Affordable Travel.... it works!

Recently I commented on the adventure of meeting new people through the Affordable Travel Club.  The other day we hosted two visitors from Richmond, Virginia who turned out to be the most delightful guests.  They arrived in the early evening and sat with us around our patio table until quite late, telling us about themselves and allowing us to do the same.  In the process we discovered that we had many things in common, among them an aversion to tours and cruises!  They too like the adventure and excitement of meeting new people through the Affordable Travel Club.  The next day we had a leisurely breakfast and then took them on a brief tour of our town and area.

Their cost for the overnight stay which included breakfast, conversation over a glass of wine and a personal tour came to $20 which is the gratuity recommended by the club.  But it is not the bargain that attracts us to this venture.  It is the opportunity of meeting new people from another part of the world.  When they left, they invited us to be sure to stay with them in Richmond which is something we might well do, never having visited this beautiful area of Virginia before.  We had found new friends and that is more rewarding than any amount of money, spent or saved, can do. 

Affordable Travel.... the unkown and the adventure

Below you see a picture of a kind couple we met in a restaurant in Adelaide, Australia who invited us to join them in their apartment for a coffee and dessert after the meal.  We accepted and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.  We exchanged family information,  stories of a our travels and discovered in the process that they had been to Canada and knew people we knew!!

That is the benefit of the Affordable Travel Club:  being open to the unexpected and then meeting people you have not expected to meet and kindling a friendship which lasts a life time. 

This week we are expecting a couple from Richmond, Virginia we have never met before.  We are excited at the prospect of a new adventure.....

Home Exchange for Seniors

A few years ago, my wife and I joined a home exchange agency specifically designed for seniors.  

Seniors who wish to travel affordably tend to join for a number of reasons:  Their children have left home and will not travel with them.  Consequently a home with one or two bedrooms is all they need to be comfortable. Being of a more mature age, these people too tend to look for exchanges in countries where their own language is spoken.  For this reason, British seniors tend to look to Canada and the USA as possible destinations.  Again, being retired, their prefered times during the year tend to be more flexible.   See the link above for "seniors home exchange".  

Barossa Valley, Australia

Affordable Travel at $20 a night?  Impossible?

I have just been watching a CTV program about fraudulent travel clubs who are ripping off people who want to travel affordably.  When I "googled"  travel or vacation club scams, I was stunned:  apparently there are scores of people who are being victimized by unscrupulous "clubs" which promise cheap travel at unbelievable rates.  The slogans "do your due dilligence" or "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" still apply.  

Let me assure you:   Home Exchange and The Affordable Travel Club are too good to be believe.  One offers an opportunity to exchange your home for someone else's home,  the other charges you $60 a year to belong and then to benefit by arranging an overnight stay for a mere $20 a night.  Recently, my wife and I spent 4 nights in Adelaide, Australia and 4 nights in San Francisco, USA with wonderfully hospitable hosts for a mere $160. 00   That is,  $160 for 8 nights with breakfast and a glass of wine in the evening and a tour of the area thrown in!  There is, of course, always the possibility that we may get a call from someone in the world who wants to avail himself/herself of our hospitality at the same rate. And we will be more than ready to welcome them because of the many benefits we have already reaped from The Affordable Travel Club.

Those Poor People at the Hilton....

Both pictures epitomize what home exchange offers.   The first picture I saw one day when we traveled through the Karaburin Peninsula in Turkey: a beautiful scene of blooming poppies under the olive trees.  At first, I missed this shot because I did now wish to slow down.   The next day I decided to return to the site in the hope to being able to capture the scene again.... I was lucky.  The sun, the setting, everything was the way I had remembered it the day before!  Those poor people at the Hilton don't have this opportunity.   The other picture is of a meze or Turkish apetizer display with which our hosts in Istanbul presented us when we visited them at the end of our home exchange.   Our host had taken the trouble of copying the menu that the Turkish government had presented to Queen Elizabeth of England on her recent visit.  Sorry, you poor people at the Hilton... this is not the kind of hospitality and thoughtfulness you can expect, except on a home exchange.

Home Exchange is the affordable travel way to go.....!

Who would want to come to Brantford?

That is the question often posed when I try to explain the Home Exchange idea to others in my area.  When I review the number of invitations for an exchange over the past years, it is quite amazing how many people think it would be a great place to visit:  people from France, Holland, Finland, Russia, America, Egypt, Israel, the list is quite impressive.  The point is:  we are too close to the area in which we live to continue to appreciate what it has to offer.  What could be more interesting than for someone from Paris or Holland to visit the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford and to attend the annual Powwow which brings together aboriginal people from all over Canada and the US?  We have so much to offer and are almost too close to appreciate it.

Home Exchange is for heroic people

The other day I listened to an interview of a psychologist who was asked why he thought so many  passengers on the cruise ship "Costa Concordia", including its captain,   pushed aside even children and the elderly, concerned with only saving themselves and why so few were able to be heroic, thinking of others first.  He offered an interesting suggestion:  perhaps most people going on a cruise were not the adventurous types,  looking to be fed, entertained and pampered but unwilling to risk and venture into the unknown.

Recently, I have found that when trying to explain the concept of Home Exchange, I get this dazed look from people, as if it's something so strange and alien that they could never think of themselves doing it.  The most common reaction is: "Are you not afraid that someone is going to walk away with your possessions?"  They just can't conceive the idea of some stranger coming into their home and living there for a while.   What they forget, of course, is the fact that they are, likewise, strangers to the other people.  

The point is:  some people are just not the types to ever consider the idea of a Home Exchange.  They would rather sit on a cruise ship where everything is arranged for their entertainment and appetite.  Happily, there are many others who have that sense of adventure that allows them to believe that the trust that is expected of them is also given to them by others.