International Local Guides Exchange Programe

[SandraFaria]

Hi everybody, I think this is a wonderful idea. I fact, I take this opportunity to share with you a recent traveling experience I´ve had by using a home exchange program (www.homeexchange.com), meaning you exchange your home with somebody from another city or another country. In my case, I live in Brasilia, Brazil. I exchanged my house with a couple from Canada, city of Ottawa. We also exchanged our cars. I had always wanted to have this kind of experience because when you travel to another place and get to stay in a local person´s home, it is like you are living as a local. Somehow, you even seem to acquire the same habits of the family. We went to the same supermarket they used to. We went the restaurants and places they recommended us to go, the shops, the city sights. The thing that mostly attracted me to go for this experience is the fact that staying in a nice house is much more comfortable and cosy than staying in a hotel. It was an actual home in a gated community, with a gym, a pool, sauna, etc. Apart from that, of course, trading my home and my car with somebody else, saved me a lot of money. I like saving money so I can travel more often. This was really one of the best experiences I´ve had as a traveller and I intend to do it more often. In my case I did a simultaneous exchange with a retired couple from Canada. They´ve done this more than a dozen times. You may also opt to host the "exchanger" in your house and vice versa. This allows you to develop friendships with the exchange family. This kind of vacation experience isn’t available via traditional booking reservations. I´ve also used airbnb a lot, but this was certainly a unique experience for me and my husband. By the way, to register your home in the homeexchange website, you must pay a fee of USD65 per year. You may do it without paying, but then you don´t get to see all options of exchange. And trust me, you will certainly exchange if you are open minded. This is the place where we stayed in Ottawa: https://www.homeexchange.com/en/listing/524403
From there, we visited Montreal, Toronto and Niagara Falls. We had a wonderful time.

[ArielleM_]

Hello @SandraFaria,

Thank you for taking the time to detail your latest vacation across the globe. ​​It truly seems like you had a wonderful trip while managing to save some money along the way! Relative to your post, promotion of any services or products is not permitted here on Connect - even if the business is not your own. My suggestion would be to edit your post so that it doesn't seems as if you're encouraging the use of a service or directing your fellow Local Guides to another platform. You’ll also be able to review the Local Guides program’s rules and best practices at your convenience.

I hope you understand :). Thanks for making any necessary changes.

Can't wait to see what you post next!

[WaweruM]

@SandraFariaThank you for sharing your story, i hope local guides will come up with such a program