If you do not have a significant amount of cash in your hands, but you wish to explore new worlds, there is a solution for your situation. Now, you can exchange your home trough websites like HomeExchange, IntervacHomeExchange, LoveHomeSwap, etc. Home swapping or exchange is an alternative way of travel accommodation. Wikipedia says that it dates back to 1953, but we assume it was kind of more complicated at the time. All you need to do is make a profile on one of those web pages and search trough listings to find people who are interested in traveling to your city.
The general idea is to enjoy in a person’s home while he or she is occupying your real estate. Home exchange has been around for a while now but is blooming lately. The reason is the fact that people are not living large but still want to experience new countries. (Psst, not every home swap story ends like this one!)
The twenty-first century is the century of alienation. At least, that’s what some people, born in different times love to emphasize. Again, more than ever before, people are starting to share their most intimate spaces with strangers. They are doing it trough various platforms. People from more than 191 countries decided to share their apartments and houses trough websites like AirBnb. “Couch surfer” is a synonym for young travelers. Now, they say that home exchange as we know it is actually a grown-up version of AirBnb and Couchsurfing.
For the purpose of this article, I have, as a Croat who really loves Canada but never visited (for now!) looked for people from CA who wish to visit my country. Surprisingly, three persons from Toronto want to visit Croatia and nine from Vancouver.
If you’re interested in these kind of activities, there are plenty of web sites to learn from: try Quora, USA Today, Telegraph and much more. Go on, be courageous and search for your perfect chateau in France, cottage by the sea somewhere on the Mediterranean or the perfect getaway for the magical fall on Iceland!
