The Home Exchanger

Home Exchangers Share Their Experiences

Here are some emails I have received from home exchangers this week:

We had our first exchange with a French family this summer.  It was a great experience!!!  We are looking forward to our next exchange next summer.

Thanks, Julia Isaacs

We have enjoyed very much our experiences through Intervac. Not only the places we have visited but also the wonderful people we have met, most of whom we are still in contact with.

Carl Falk

We are going to have reports from a Danish family home exchanging in New Jersey in the coming weeks. If you would like to tell us your home swapping adventure, please let us know.

FAQ: Who Came Up With the Idea of Home Exchanging?

This is a common question about home swapping: Who invented it and why?

During the early 1950s, teachers unions in Europe began contacting each other, looking for ways to improve school conditions.

Some teachers had realized that they could enjoy the long summer holidays  if they could find a more economic way of traveling to other countries.  The idea of home swapping was born in this realization. By trading homes, teachers would not have any hotel costs and could live in another home with just the normal costs of living. It would also provide the opportunity to live in a normal neighborhood and not only in the developed tourist areas. This would provide the opportunity to learn about local culture, customs, and to get to know the people.   

In 1953 the leaders of the Swiss and Dutch Teacher Unions decided that a home exchange system for holidays should be formally organized. This organization became Intervac, which now has about 10,000 members worldwide and accepts members of all professions (retired people included).

Home Swapping Hindsight is 20/20

What could have been done better on our home swap?

1. I would have arranged better the transfer of keys upon return (I just focused on the key-exchanging in the beginning). 

2. I would have cooked more. More money could have been saved. But we really enjoyed the food and eating out.

3.  I would have bought my plane tickets earlier.  They were expensive.

4. I would have pre-booked our hotel in Cork for our mini-break. It was expensive.

How Much Did Our Home Swap Save Us?

It is difficult to calculate some of the cost savings attached to doing a home swap, like what kind of hotel room is equivalent to a 3 bedroom home, but I have done the best I can.

I am equating our home exchange property with a medium-priced hotel in Dublin during the height of summer: an average of 175 Euros a night. I think our home was much nicer than a medium-priced hotel, but there you have it.

We stayed a total of 13 nights in our home exchange property: 2,275 Euros.

Next, our car swap. Our car, free to us and fully insured, was a VW Passat. As best I can find out, one of these at a car rental company would cost about 100 Euros a day (including insurance).

We drove the car for a total of 16 days, so: 1,600 Euros.

Finally, the food. We didn't save as much as I thought we would on food, but we did eat most breakfasts at home and made four dinners. So, maybe 100 Euros. You could do a lot better if you cooked at home more often.

Total saved: 5,375 Euros or about $6,450.

That's a pretty mind-boggling amount to save on a vacation!

What we did paid for was the air tickets (about $2,000 - we didn't book our tickets very early), food ($250), hotel in Cork for our short trip there ($400), entertainment ($150) and gas (about $70).

Learning about Irish culture via home exchanging

The queries we received from our home exchange partner about our garbage disposal were priceless.  She asked, "Where does it all go?"  "You just put anything in there and it disappears?" Clearly, garbage disposals are not the rage in Ireland.

This is the sort of insight into another country that is difficult to get without meeting some of the natives or living in their houses. That's what home swapping is supposed to do. Other things we learned on our two week home trade in Europe was that most of the Irish get by just fine without clothes dryers (or garbage disposals, for that matter). We also wondered why that most wonderful of European item, the towel warmer, is not common over here. Love those things!

And of course, that sneaking suspicion that most people in the United States have that the Irish are a friendly, outgoing bunch blessed with the gift of the gab was reinforced with many personal experiences.

Coming Home

After a long trip, we were excited to get home. Until I remembered that I did not tell our home swap partner what to do with our keys ! That was a silly mistake...remember to do that on your home exchange.

We had left our home swap partner's keys with their next-door neighbor, who gave us a ride to the airport bus.  But I didn't tell our partners that we only have one house key - and they had it.  So when we got home, my husband was able to force a door open. We had to tell the alarm service that everything was OK.  Whoops!! Our keys were on the kitchen counter.

Our home looked like a professional cleaning service had cleaned it - everything was sparkling and pretty. It looked better than when we left it. Fresh sheets, flowers and a nice card were all provided.  Lovely!

Irish Food is Surprisingly Good

As we prepare to leave, I am sort of disappointed that we did not cook more. I was counting on cooking at our home exchange partner's home as a way to save money. What we didn't realize was how delicious the restaurants are here. And I'm not talking about the splurges - the two expensive restaurants we ate in that we had budgeted for - I am talking about inexpensive restaurants (under 20 Euros for lunch or dinner). Every restaurant we have been to (except for the one in Drogheda) has been of good quality. So why cook when such good food is readily available?

Some highlights: the farmer's market in Dun Loughrie for wonderful Irish cheeses and some of the best sausages I have ever had, Table 8 and Cibo in Cork for modern Irish food (think cabbage and corn beef pizza - no really, it was yummy!), T & H Doolans in Waterford for a tasty pub meal, and the Quay in Cobh for fresh seafood. Some restaurants were recommended by guidebooks and locals, some not.

I think the high quality of the produce and meat are partially to be credited, but there is some innovative and delicious cooking being done here. So Irish chefs - kudos! You have made my pocketbook lighter (and my waistband tighter) but it was all worth it.

Next week: diet and exercise begin. Click here for a video extolling the virtues of Irish Soda Bread.

Cleaning Up

One thing about doing a home swap is you need to clean up your home before you leave - the rule of thumb is to leave it better than you found it. Our home was super clean and tidy to begin with - and I am kind of anal when it comes to cleaning, so this home was a good match for me. We have cleaned as we go, so there's not too much work to be done at the end.

Here's what I did: I vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and did laundry so our home exchange partners would have fresh sheets and towels when they arrive home. Other than that, not too much to do. Total time: about 2 hours.

Car Exchanges

I have already posted a response to a comment someone made about car exchanges, but I want to clarify a few matters:

You do NOT have to do a car exchange. Some Intervac members are not comfortable with the concept. That is fine. You are free to rent a car if you do not feel comfortable swapping cars with someone. 

If you DO do a car exhange, we strongly recommend you arrange insurance to cover your home exchanger (and make sure your home swap partner does the same for you). You will feel better and so will your partner. We cannot control whether our home exchangers arrange insurance, but if you are a member, please arrange it. Every insurance company has different policies for covering other drivers, so do your homework.

Driving Across Ireland...

...is exhausting! The combination of being on the wrong side of the road and the narrow two-lanes roads led to driving fatigue for Josh, our designated driver. Luckily our home swap partner's car, a VW Passat, is a comfortable ride.

We started to head out of Cork this morning with the plan to get back to Dublin tonight.  However, fun sidetrips to Blarney Castle (yes, the tourist trap that everyone tells you to avoid - but I loved it), the port of Cobh - where many Irish emigrants departed from by ships (including the doomed Titanic and Lusitiana)  and Fota House, a beautiful grounds and house with an exhibit by Daniel Liebskind, the famed architect.

By the time we really started driving, too much traffic and slow trucks took their toll. So we decided to stay in Waterford, which is two hours away from Dublin. We will finish our journey tomorrow morning.

Click here to see video of our sidetrip to Bray.