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Ottawa Home Exchange

If you want to travel the world, live in comfort and save money, home exchanges are the way to go

By Kevin Brooker

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 Sympatico 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 for 2003. We're thinking New York City."

Global Home Exchange
Although most sites are international in scope, this Nanaimo, B.C. based matchmaker is a great place to start. Unlike most commercial operators, you can view the listings for free complete with e-mail contact information. You pay only to post your own advertisements. There's also a level of personalized attention from the owners that Shelley Lynch found appealing.

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