The US branch of the home exchange agency Homelink International is offering a Super Bowl special for new members. You can save $30 off the usual annual fee of $119. They don’t provide a date as to how long this special will last, the Super Bowl in on February 5, 2012. Homelink is one of the oldest house swapping agencies and is a particularly good choice if you are from the US and looking to travel in Europe as the percentage of US members compared to European members is low. Three out of our four most recently arranged European exchanges with our California home have been made with Homelink.

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By Didier Leclerc, translated and edited from the French original by John Mensinger

On the occasion of its 20th Anniversary, HomeExchange.com has organized a contest open to all, their members and non-members.

The prize is a dream trip to California. The happy winner will receive round trip air tickets to Los Angeles for seven days and six nights. The week will include wine tastings, surfing lessons, gourmet dinners, spa visits, live shows, and a tour of the stars of Hollywood.

To honor the concept of house swapping the winners will live in a beautiful neighborhood home, where they will live like Angelinos, which is one of the advantages of home exchange. They will receive other benefits.

You need to enter by April 15, 2012; the winner will be selected at random. Enter by visiting their Facebook page.

You can view Didier’s original post in French by clicking here.

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Homeexchange.com is once again offering a cheap trial membership of three months to anyone who is a member of another home exchange agency. The offer details vary depending upon which HomeExchange.com website you visit. The deal in the United States is $1 while in French, at Trocmaison it will cost you $6. Even at the higher price this is a great deal for three months. Look for the “Special offer to members of other home exchange clubs” link in the lower right hand corner of the home page. It isn’t clear how long this offer will be available.

Intervac’s United States affiliate is offering a discounted membership fee of $75 until January 10, 2012. You will save $25 from the normal $100 fee by putting NEWYEAR in the promotion code box of the payment page.

Intervac USA is also looking for people to promote their home exchange agency in the USA. These agents will get a commission for any memberships sold and a free renewal of their membership if they recruit five others. For more details send them an e-mail at info@intervacus.com

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This is the time in the western world when we think about Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year. It’s a time to be with family and to reach out to old friends. Today we received Christmas Greetings from two families in England, both of which we met through home exchange, one in 2001, the other 2004. We stay in touch with most former swap partners; five of these families have seen us in California subsequent to our trade. We have visited six families in Europe from previous home exchange vacations. Roger and Liz have hosted us twice in Wales and given us lunch at their second home in France. We were pleased that they stayed with us a few days in May this year.

The weeks immediately before Christmas are not the time to be looking for a summer house swap. The week between Christmas and New Year is ideal for sending and receiving home exchange inquiries for the summer to come as is January.

We have booked back to back 3 week home exchange vacations for July to mid-August 2012. I will be talking more about that later. Didier and I wish you happy holidays and a prosperous New Year!

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Getting ready for a house swap is always hectic, our partners were remodeling their apartment and the kitchen was ready the day they departed on vacation. They didn’t have time to worry about the fact they left masses of food in the refrigerator.

We welcome this kind of problem, which we have seen before. Step one is to check out the expiration dates on the fresh food. We sorted and graded the milk and yogurt, consuming the oldest first. Ditto for the cheese and processed meat products; the Germans make thousands of different products from pork. For breakfast they may eat on individual wood cutting boards, practical for cutting cheese or meat and putting on a fresh roll.

One advantage of home exchange is new experiences. You can’t count on eating your partner’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it is a great way to try new types of foods. Shredded meat from pigs’ trotters with pork fat isn’t something I would ever purchase. When it cried out to me from the depths of the fridge I had to try it on fresh bread. I couldn’t eat just one bite and after a few days that was one less item filling the refrigerator. Coffee flavored yogurt with 10% fat is way too rich to buy in California but went down well on holiday.

Our partners supported organic producers; we enjoyed it all, including the organic beer. They had thoughtfully bought a few loaves of dark and nutty bread from the neighborhood bakery for us. Dense and tasty and perhaps the inspiration for dwarven battle bread as found in the novels of Terry Pratchett.

Our rule in home exchange is to provide an empty and clean refrigerator to our guests. They are welcome to use any food or drink in our house, except for bottles of wines and spirits, which they can open in an emergency. They can eat potatoes, pasta, rice, sauces, spices, snacks, etc. We will do the same in their house. We will shop during our exchange and the goal at the end is to leave about the same level of food as was there when we arrived.

Our friends in Berlin were doing three back to back exchanges, a total of ten weeks; we were being courteous in eating everything so the next family wouldn’t be confronted with a living fridge teeming with flora and fauna. I had purchased two children’s car seats for our partners in California; they asked how much they owed us for them. I explained that we had done an exchange, the car seats for a generous supply of typical local foods. Home exchange is about more than just the house.

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Berlin is a world class city that on any day will have several special events, exhibitions, or performances. During our month long house swap we encountered many, large and small. With home exchange you are in a place long enough to get to know it, which makes finding special happenings easier. The activities described below, and others, celebrate Berlin’s commitment to multiculturalism and were fun.

Germany hosted the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Only the opening match was played in Berlin. We happened to be on the S-Bahn before that game and encountered thousands of excited fans on their way to the stadium. Germans are usually subtle in their patriotism, but this isn’t true when the national team plays soccer, as you can see from the photo. Although we didn’t attend any World Cup matches in person we enjoyed watching on TV and seeing the signs and decorations around the city.
One of my favorite days in Berlin was spent cycling through the heart of the city. I chanced upon a phalanx of painted bears, each one representing a country. Their job was “promoting tolerance, international understanding and living together in peace and harmony. “ The bear is a symbol of Berlin and is found on their Coat of Arms.

Another day I was admiring the Gendarmenmarkt, a lovely 18th century square flanked by two cathedrals and a concert hall. The Konzerthaus was flying the Turkish national flag, which seemed odd. The posters explained Turkey was being honored with concerts by famous musicians from that country. One evening they were offering two paid concerts, followed by a late night free performance. We opted for the latter. It was sublime listening to jazz in a beautiful hall originally built in 1821. The musicians were Turkish, either from the old country or Germany, their repertoire influenced by their homeland and Europe. Like the bears, their job was promoting tolerance and understanding.
An advantage of home exchange is your partners help you while you are on vacation. Our hosts in Berlin contacted us while they were in our house in California. They alerted us that a Klezmer Band would be playing at a local restaurant. It was 300 meters from our flat; we sat outside, sipping beer, enjoying the music and a warm summer evening. Klezmer was originally created by Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Berlin and home exchange promote living together in peace and harmony.

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The US branch of the home exchange agency Intervac is offering a Thanksgiving special, valid through November 30, 2011. You can save $30 off the usual annual fee of $100 by putting the word Turkey in the promotional code box. Intervac is organized along national lines so only US residents can take advantage of this offer.

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By Didier Leclerc, translated and edited from the French original by John Mensinger

Hola! We exchanged our home with a Spanish family for three weeks this summer. We opted for a traditional Spanish experience, far from the touristy vacation villages. We chose a home on its own built on an ancient lava flow.

Leaving France wasn’t easy, after months without rain there was a storm that caused a leak in the roof. We had to redo the sealing of a roof window and repair a sink blocked up by one of my daughters, she helped clean the tools. Everything was operational when we left the house.

The swap was perfect as our exchange friends had carefully planned our vacation. A traditional hot meal was waiting for us. The house was contemporary, well equipped, and decorated with style. Our partners belonged to an Astronomer’s Club; they put us in touch with them. We had an observation session on top of a volcano. Other activities included swims in the ocean, touring ancient villages, and discovering local cafes from a list curated by our Spanish friends.

We had the time to leisurely explore a great rock lost in the middle of the ocean. Our island was small but diverse. The house was sheltered from prevailing winds with a hot and arid climate. To the north and the west the island was green, the clouds colliding with the mountains and raining profusely on forests and banana plantations. To the south rain was rare; massive cliffs protected the large concentrations of tourists in their vacation hotels.

For us the highlight of the island was the volcano park. The landscapes are grandiose, once you get away from the roads and parking lots you can find yourself alone with fantastic views. Looking west of the volcano there is an endless sea of clouds, to the east, towards Africa the blue of the ocean.

Our most surprising excursion was to the Pyramids of Guimar. There are six pyramids that could be categorized as Pre-Columbian on the island. The archeologists disagree with each other as to their origins. For some this is proof of trans-Atlantic voyages made during the Stone Age. For others they are simply piles of stones created by farmers clearing their fields of rocks. The first group claims the main pyramid is oriented towards the solstices, the rocks are cut, and the funeral customs of the ancient people of Tenerife are reminiscent of those of Central America. The skeptical camp claims the pyramids were built in the 19th century.

I would say the site functions like a calendar but it could be a coincidence. The debate is unresolved, stay tuned!

You can view Didier’s original post in French by clicking here.

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I recently received an e-mail from a guy hoping to trade his home for a year in a Spanish speaking country. He wanted his kids to experience another culture and improve their Spanish language skills. Other reasons for a long term swap might be a sabbatical or to check out a country as a possible retirement location.

Many home exchange agencies allow you to indicate you are open for a long term exchange. That can be a minimum of six weeks to six months, depending on the agency. For example, you can search for long term exchange by checking off a box at HomeExchange.com, Homelink, HomeForExchange.com, www.Intervac.com, Geenee.com, or Homebase Holidays. If you are lucky you might find someone to trade for a year. Alternatively you could consider a shorter duration if that’s all that was available. You might be able to work with more than one family in your country of interest. For back to back swaps to work you would need a reliable person to make sure your house was in good shape after each exchange.

HomeforHome.com is an agency based in Spain; they have over 8,000 members there. Unfortunately they don’t allow you to search for a long term exchange as such. 1st Home Exchange doesn’t have a long term exchange search either. They do allow you to indicate a minimum number of days for an exchange; this might allow members to find those interested in long exchanges.

A long term exchange is much different than a vacation swap. You will need to make special arrangements for insurance, paying bills, and dealing with problems that will appear over the course of months instead of days. A health emergency, either with the exchange family or one of their relatives could demand a return home; you need to have an agreed plan for this and other contingencies.

The Spanish speaking country with the most home exchange activity is Spain, though there are many listings in Latin America. HomeExchange.com has 488 members in Spain interested in long term home exchange, HomeforExchange.com has 180, Homelink has 85, so trading for a home for a Spanish speaking country should be possible.

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Our home exchange host, Heidi, recommended we check out Sternfahrt 2011, a giant rally in Berlin for over 150,000 cyclists. There were 18 possible routes, each with a starting point at a train station. You could choose to start as early as 7am, or like my daughter you could join in about noon. On June 5, 2011 I walked 500 meters to the S-Bahn, bought a ticket for the bicycle, and headed out to Strausberg. There were 50 or so cyclists milling outside the station, at 8.30 the ADFC organizer in a bright yellow t-shirt started down the road, we were led by a police escort, what a great feeling to run red lights and see oncoming motorists pull to the side of the road so we could pass by.

After less than an hour of cruising past fields and forests we arrived in Atlandsberg, a picturesque village, where we waited in the square for 15 minutes before resuming our journey with a few more riders. About an hour later we stopped in Mahlsdorf, by the time we left at 10.45 we were over 200 strong, since we were now in Berlin we had several motorcycle police as escorts. They would rush ahead to block crossroads so we could proceed without stopping.

Less than an hour later we merged with one of the other 18 routes, at Springfuhl. The going was slow, not because of cars but because there were now thousands of cyclists. We passed within 500 meters of our apartment, crossed the River Spree and ended up with tens of thousands of cyclists at Grenzallee. The theme of this year’s rally was free travel for free wheels but nobody was going anywhere. After a delay of 40 minutes the crowd started moving. 30 minutes later I finally was able to get on the freeway.

The route was now a closed course. They had shut down Route 100, the south peripheral freeway, so we could bicycle into the heart of the city. Berlin diversity was on display. Old and young, parents with kids in a seat behind them, mountain bikes, road bikes, and even a buccaneer with a cargo cycle shaped like a pirate ship.

We exited the freeway and cruised through the heart of West Berlin, finally ending up on the Street of June 17th, which leads into the Tiergarten, Berlin’s huge central park. There was an environmental festival with scores of exhibitors, food stalls, and live music, a stone’s throw from Brandenburg Gate. Our home exchange family had a son who was studying in Cottbus; he returned to Berlin for the weekend and with friends accompanied my daughter for this epic cycling experience. Cycling and house swapping are a good combination.

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