Central Israel. A 3500 square-foot house. Five bedrooms. Full eat-in kitchen. Dining room. Children’s play area. Wireless internet. Local calling. Includes car. Cost for these deluxe accommodations and benefits for my month-long stay? Absolutely nothing.
So went my introduction to the world of house swap vacations.
Rewind six months as The Crime Traveller’s Wife and I were mapping out the possibility of visiting Israel for our summer holidays. With our children now aged seven and five, I felt we had finally entered the family travel sweet spot — when the children are old enough to enjoy and participate in travel activities while still not being so old that they have grown to hate travelling with their parents. I had to strike while the iron was hot.
As soon as I settled on Israel, I also instinctively knew that nothing less than two to three weeks was going to be sufficient. I wasn’t going to mortgage my sanity for a 12-hour economy-class flight with two young kids to a country with a seven-hour time difference unless I knew I’d be staying long enough for the memory of the inbound flight to fade before I had to brave the return trip. The challenge then became finding an economical way to house my family of four for an extended holiday.
Then a friend suggested a house swap with his brother in Israel. I initially approached the offer with trepidation. Invite a family with four young children into my kitchen, my bedroom, my car…my Xbox? Needless to say, I had concerns. But, as I began to speak with my Israeli counterparts, it became apparent to me that they were house swap pros. This would be their third consecutive year engaging in a house swap. The father provided me with a detailed “instruction sheet and guide” to his home in central Israel, detailing everything from how to work the air conditioning to where to find the nearest grocery store. Using his experienced form as a precedent, I prepared my own guide and within days, a deal was struck.
The main advantages of a house swap are obvious: substantial living space with full in-home amenities at absolutely no cost. Other benefits, though not immediately apparent, contributed substantially to our travel experience. By actually living in a residential Israeli neighbourhood, my family and I became immersed in the local culture in a way that would never happen over the course of a hotel stay. We shopped at the local grocery store, browsed the local mall, ate at local restaurants and played in the local parks and community centres.
Of course, choosing a house swap over a hotel engages some considerable disadvantages. Despite my repeated cries for room service to deliver my breakfast in bed, The Crime Traveller’s Wife proved far less accommodating than staff at my local Four Seasons. Staying in a residential neighbourhood also meant travelling a fair bit to get to the many sites and activities we enjoyed. Plus, a brief but terrifying encounter with a cockroach the size of a hamster had my wife seconds away from booking the Hyatt.
On the domestic front, I confess to having some concerns over what was going on back in my home in Toronto. One evening I received a panicked phone call from my mother who, while travelling in Columbia, had checked her Facebook profile to find a photo of my house posted to my Facebook wall by our guest family…with a large “For Sale” sign planted on the front lawn! Such comedic theatrics likely only happen when there is a level of personal relationship between the house swappers, but the joke served as a friendly reminder of the unpredictability inherent in having another family move into my home.
After a wonderful month in Israel with my family, I can safely declare my first house swap an overwhelming success. It gave me the opportunity to enjoy an extended vacation in a spacious and luxurious setting — including full access to a car — that would have been financially impossible had I been reliant on hotels or even apartment rentals. With the exception of an AWOL measuring cup, my return home found my house exactly as I’d left it. A successful house swap provides the best and most economical opportunity for an extended immersion in a foreign land and its culture.
The Crime Traveller’s tips for a successful house swap experience:
- Provide as detailed a “guide” to your home as possible, outlining all the minutia and idiosyncrasies — and insist on receiving the same in return. Communicate regularly in advance of the swap to have questions arising from the guide clarified.
- Have a local contact for your house swap family to rely on in the event of quick questions or emergencies (a neighbour or family member is ideal).
- Be sure to clarify your insurance coverage, particularly where vehicles are part of the house swap.
- Build a few hours into your arrival to allow time to familiarize yourself with your new home in the destination country. Take the time to walk the neighbourhood, shop for groceries, and grow comfortable with your surroundings. The same applies for your day of departure; you will need to allow time to clean the home, empty the fridge, and strip the linen. Unlike a hotel, you can’t simply drop your key off at the front desk and zip off to the airport.
- Set aside space in your own home as a “privacy zone.” This may be certain dresser drawers, closets, or even a single room, where you can move any personal items or valuables that you don’t want your incoming family to have access to. There is nothing wrong with designating a small “no go” zone in your house, provided these boundaries are well defined and understood by both families.
When not jetting around the world as his alter ego, The Crime Traveller, Edward Prutschi is a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer. Follow Ed’s criminal law commentary (@prutschi) and The Crime Traveller’s adventures (@crimetraveller) on Twitter, read his Crime Traveller blog, or email ed@thecrimetraveller.com.