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Global Pacific Vacation Homes is a worldwide home exchange network.

Home Exchange  San Francisco Bay area

We were painting and landscaping this past summer, so any extensive travel plans were put on hold.  Instead of summer camp, our kids decided to stay home and read books.... Nice thought but a no brainer to think that would last.  

Perhaps it was our hot July weather or the constant, "What's there to do?" that drove us to our decision but we knew we needed to get away for a week, a sanity break.  We couldn't afford much so looked at opportunities to do a short trip, enjoy some change and get our kids off our backs.  

I was sitting in the chiropractors office when another patient started talking with the receptionist about home exchange.  They just returned from a weeks trip to Disneyland and stayed free by swapping homes.  I was intrigued.  

"You let strangers stay in your home while you weren't there?   She answered that home exchange was built on mutual respect and trust.  She added two thought provoking questions.  Why would someone come all the way from LA to rob or trash my home?  Don't you think that they may be just as concerned about you being in their home as you are about them being in yours?

That night I browsed through the listings on the website she belonged to.  Global Home Exchange had several listings and I spotted several that were open to swaps this summer.  I joined taking out the least expensive option.  After sending out 15 emails with no positive response, "too late we arranged a exchange",  I was starting to give up on the idea.  That is when an email inquiry came to my inbox from the East San Francisco  Bay area. A family from Berkeley California whose oldest was going to be attending University in our area wanted a home base to search out possible places for him to stay. They asked if we were open to a last minute 8 day exchange.  They added their 4 story home was older, built in 1904 and had a home based business on the bottom floor.  We were welcome to stay on the other three levels.

We exchanged photos, phone calls and arranged to also take our dogs, we had a Bichon, they had a Maltese.

Two weeks later, after a long drive we arrived  late.  We honestly didn't expect much in the way of a house.   But wanted the break and opportunity for free accommodation.  The house was old on the outside but wonderfully decorated inside. Huge and spacious with room to move around and be away from the kids.  The 4th floor bedroom had an awesome view.  The city of San Francisco in the center, Golden gate bridge on the left and Bay bridge on the left.  A full moon was positioned just over the Golden Gate.  

During the next 8 days we took BART (Bay area rapid transit)  to downtown San Francisco, drove across the Golden Gate to Marin County, shopped at outlet malls, spent a day in Monterrey at the aquarium and relaxed as a family on their porch and in the back yard.

As most of our meals were eaten in our home away from home, the short vacation cost was quite minimal.  

When we returned, we found our own home looking cleaner than we left it.  The family from Berkeley even watered our plants and cut the lawn.  We appreciated staying in a large home, having the opportunity to cook our meals and really loved that it didn't cost us a dime. We are eager to try a home exchange again.  

Home Exchange to Western Australia

When we first planned to go on a home exchange we thought of an exchange  to the USA.  We wanted to experience more of American culture and limited our vacation destinations to a home exchange only to an American destination. 

Well, things didn't work out as we planned!

My wife was cleaning out our overstuffed file cabinet the other day when she came across a copy of a 4 year old home exchange listing that I wrote. She laughed at what I said in the ad and I wondered how anyone could have answered this. 

It was mid November, 4 years ago,  and 21 below zero. Our car wouldn't start the day I wrote the home exchange ad.   It's days like this that ones thoughts drift to a south seas island like Hawaii. A beach home exchange would be wonderful.  We had talked with a neighbor that completed a 6 week home exchange to the Caribbean. The Caribbean family had arranged a short sabbatical and needed housing.  A home swap worked out as a very positive opportunity for both families.

So  encouraged by our neighbors success, never imaging that we would receive a response, at least for a beach home exchange vacation we submitted a home exchange ad.   I even wrote under preferred destination, "wanted, anywhere warm, preferably a home exchange to a south seas beach destination,  I just want to get away from this cold wind swept prairie."

Several weeks and a new year went by and we had forgotten about the exchange ad.  One day, out of nowhere was an inquiry from someone in Colorado wanting a weeks home swap just after New Year. We took several days to respond.  We wanted to think about it.  An error in hesitation that I learned not to make again.  By the time we sent a response stating that we were interested, the family had secured an exchange with someone else.

About a month later we received another home exchange offer from an Australia couple living in the Waikiki Beach near Perth Western Australia.  They wanted an exchange to Canada during their summer holidays, Dec 20 for approximately 3 weeks.  After talking it over as a family,  I wrote back immediately saying we had an interest in an exchange and asked if they could share more about their proposed exchange. 

Soon photos and information arrived of their home and community.  They had never experienced snow and cold and wanted to get away from their heat!  Hmm...let's see... we wanted a break away from the cold, they wanted a break away from their heat..  A vacation home exchange match  that both families could take. 

Honestly, we thought we were getting the best part of this exchange and were actually feeling guilty thinking that they would be huddled indoors shivering, while we splashed at the beach and relaxed under palm trees.  They did have palm trees in Western Australia, didn't they? 

The rest of the year went by fast as we planned our trip. Our Australian exchange partners called in early December to say how excited they were to be finally experiencing a white Christmas.   Soon our departure date came and we were aboard a plane and whisking off to summer. 

We didn't meet our exchange partners but arranged for friends to meet them at the airport, have them over for a meal and teach them how to drive on icy roads.  In return, we were met by their family members in Rockingham, near Perth and given the same hospitality.  The Coopers home had three smaller bedrooms, a room with a shower and bath and a separate room for the toilet.  It more than adequately met our needs.

We had so much fun touring around southwest Australia and wouldn't you know it, a hammock was in the back yard.  I still fondly remember laying on the hammock, under a big tree watching the parrots fly about, imaging our friends back home shoveling snow.  We received an email from home in late January.  Our Australian home exchange partners were having a ball...Snowmobiling, ice fishing, curling, hockey, skating,  relaxing in an outdoor hot tub at 20 below, cross country skiing. Seems our Australian partners were taken in by the community and treated to all kinds of winter activities that they could never have experienced at home.

So much for us thinking that we were the only ones benefiting from this exchange.  Our house swap partners got the white Christmas they dreamed about and we got the beach, a hammock and a warm south seas island.

The exchange was a terrific idea. No cost for accommodation meant we had more to spend on other things. The experience will be forever in our memories and we are so thankful for the home exchange  concept.

Home Exchange to England

Shelley Lynch had been dreaming about a family vacation to Europe for a long time. But as each spring rolled around, the Stittsville, Ontario Canada., teacher and her husband, David, would tally up the steep costs, then reluctantly put away the travel brochures for another year. Shelley began to wonder if they could ever save up enough for such a vacation while their teenaged daughters were still at home.

One day, though, Shelley stumbled across a small newspaper item about a vacation concept that goes by what some veteran travelers call two magic words: "Home exchange."

The idea is elegantly simple, says Shelley. "You stay at our house while we stay at your house. We even use each other's cars. Total cost: Zero dollars." Now that sounded like something the Lynches could swing.

The key, of course, was finding the appropriately located European family who just happens to want to vacation in Stittsville, near Ottawa. And that turned out to be a surmountable problem, thanks to the recent profusion of online home-exchange services.

The idea of swapping houses for vacation purposes is believed to have begun in Europe in the early post-war years. Teachers and professors, in particular, began compiling contacts with colleagues in other countries. In those days a few letters were traded, references were supplied and then train tickets were booked. In what has become something of a home-exchange tradition, the two parties would often meet en route to trade house keys and to wish a personal bon voyage. After that, you lived like a local in your colleague's home, treating it as you would your own.

By the 1960s, the idea had spread to budget-minded travel addicts of all kinds. International clubs were formed, producing annual catalogues with photos, house descriptions, and the parameters of where and when might be suitable. By the 1990s, savvy operators that they are, home exchangers were among the first to grasp Internet technology. Now there are dozens of sites worldwide where the proverbial dream villa in Provence is only a few clicks away.

The Lynches' first foray, last summer, proved delightful. On one of several sites she had joined, Shelley found a match with a family from Aylsham, a town in eastern England. After a flurry of e-mails and phone calls extolling the virtues of their respective homes (and building a friendship, as it almost inevitably does), both parties took the plunge and went on to have outstanding vacations in the home of the other.

"It was absolutely beautiful over there," recalls Shelley. "Not touristy in the least, and it was perfect for trips to places like London and Cambridge. Our kids loved it, too."

Meanwhile, back in Stittsville, the English family was having a ball touring the Ottawa region, as well as getting the royal treatment from the Lynches' neighbours.

"For our first time, it couldn't have gone better," says Shelley. "They were actually veterans of 20 home exchanges, so they led us through all the steps, like making the basic contract and getting insurance-company approval to use each other's car."

As for finding the right match in the first place, Shelley notes that it requires some organization and tenacity. "I scanned a lot of listings and sent out a ton of e-mails to entice people with undeclared destination preferences, but I didn't always receive a ton of replies." Getting the family computer hooked up to  High Speed service also helped the process by enabling much faster searches, she says.

These days, scanning home-exchange sites is a regular habit, and the central feature of the Lynch family vacation plans. This summer, they're headed for that mythical place in the south of France, just a few kilometres from the Mediterranean. "It's the French family's first exchange, so now we're leading the way," says Shelley, who just got through reading A Year in Provence and can't wait for July.

Still, Shelley is not about to rest on her laurels. "I've already posted our listing . We're thinking New York City."

Home Exchange to New Jersey

We wanted a vacation and wanted to save money through exchanging homes.  So in late April we started responding to home exchange listings in New York City.  

We wanted a home exchange to New York City, but because of our late start we didn't think our opportunities of finding a swap to Manhattan was overly great.

That is when we started looking at nearby areas, within easy commuting range of New York City.  We wouldn't have all the conveniences of being in Manhattan but would be near enough to enjoy New York City.  After going through the Connecticut and New Jersey home exchange listings we spotted several possibilities.  At 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon we sent off our first inquiry to a community just 12 miles from Manhattan, Montclair New Jersey.  We had several other inquiries that we would send out later that evening.  

Within 19 minutes of sending the inquiry,  Judy and Ken responded that they were interested in a home exchange.  The next day, after exchanging several emails, photos, discussing travel dates and what to do with pets an exchange was arranged.  Their home was  2 blocks from a commuter train to Manhattans Penn Station.  We would have easy access to New York City and the effort to finding this exchange was rather minimal.

Over the next two months we exchanged emails, letters, brochures and pictures. We agreed to buy our plane tickets together on the same day, and with both Judy, our exchange partner and I looking, we found a terrific airfare on a non stop flight using Cathay Pacific Airlines.   We also agreed to swap cars.  They offered a Volvo and Honda CRV - we had a Honda Accord.  We had planned to take a train and subways to see Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island and the Bronx areas of New York City,  We would use the car to visit the Hudson Valley in New York State, the New Jersey Shore and Amish Country in Pennsylvania. 

In early August  we flew from Vancouver BC  to JFK airport in New York City.  Ken, our exchange partner met us at the airport and transported us to their home in Montclair.  On the way we drove through Manhattan and viewed the many sights in their colorful night lights.  The next day Judy, Ken and their two University kids flew off to our home.

The exchange home had three stories, several bedrooms and was located in a quiet tree lined neighbourhood. 

With being near to Manhattan but not in it, we had the freedom to choose to take a nearby train to visit the city or take the car and drive to areas outside the city.  This was really great for us.  The home exchange saved us 100's of dollars a day just on free accommodation.  We ate most of our meals out, but enjoyed stretching out in the large home,  with free access to TV, internet, phone calls, printer and computer.  

It seems like every home exchange we go on we forget something. In our past home swaps we left behind maps, sunglasses and luggage keys.   Not to be out done, on this exchange I left my hearing aids at home, and on our way back we discovered that we left behind luggage at Judy and Kens home.  The luggage contained our camera, money and car keys.  

What a great way to vacation.  We enjoyed free accommodations, a free vehicle to drive,  and our total vacation costs were minimal.

Home Exchange to France

by  Renee Blackstone    Vancouver Province Newspaper

Who's idea was this?" I wondered wearily, as one more e-mail arrived saying, "Thank you but we've already connected with someone else." 

It looked like our plans to exchange homes with a family in France were falling through. Just one week earlier, we were finalizing an agreement with a Parisian family expressing "great interest in visiting your beautiful country." But family problems forced them to cancel at the last minute. 

It was the middle of May and we wanted to fly to Paris at the end of June. We had received offers to exchange from England, the Netherlands and Ontario but we had our hearts set on Paris. 

We were learning the first hard lesson in home exchange: Don't be stingy with those e-mails and letters. We'd listed our home with a home exchange company which said that a successful exchange might require up to 50 letters. We'd sent out only about a dozen e-mails. 

Now, still "homeless," we wondered if we should abandon plans to stay in Paris and consider other offers. 

We were glum about it but it is, in fact, the joy and surprise of considering places you might not have thought of visiting,  that's one of the beauties of home exchange. 

It's what spurred Antoine Reverchon of Paris to respond to our e-mail, one of dozens my husband fired off after our initial Paris contact backed out. 

Antoine, a business reporter for Le Monde newspaper, his wife Marina, also a journalist, and their two children had signed up for a second home exchange. They hoped to go to Italy. 

But our letter describing the attractions of Canada instantly seduced them. They wanted to travel with their good friends Valerie and Marc and their two children. 

No problem, we said, delighted that Paris was still in the picture. 

Our large B.C. home always has room for visitors -- enough for eight -- something we emphasized in our  listing. 

We, too, planned to travel with friends and were seeking a place big enough for six. 

Our friends, meanwhile, were arranging an exchange in southern France so we'd have two places, one in Paris and one in the south. So, as we were finalizing the exchange with the Reverchons, our friends were closing a deal with Jean-Claude Delgal in Seilh, a village just north of Toulouse. 

It was all coming together. 

But then I got cold feet. I began to worry about letting total strangers into our home. Would they wreck the house? Would they rob us blind? 

I tried reasoning with myself: They are opening their home to us and surely have exactly the same worries. And even if their hearts weren't entirely pure, they weren't going to be able to carry much away since they lived nine time zones and one ocean away. Besides, I told myself, our neighbors had assured us they'd look after any problems. 

Still, it went against the grain of everything we'd been conditioned to think: Dead-bolt those doors, install motion sensitive lights, don't open the door to strangers. Now we were doing just the opposite, inviting strangers into the very heart of our home. I soothed my fears by locking away all that was precious and personal. 

We met the Reverchons for the first time in Paris. They weren't leaving until two days later but had their lovely three-bedroom apartment on Avenue du Maine ready for us when we arrived. 

Antoine, trailed by eight-year-old Marie on her bicycle, then walked us through their Montparnasse neighborhood to lead us to the best bakery, the best cheese and meat shops and the most interesting restaurants. 

That afternoon, we had lunch in their "garden," a tiny green sheltered place where Marc and Valerie joined us for a delightful afternoon, talking about places we should visit, places to avoid, how to use the transit system. 

I began to feel a little guilty about my initial fears. And when, after a week in Paris, we took the Reverchon's Renault to head for Toulouse and our second exchange, I felt convinced that this is the only way to travel. 

Southern France was a completely different experience from Paris and having a car allowed us to see places we otherwise would never have seen: Drouilles, Beau-lieu-sur-Dordogne, Ora-dour, Andorra, Bruniquel, Mauriac, and Saint-Sulpice-sur-Leze.

We came to try a home exchange through friends who first signed up three years ago and became instantly hooked. "It's changed our lives," they both crowed after returning from two months in Europe.  Now I know exactly what they mean! 

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