Vacation home swaps can provide “the missing link” in many vacations.
What is a vacation home swap? It is either using your vacation home for a home exchange or taking a vacation by doing a home swap.
A vacation home (or second home) is an under-valued resource for most people. As a vacation home owner, you think of your cabin or cottage or condo as you private “get-away” at the lake, in the mountain, by the sea, in the north woods (or wherever). You enjoy this second home during the weekends, during holidays, or during the vacation season. Occasionally, you may even rent it to someone else. But, did you know that you can use your vacation home for a home exchange?
A home exchange is where you swap homes with someone else. It’s a ‘You live in my home while I live in yours’ kind of arrangement. And a vacation home is a great way to set up a home exchange.
It is hard to beat a home exchange for a truly meaningful vacation. You get to live somewhere as a local rather than as a tourist. Doing this over and over again, you get to live in, not just visit, many different locations throughout the world.
A home exchange makes it possible for you to make a deeper connection with your travel destinations and the people you meet during your travels.
A home exchange helps you leave a friendlier footprint on the environment as you travel. Even if you are away from home for only a couple of weeks, a home exchange helps you to conserve resources as your travel.
Lodging in someone’s home (not just as a guest, but as the resident of that home), gives you a totally different experience from staying in a hotel. And, when you use your vacation home for the home exchange, you create your very own time-share arrangement with people all over the world–without the recurring fees and the limited number of weeks per year that accompany the time-share exchange experience.
One of the bonuses of the vacation home swap is the friendly help you get from your exchange partner who is able to recommend local restaurants, local festivals, local churches for worship and special events. Your home swap partner can explain cultural customs and local heritage that is unfamiliar to you. They can also help you to support locally-owned businesses and local markets.
Upon returning home, as you reflect on your vacation home swap, I’m confident you’ll discover you have more to share with others than pictures of monuments that anyone can see online. You’ll have so many amazing and meaningful experiences and memories to cherish and to share with others. So, do a vacation home swap–live like a local and enjoy especially meaningful travel.
