Have you ever dreamt of having a cozy little getaway in New York City? We always fantasized about visiting our far flung East Coast families while staying in a homey place of our own. An apartment in the heart of the city where we could easily access all the city’s cultural gems, excellent restaurants and still be able to wake up and make our own breakfast or hang out at night watching a movie while my partner is in another room reading a book (or practicing guitar!)

You just can’t get that experience at a hotel! Not to mention that the price of NYC hotels makes a 3-4 day city escape pretty damn outrageous.  We are also leery of short-term rentals that often don’t live up to the description and also charge ridiculous service fees. 

On our last trip to New York in late May , we did something completely different and we are now true believers in traveling this way.  We exchanged our home for time in someone else’s!  We used HomeExchange.

For the first time, after decades of visiting NYC, we felt like locals! We found a charming, art and antique-filled, two- bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, a mere half block from Central Park! And it didn’t cost us anything other than an annual fee.

The premise behind Home Exchange is that guests will treat their host’s home as well as they would like other’s to keep their home.  They’ve been around for decades and we have friends who used them every summer for extended trips to Europe and elsewhere.  And the homes they stayed at were lovely, comfortable and well-located.  

So, we decided to try it.  HomeExchange is a closed system so you can’t easily see what homes are available before you sign up. But once you do and  provide proof of residence, a driver’s license and photos of your own home, you are in the system.  From that moment, you can start looking at and fantasizing about vacations around the world.  Prospective travelers reach out to residents who have their  homes and date availability listed.  After a few tries, I finally found someone who accepted our request.

Our NYC apartment was everything we expected as we’d seen detailed pix and descriptions of the property. We also received a guide to their neighborhood favorite spots.  It helped us to immediately feel like a local.  It was our best city experience as we got to know all the nearby hangouts, wander through Central Park in glorious, green springtime and have a home base from which to travel to see all the family or have them come to us.

As for the people who came to our house, they were perfect guests.  They took great care  of our home.  All we did was lock our offices and make the rest of the place welcoming.  We wrote our own little neighborhood guide of favorite places. And we explained how do things like use the Roku TV remote!

And  now, we are about to embark on our most ambitious Home Exchange. We are  going to PARIS!!   We are trading homes with someone who comes to San Diego every year to see family. Their home is near the Eiffel Tower so we will get to explore a part of Paris we haven’t spent much time in.  We previously  stayed in the Marais.  We have a large apt so we will have family visiting for part of our stay.  That will make it feel even more like we are Parisians living our daily lives.  

It will be a great adventure.  I will be blogging on the journey so stay tuned.

We’re busy packing up, clearing closet space for our guests, leaving notes like “don’t feed the orchids” and other pedestrian housekeeping details of a successful exchange.

If you’ve dreamt of having a pied a terre or a home away from home for a few days or weeks, a home exchange might be in your future, too!  

For more information about Home Exchange go to Homeexchange.com or use the referral code below

mimi-7b0a4: 

Boy Voyage…whereever you go.