Home Exchange

One of the many HomeExchange sites.

I first heard about Home Exchange a few years ago and thought that it sounded like an incredibly fabulous idea! At the time though, we were living in Burnaby. Still Vancouver, but no one on the exchange boards was exactly chomping at the bit to head into the burbs. Or so I thought. In retrospect it might have been the exact place someone wanted and needed to be for a visit to the Lower Mainland for all kinds of reasons. I should not have put our little townhouse in a box.

Anyhoo. The time is here. I finally finished making a photo tour of our home and we are going to take the plunge into an international home exchange site. I have no idea which one. I am thinking the ones that you have to pay for are best after overhearing a girlfriend talking about her online dating experience. She described paying as being an incentive not to dick people around. Good advice.

One of the many reasons we love this little town is that living here affords us the ability to travel. We want to travel once a year. And, bonus, Rossland is the kind of place that other people will come around the globe to visit. I meet them on our streets everyday! What with worldclass skiing in the winter and being the mountain biking capitol of Canada in the summer, amongst other things. Huzzah :)

There are some pretty incredible destinations available in the exchange and it cuts the cost of travelling in half. Great, because we have two tiny bums that get charged full price for plane/train seats everywhere we go. Rossland is two hours from the Spokane airport and or we would drive to Vancouver to find the best - read cheapest - flights (leaving one car for the exchange family). Now enrolling does not mean we will find a match immediately but many of the sites do guarantee that you find an exchange within the first year, or the next years listing is free. Sounds good to me.

Have you tried a home exchange? Which one?

That Itch

That Itch

Bronze Dibatsu in Kamakura

I have that old familiar itch. So does my husband. It's not what you think, not that 7 year itch, but the kind one gets when you are bitten by the travel bug. Before we were married we had both travelled to places in and around Australia and Europe separately. The places we travelled after we were married you could count on one hand.

Then last year Mike and I stumbled upon a seat sale to Japan - $420 round trip/each + taxes for two weeks. It was an incredible deal - if I had not been on the trip myself, I would have said it was too good to believe! Add to this spectacular price the fact that Mike's brother lives in Tokyo and we had a place to stay I bought the tickets pretty much on the spot.

Our mothers graciously flew from Alberta to Vancouver and lived in our home with our kids for one week each. A huge blessing. Though, I was fairly reluctant to leave Isla. At the time she could have flown for free, but we weren't sure how easy or difficult travelling with a 22month old in Tokyo would have been. In the end it was really nice to spend two weeks of one on one time together, something we hadn't done as a couple in over 5 years!

Matsumoto Castle

Japan was AMAZING! We travelled as far and wide as was possible in two weeks. From Tokyo to the Sea of Japan, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nigata, Endoshima, Hakone and many more. The country and cities are breathtaking at the best of times, but it was fall, and especially beautiful. We saw Mt. Fuji twice in the distance on separate trips, apparently quite a feat. Ironically on the day we went to see the volcano it remained shrouded behind the cloud cover!  

Now a year later I am dying to go back. My desire possibly exacerbated by the knowledge that I cannot go right now. I am actively resisting looking up seat sales on Flight Centre's website as my little family is on the cusp of a new adventure, (one I will tell you about later) and I know it will be a while before we can spend our time or our money in such a way again.

Tokyo Tower at Dusk