Home Base Holidays

I recently researched the concept of home swaps as a means of a comfortable holiday at a reasonable cost. My first search was the basis of my original post, my more extensive search has highlighted Home Base Holidays as an excellent resource if you have seriously considered this type of holiday (and even if you haven't, go and have a look at what is on offer, you might change your mind).

Home Base Holidays is run by Lois Sealy a native Canadian who runs the service from London, England. They offer home exchanges from all over the globe and even have local franchises in many countries.
One aspect of home exchanges that I did not previously focus on is the security feature of having someone staying in your home and keeping everything running while you are away...another good reason for trying this type of holiday.

The site also has it's own blog where you can read about travel related issues and specific homes available for exchange. Lois has a great writing style and her posts make very interesting reading. Browsing through the website and the blog, I started to think that this kind of scheme is a really great idea, but was aware that if I were to ever embark on this type of adventure, that I would want the kind of support of the service that Lois offers. I would want to use a service that has been well established (Lois has been doing this since 1985!), and one where I felt that I could ask questions and get personal answers. Home Base Holidays charges a small annual fee, but at £29 for a year or £39 for two years, this is an extremely small price to pay for peace of mind.

You can combine this service with some of the cheap flight services that you can read about on this blog and end up with holidays costing very little indeed.