An old friend and I met and caught up with each other over a cup of coffee. As we talked about our good old days of traveling in groups, she was saddened by the fact that she can’t go anywhere far from home because of her kid. So I said, “Then why not bring your daughter along with you when you plan to go on a trip again?” Who says having kids would tie you down and prevent you from going places?

Bringing kids with you on trips might even be a good idea. Of course, it’s pretty tough taking care of them when you are away form home, but it would also be a rewarding experience for you and your kids. It is a real learning experience for them to be exposed to a new environment and different cultures and lifestyles. Seeing that the world isn’t just limited to the neighborhood they are in, kids can easily adapt to new environment when they grow older. Adjusting becomes easier. Traveling and going places is a learning experience apart from school. A good idea to make the most of your trip is to take them to museums or galleries to know more about the place you are in. That would be History 101 for your little kid! Another good idea is to take them on a short hike around the countryside or bike around the city. The discoveries are endless. Kids will never forget that experience and will take these memories with them until they grow old. These are inexpensive activities, but the reward for spending quality and quantity for them is priceless.

Traveling with kids or even as a family isn’t expensive; there are family packages that you could avail. And of course, home exchange is a good idea to cut back on accommodations. Look for a home exchange that could accommodate the size of your family and wouldn’t mind if you would have kids with you during your stay. You and your home exchange partner can talk about any concerns with kids staying, but surely they wouldn’t mind. Treat your kids to a new experience. Enjoy!

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.

Depending on which country you come from, television and film abroad can be riotous.

Alternatively, they can leave you flabberghasted, wondering, “Do people actually watch this stuff?” I often wonder how anyone can enjoy a TV film when there is a commercial break that lasts up to 25 minutes half way through. 25 minutes!!!

But one of the brilliant things about being abroad, from a lanugage perspective, is that you have such ample opportunity to listen and practise the foreign tongue.

You can relax at home in the house of your exchange partner, with a deliciously home-cooked dinner, bursting with freshly picked out local ingredients… and the simple exercise of watching TV at home will be transformed into a new cultural experience.

In the same vein, if you’re a lover of cinema, there are plenty of international picture houses across Europe. You can treat yourself to a genuine romantic cinema experience in a foreign country, in a foreign world.

Another great idea is going to a film festival during the summer. If you’re a cinema fan, there is no greater pleasure than sipping a chilled beer on your deck-chair, surrounded by palm trees gently swaying in the night-time breeze, absorbing to your heart’s content 7 varieties of short films from all across the world.

Films and television are a couple of the many media through which you can practise and learn a new language. All made that little bit easier through home exchange.

So, Europe. What does it have to offer? France. Spain. Italy. Germany. England. Romania. Poland. To name but a few of the choice cuts of the continent. Whether it be the impassioned political fervour of the French, the darkly elegant style of the Italians, or the striking openness of the Dutch, you have to admit - there´s a wealth of culture over there. And how exquisite it would be to understand the seamless poetry of Dante, the tortured prose of Proust, or the emblematic tales of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra´s Don Quijote, in their original versions.

The best way to learn a language is to get yourself in a country where it is spoken. This way you really drench yourself in the culture, you are constantly absorbing new vocabulary from the road signs, the posters, the conversations you over-hear on the metro – and most importantly of all – you make friends you can talk with.

When I was a child, we did a house exchange with a Belgian family. We stayed in their house for four weeks. All my brothers and sisters were older than me, and whilst I had a fabulous time playing with the new doll´s house that I found, eventually I wanted some company of my own age. It just so happened that there was a little girl living in the house next door. Lea, her name was. She was taller than me, wore brown buckle-up shoes, and spoke no English. And we had the best time together. Even now, I remember going with her to buy chips from the local chip shop (chips dressed with a particular sweet and sour cream that I´ve never been able to find anywhere else in the world), dressing up to perform a play for her parents, and going cycling in the velvety forest with her school friends. While I don´t remember being conscious of speaking French, it was certainly the language we spoke in, and as all children do with languages, I took to it like a duck to water.

And I now see just how wonderful and welcoming that small community was. The neighbours especially, welcoming strangers into their houses, looking after a little foreign girl, helping the slightly eccentric English family make friends and feel welcome in a different city. For the rest of my family, living in that neighbourhood for a month was the perfect way to really practise their French and make exciting new friendships.

If you´re interested in European culture, and are looking for an opportunity to practise or to learn a new language, doing a home exchange is the ideal way to do this. You get delivered right into the marrow of the community – socially, culturally, and most crucial of all - linguistically.

So if you´re a dab hand for languages, or if you just want to practise some French asking for a croissant and a white coffee while you read the paper in a quiet café in Bordeaux, a home exchange ensures that you´ll make new friends and not only see, but really live the new culture.