Cheap Vacation Planning - Try a House Swap to Live Like a Local for Free

A house swap in the 2007 film The Holiday sees American Cameron Diaz and Englishwoman (and complete stranger)Kate Winslet house swap for their vacations. Each enjoys an idyllic stay in the other's apparent dream home and romance ensues.

It may surprise you to discover that a big chunk of this story was not fiction at all. House swapping is the hottest new cheap vacation planning idea for comfortable visits to UK, the USA and all over Europe. And HomeExchange.com can help you organize it safely, easily and for virtually nothing.

As far as the romance part is concerned, there you are on your own.

It's a membership organization through which private individuals - who can be home owners or apartment dwellers - can make contact with others all over the world to arrange house swaps. Other than the annual membership cost - which is minimal, the house swap is totally free. In 2008, there were at least 20,000 homes listed, in more than 100 countries, with websites available in seven languages.

The people who run the organization describe it as a little bit like internet dating for your house.

Once you register and pay for one of three levels of membership (the Silver membership at about $99 is the most popular), your house is listed and described - usually with a selection of the best pictures you can provide - on the HomeExchange.com website.

When you are ready to plan your vacation, you search the website for the location and type of house that interests you and contact members in that area who may want to exchange homes with you. After that the arrangements are up to you. There are no other fees.

HomeExchange.com say that in the 14 years they've been doing this, they've never had a case of theft or malicious mischief reported to them. Usually, your homeowners insurance covers accidental damage by your guests.

While your house is shown online, your address and your personal details are not - nor are they revealed in the initial stages of contact between the prospective house swappers. How much personal information you reveal, and when, is up to you.

HomeExchange.com also provides suggested model agreements so that you and the other party to the exchange can set some ground rules.

If you have a pet and you expect your house swap partner to look after it - or if you are willing to look after someone else's pet, that will be in the details listed on the website.

If you are making your car available, or would like the use of a car, you can talk about that when you make arrangements with the other party. Usually, other driver coverage for your car is easy to arrange.

Absolutely. I've just had a wander around the UK properties available for house swaps in England, Scotland and Wales. There are good to very good properties in all the major cities and all the popular vacation areas - Cornwall, Devon, the Lake District, the Highlands, London, Edinburgh, East Anglia, Oxford, Cambridge, you name it.

Well, for openers, you can save thousands of dollars that you would spend on UK accommodations - there really are no fees other than the small joining fee.

But possibly the biggest benefit is the ability to live comfortably like a local in nice properties all over the UK.

Visit HomeExchange.com, explore the website to see what it's all about and join up to take advantage of this great cheap vacation idea whose time has finally come.