Home Exchange Archives - Page 2 of 2

Save Tons of Money with a Home Exchange

August 1, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Save tons of money and stay like a local by doing a home exchange. Home exchange sites are becoming more popular because you save TONS of money on the costs of accomdation, food and even transportation. Yes, you can even exchange a car! You can have all the amenities of home – washer, wifi – maybe even a pool or a maid.

On sites like www.homeexchange.com and www.homeforexchange.com, you join for a fee of about $100-150 a year and list your home. Then you can proactively contact others who want to come stay in your area or you can wait for people to contact you.

A lot of people are open to anywhere they say “just ask”. If you live in a popular area like me you will probably get get some, if not many, requests. I have to often turn people down.

I have been telling my friends for years that your vacation overseas can be cheaper than a week at the local beach. I have done exchanges and it is a great way to stay like a local and be financially smart. The only cost is joining the site – and you can exchange the whole year if you want! Take a year sabbatical and swap your vacation home or your primary residence.

There are so many scenarios – simultaneous, non-simultaneous, your vacation house for their primary, exchange RV’s, boats etc. We have had many families stay in our house with us and we will stay at their house in the future. Tomorrow I have a family from Malaga coming to stay for 10 days then in September I will go stay with them!

It’s totally up to you and the party to set the parameters of the exchange.

So get out there and exchange!

Hospitality Exchange – Better than Hosting Family!

July 26, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Peter, a gentleman from Amsterdam, contacted me a few months back through Home Exchange. He asked to exchange homes for a week but as usual, I was not able at that time. I offered a hospitality exchange instead, one where he and his family would come and stay with us in our home, then sometime in the future we would visit them. We are fortunate that we have four bedrooms and an office with a futon, so we can accommodate several guests.

With our guests at Chesapeake Beach Water Park

With our Dutch guests at the Maritime Museum Concert

At a party with our guests

At first Peter was surprised by the concept and peppered me with questions… “will you be there?”, “will we have free reign of the common rooms in house?”, “what is the interaction between us like?”. These were all great questions. I say, “yes”, “yes” and “however you want to interact”.

They arrived last Thursday and right away we were pleasantly comfortable with our new friends. We had many meals together, breakfast on weekends – one day we cooked our favorite banana-chocolate chip pancakes and the next day they made us their famous savory and sweet Dutch pancakes. We all chipped in helping to prepare or clean up and enjoyed great company and conversation. They loved sitting in our backyard and we introduced them to s’mores in our outdoor fireplace. We also enjoyed some dips and conversation in the hot tub.

We took them to a fantastic party, to our favorite restaurants, to Chesapeake Beach Water Park and to many local outdoor concerts – really giving them the experience of being with locals. We even got them out on the water for a boat ride – one of their biggest requests. My daughter really loved the dad Peter, he has a company that does theater for children. We really were very sad to see them go.

If you ever done a home exchange, try hospitality exchange – it really does take the whole cultural experience up about 10 notches!

Sister Cities, Counties and States

June 25, 2015 by Laurie Deppa 1 Comment

Have you ever heard of sister cities, counties or states? Sister Cities is an international organization started by President Eisenhower in 1956. Eisenhower wanted to create a network that would foster international peace and cultural understanding. This network has continued to grow and now includes 545 cities counties and states, with 2121 partnerships in 145 countries.

My city Annapolis has official relationships with Wexford, Ireland; Rochefort City, France; Nithsdale, Scotland; Changsha, China; Newport, Wales; Banjul, Gambia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Marsala, Italy.

I was once the Sister Cities Program Manager for both Columbia, Maryland and Annapolis, Maryland. I took a large group from Annapolis to visit 2 of our cities in 2001. I placed an article asking who from the community would like to go with our group. I organized everything myself and the 2 week trip was $1500 all inclusive. It was amazing if I say so myself. We had one night hotel at the beginning and the end, but otherwise we were all placed with locals for accommodation. Some were “given” rooms in bed and breakfasts, some in homes and I myself was in an apartment at the back of a pub (cool). Too bad I don’t drink!!!

Needless to say we were given the royal treatment, tours, parties, performances, etc. – all free thanks to our relationship with the city. I became good friends with two of the travelers on my trip and to this day, we still talk about that trip.

I tell you about this because it’s ONE MORE WAY to stay like a local and stay FREE. Navy Football played Notre Dame in Ireland a couple of years ago. Well they were charging a fortune for the “charter trip” so I worked my magic. I organized a 2-week trip to Dublin, Belfast and Scotland and for my three-person family it was maybe $2500 at the very most. We could have done it even cheaper but splurged a little on dinners and a last minute trip to Edinburgh.

Exactly how did I do it?

I contacted several people on my usual networks of home and hospitality exchange. I found an amazing couple in Dublin (through couchsurfing) and we hit if off immediately – communicating regularly before the trip. I set up a one-week stay in our sister city of Dumfries, Scotland. When I was Director, I hosted the entire Dumfries Male Voice Choir here in Annapolis, organized homestays and hosted a party for all at my home. I contacted the family who stayed with us and asked if we could come stay with them. Of course.

With the Dumfries Male Voice Choir in Scotland

We ended up scrambling a couple of weeks prior because our “friends” in Dublin lost jobs and had to move to Belfast. I got back online, and found a woman through www.homeforexchange.com who was willing to just “give us” her appt. She couldn’t come to US and I said to let me know if she ever made it this way. It was a great apartment on the River Liffey, walking distance to all sites and to the football stadium! We bought groceries, ate breakfast at home and carried snacks. Because we were saving so much we splurged on eating out while we were sightseeing. We could have packed lunches and eaten dinner upon return for the evening if wanted to save more on the trip.

Laurie, Brian and Ellie at Navy football game in Dublin

After Dublin, we took the train (very reasonable and close to the apt) to Belfast. We were greeted by our host Carolyn who immediately took us on a tour and her husband had dinner ready when we arrived! We had a beautiful room with a view of the Irish Sea. We had great conversations over breakfasts and dinner and ate lunch in town while seeing Belfast (walking distance). It was perfect!

Ellie with our fabulous hosts in Belfast

From there we took the P&O ferry to CairnRyan, Scotland. Our sister city friends John and Nina drove about 75 minutes to pick us up and drove us to Dumfries. It was a great time to catch up on our lives over the past ten years. We spent several nights in the rural town seeing the beautiful countryside, walking the cute little town and enjoying great hospitality and company. One night our host took my husband to the pub for boys night out :-). It really was a spectacular stay. Cost nothing.

I am trying to show you that you can have remarkable travel memories for much less than you ever imagined. Isn’t that what traveling should be about?

Peaceful Lake Retreat

April 16, 2015 by Laurie Deppa Leave a Comment

Location, location, location. I believe if you live in an interesting area people will always want to exchange with you. I get requests to exchange so often, that many of them I have to reluctantly refuse the offer.

In 2013 we did a fantastic home exchange right here in the good old USA. People might think you have to swap with some exotic location in another part of the world, but there are great places within a car ride.

We had an unbelievable offer from a beautiful custom built woodland retreat house on a private lake in the Adirondacks of NY. I am not normally the mountain type of person, more so a beach any day. We filled up the gas tank, loaded up the SUV and took a lovely drive up through PA and NY into an area which I am totally unfamiliar.

It was a rather large house and IT WAS FANTASTIC! We were only 3 in our party so I had asked a girlfriend and her daughter to join us. It was so my daughter would have a playmate and It worked out really well.

That’s another great advantage of swapping a home – you can invite others along if you wish. You could even arrange to swap two houses along with a family member or friend – and all go on vacation together without being too cramped.

The house was like something out of Architectural Digest. My house is a very modest duplex – why would they want to trade with me – LOCATION!

We took long walks on the beautiful, bucolic grounds and private driveway (2 miles long I think). We roasted marshmallows in the outdoor fire pit and relaxed immensely in the great outdoors. We enjoyed breathtaking views of our private lake – while dining and doing yoga every day. Oh yes, and that amazing house had a gourmet kitchen and large playroom for the kids. Don’t forget the master bedroom with a large sliding glass door and a view of the lake.

The owner’s brother lived in another house up the road. We drove by one day and invited them to join us with drinks by the fire. We ended up making new friends and our kids found new playmates!

There was so much to do in the area with all of the area lakes, small towns, outdoor concerts, and bike rides with the ones we brought from home. We even indulged in a day at Six Flags Great Escape, where we were able to use our Six Flags season passes from home and enter free of charge (one day of commercialism allowed 🙂 ).

Laurie, Ellie & Brian exploring Lake George, NY

It was a fantastic, frugal, family vacation. We ate most every meal at home, paid nothing for accommodations and yet had one of our best family vacations!