Home Exchange Guide

Want to explore the world while saving thousands of dollars, pounds, euro or yen? Home Exchange is the answer. This quick and essential guide answers more than Why Home Exchange? Learn about different types of house swapping, how to find the right exchange network for you, how to get a trade, and preparing for a great exchange vacation. Helpful tips and hints including 10 Things to Avoid, Membership Checklist and a sample Exchange Agreement.

This is a detailed travel guide book for families wanting to take an international home exchange vacation; there also is useful reference information and ten essays on actual home exchange vacations. There is an introduction to home exchange with a statistical analysis of home exchange and exchangers. Information is provided to help the reader decide if home exchange is for them and how to set up a home exchange listing and how to find and evaluate exchange offers. Negotiating with potential home exchange partners is covered as are preparations for the exchange and the actual home exchange itself. Reference material includes discussions of relevant concepts and things, a guide to home exchange by country, and a discussion and review of home exchange agencies. All this information is put into context by ten entertaining essays on the actual home exchange adventures of the author, his wife, and three children in France, England, Wales, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

If you like to travel and you have more time than money, you definitely need to know about home exchange and how to do it. Let this book be your guide. Sam and Judy Robbins have been avid home exchangers for over 20 years and have completed more than 70 exchanges in many different parts of the world. In this book they explain the ins and outs of home exchange and tell you exactly how to join in the adventure of exploring our world inexpensively and with the comforts of home. You and your family, by sharing your home when you are away, can find partners who will share their homes and sometimes autos, even boats, with you. In the process you will find that you can make many new friends who will enrich your life and expand your horizons. At the end of the book, they relate the story of just one of their exchanges. This story illustrates in meaningful ways the wonderful world of home exchange.

Taking a fun family vacation doesn't have to break the bank, as proven by veteran travel writer Kelly Merritt. Inside, she offers no shortage of creative ways to plan affordable trips! Visit popular sites at off-peak times with your children . . . travel off the beaten path for an eye-opening experience . . . and discover historic sites, scenic areas, and fun-filled attractions right in your own backyard! Featuring hundreds of unique, family-friendly trip ideas such as: Camping (from the mountains to our national parks) Adventure travel Water and island vacations All-inclusive resorts and cruises Educational vacations (eco, historical, cooking, and more) European tours--and beyond! The Everything Family Guide to Budget Travel helps you make the most affordable decisions about lodging, food, and tourist attractions. This easy-to-use guide is an invaluable tool, you won't want to travel without!

Surveys by the International Ecotourism Society reveal that more than three-quarters of American travelers feel it is important not to damage the environment they are visiting. Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in Spain helps travelers to Spain accomplish that goal. Author Dorian Yates focuses exclusively on where to find things green and alternative in one of the world’s most popular travel destinations: local and organic foods, natural health care, ecological businesses, organic vineyards, renewable energy, yoga and meditation centers, national parks, public transportation, and other green places and services of interest. Written in a friendly, accessible style with personal anecdotes, how-to travel tips, and practical information, this second book in the series is aimed at helping travelers leave a smaller footprint wherever they venture. The book rescues readers who are accustomed to a certain level of green consciousness at home but end up compromising their values on vacation. Author Yates shows how to make the most environmentally beneficial choices for basic needs—food, shelter, health, exercise—while enjoying sites of ecological, historical, and natural interest along the way. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Almost Everything You Need to Know About Leading the Good Life Too many decisions. Too many choices. What today’s smart consumer must have is a money-and-time-saving guide for conducting the “business of life”—both the big challenges, such as getting top-notch health care for the family and the best education for the kids, and the pleasurable ones, like plotting the family summer vacation. Nancy Keates and her expert colleagues at The Wall Street Journal provide all-new material that gives the lowdown on: The Savvy Traveler: How to cut to the chase and not only avoid the indignity of cramped plane seats and overpriced tickets, but also get the best and safest seats at the same time. The Fine Art of Dining and Drinking: Landing the hottest table in town—at a discount; picking wine without becoming a wine snob; and learning about “barley matters”—the newest, hottest beers. How to Speak Geek: Demystifying tech trends, with smart advice on not only what high-tech gadgets to buy but how to shop for them. Everything You Need to Know About Buying, Selling and Financing a Car: How to get the best and safest vehicle at the best price. Real Estate: Will the bubble burst? Here’s how to be an informed buyer and seller along with the basics of remodeling and designing your home. How to Be an Informed Patient: Choosing a hospital, playing private investigator with your M.D., and learning about the tests you really ought to have (even if you have to pay for them yourself). Getting Real Bang for Your Education Bucks: What you need to know from preschool through college and graduate school. The Great Balancing Act: Managing work and family, and finding out how to avoid the overstretched child and parent syndromes. Financing Your Life: It was easy in the 1990s, but the world has changed dramatically. Here’s how to deal with the new world of saving, investing and borrowing money. Shopping: The New Sex? Throw away your Kama Sutra. The number one thrill in shopping is getting a good deal—here’s how to play the game and get the best stuff at the best price. The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Business of Life is both an instruction manual for living life to the fullest and a fun read about what really matters in the day-to-day. It has all the basic insight and information you need to navigate through life along with hilarious side trips such as “The Three-Decorator Experience” and “Cruises: Sailing New Waters.”

Written for the traveler who needs information beyond what is provided in a general guidebook, Travel Resources: An Annotated Guide introduces the reader to comprehensive and specialized travel literature and resources. In this book, author Stephen Walker offers practical and accessible direction for anyone seeking detailed and valuable information on travel, while also instructing readers in ways to find information that may not be included in this guide. Organized by topic, each topic begins with information that is useful to new travelers so that anyone can begin with any topic without any previous knowledge of it. However, the book also goes further so as to provide information useful to the seasoned traveler. The wide variety of topics related to travel provide many new and possibly overlooked opportunities, even for veteran travelers, and the works included have been selected because of the depth with which each treats its subject matter, in order to ensure that each resource is of the quality that today's traveler demands.