EER094: How to do a Family Home Exchange with Marta from Learning Escapes

Is home ownership preventing you from traveling? Learn how to do a family home exchange. The family home swap is how today's guest travels with kids.

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The Family Home Exchange

Marta Correale is originally from Rome, but resides in Ireland with her husband and two kids. They live, work and go to school in Dublin, but travel regularly through family home exchange.

What's a family home exchange? It's exactly what it sounds like: two families in different parts of the world switch their houses for a set period of time. Everyone gets free accommodation and a new way of seeing the world. We've talked about home swaps before. A family home exchange is the same thing.

Typical Family Home Exchange Questions

As you might expect, the idea of letting strangers stay in your home while you're away is quite disconcerting to some people. When ideas like this come up, many people ask questions like "Isn't that a risk?" or "Aren't you afraid?" It's true that a family home exchange is not for everyone, says Marta, but for her family, it's been a fantastic way to explore the world with their kids.

A family home exchange is built on mutual trust, she says. After all, in most cases, you're in their house at the same time as they're in yours. This "mutual vulnerability" is something that she's accustomed to, and they've never had problems.

How to Do a Family Home Exchange

In our conversation, Marta explains many of the steps they go through to do a family home exchange: from pre-trip research to preparing their home before they leave. She also relays a few tips on where to find family home swap partners, setting up your family home exchange profile and how to interact with potential house exchange partners. 

IN THIS EPISODE

02:10 Intro 03:35 Origin as a traveling family 05:57 Rome & cultural identity 09:55  Family Home Exchange explained 13:56 Removing personal items before a home swap 15:52 Pros and cons of family home exchanges 18:57  Tips for prepping family home exchange profile 22:13 Marta's favorite travel gear 27:42 Education and travel 32:05 Rome with kids 34:11 Travel resources 37:01 Favorite Destinations

ABOUT

Names: Marta, her husband Phillip, and their kids Mati and Liza (4 and 6 years old) Hold passports from: Ireland & Italy Type of travel: Short-term holidays, school holiday travel, city breaks & family home exchange A few places they've been: Cuba, Canada, The UAE and all over Europe and the UK

IN THEIR BAGS

Coloring books iPhones  iPad mini  Camera DSLR  GoPro  Osprey Carry-on Backpack Lowe Alpine backpack  Trunki suitcases for the kids

LINKS & RESOURCES

Book: Raising a Bilingual Child HomeExchange Lonely Planet Skyscanner Booking.com Family Travel Blogs Wyld Family Travel Our Globetrotters

FIND THEM ON

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Full-on family travel fundamentals. Epic Education Radio is interviews, stories and advice for people who decide to make travel a priority in their family's life...and for those who want to. Tune in each week to hear stories and advice from new traveling families, and hear how they've handled various family travel-related issues like education, socialization, working, budgeting, accommodation, road-parenting, safety, technology and more. We talk gear, websites, apps and other resources for traveling & nomadic families, and answer questions from those who would like to do something similar.