So you want to go on an extended vacation, but you’re worried about the cost and where to stay. You’re also
concerned about your precious Azaleas dying in their pot on the window sill or how Fido will be kept alive without
food? Well, here’s an idea. A very cool idea. Home swapping. Yup, sounds kinky, but it’s not (or doesn’t have to
be).
It works like this: You decide where in the world you want to travel and go to a home swappers’ newsgroup or Web site
like Home Base Holidays or Home
Exchange. You might have to pay a fee to join some services, but they don’t seem too bad…about $40 to list. You
find someone who is interested in coming to your town and you contact them, beginning a correspondence to learn whether
you can trust them and to lay the ground rules (i.e. please feed Fido). Then you come to an agreement about cost and
whether an even trade is in order…perhaps not if you’ve got a very swank NYC apartment, for example, and you are trying
to swap with someone who has a crappy place in, say, Mexico. That’s it. Work out those arrangements and you’re golden,
possibly a free place to stay. Very cool and a great way to see a new place without the cost of a hotel.