International Home Exchange Advice?

July 22, 2008 10:55 PM

As part of a sabbatical leave, my wife and i are considering looking into a home exchange program. Can anyone recommend good programs or reviews of programs? This would be for international destinations, possibly Europe, possibly Asia. We would want something LT, perhaps 6 months to a year.
posted by dougiedd to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

My family used to exchange houses quite a bit, but haven't done so for the last 3 years or so. The organization we used still exists though, it's called homelink and specifically mentions long term exchanges for academics on sabbatical (at least on the German page, which seems to differ somewhat from the US one). They put out a catalogue with entries for all members, but I guess nowadays the website offers the same data.
When we did this we never had any kind of bad experience, we went to the US, and various countries around Europe. Expecially the ability to use a car for free is really great.

The number of offers you may get depends a lot on the home you have, and how attractive it is in terms of location (for the normal holiday exchanges anyway, that may be different for long term arrangements).
posted by Lynx at 4:36 AM on July 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

sabbatical homes is one website that does this.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2008