest in playing and seeing children and things from different parts of the world. Just by playing with kids, and showing them new sites, smells and sounds, you set astir their imaginations.

Home exchange is a very safe and cheap way of taking your kids abroad. You can watch over them in the home, go on bike rides together, go and see the local sites, integrate into the local neighbourhood so that they can make new friends…

In order to maximise your trip if you´re travelling with children, we suggest that you:

Plan lots of breaks in the activities that you do, and aim for less activities than you would if you were only going with adults.

Make sure you include plenty of stops for meals and drinks to stave off dehydration and keep the energy levels up.

Keep the adult activities for the morning, and do the less demanding children´s activities in the afternoon.

Take advantage of the local activities such as swimming, parks, playgrounds, theme parks, cinema or attractions.

Plan relaxation time for yourself. Remember to organise some activitites where your children are looked after by other people, or playing with other children, so that you can pack in a break for yourself too.

If your children aren´t yet at school age, you can always take a holiday outside of the peak seasons. Home exchange is flexible and you can do it whenever is convenient for you and your exchange partner. This way you can get cheaper flights, and attractions will be at off-peak rates.

Involve the kids in the planning of the holiday. Whilst taking a vacation is very exciting, it can sometimes make children a little nervous, especially if they find changes in routine difficult. So often it can be a good idea to show the children some photos beforehand, and get them involved in the planning. If you´re going to a foreign country, you can teach them some words and phrases before you go. This way, they can really get engrossed in the trip. They can point out to you things that appeal to them, and this way you can make plans that will keep everybody entertained.

There is a British couple who used to do home swaps with French families in different cities in France. Now, they´re both retired.  Living gleefully in France for six months of the year, in the bosom of a local rural community. Every Christmas they receive invitations to spend the festive season celebrating precious friendships with their old exchange partners.

The warming solidarity of two parties seeking to share their homes for the mutual benefit of an intimate, and inestimable holiday can easily lead to a momentous friendship. Not only do you both partake in a beautiful experience of having a stress-free, fabulous time exploring and relishing a different culture. But you also enter into the heart of someone else´s living – their home. In this way, if you choose, you can cultivate a really special bond with a shining variety of people from a whole range of different cultures. It´s not only culturally enriching, but also personally touching.

There is, of course, no obligation to invest yourself in a personal level, but it´s one of the many opportunities offered by home exchange - to integrate yourself on a worldwide level, and colour your life with a medley of cultural exchange. Whilst you´re taking pleasure in the many different flavours of food, weather, architecture, history, natural landscapes, and local entertainment, you are also afforded the opportunity of making enduring friendships with people from different countries.

Part of the excitement of a home swap is the sweet sense of adventure, and this is not only limited to the holiday. There´s a whole world out there, waiting for you to try it out.