Advantages of the concept

After deep thought about all the possibilities to organize this trip around the USA, here are the reasons why the home exchange concept was the best way that I found to organize my trip.

Main benefits

• Financial
• Pratical
• Psycological
• Emotional
• A true connection
• Friendship network

Financial benefits

First of all, the home exchange brings you some financial benefits, like the accessibility to a good level of comfort at no extra cost. In addition, most of the time, my guest families very nicely invited me to restaurants or to share lunch and dinner with them in their home.

American people were very welcoming, warm, and nice and they wanted most of the time to offer me the activities to share as well. I created a very flexible deal for them that provided a lot of freedom in both ways. I gave my guest families between two and four times more in my places in France than I had in their home and the choice for them to go in both towns (Paris and/or Nice). My apartment in Nice is available all year long and for me there was no additional cost to offer them more days than I had in their house. I just wanted to see people happy so I usually let people choose the number of days they wanted. Thanks to this advantage I gave people, even if it was not mandatory, people usually were grateful and offered me restaurant and activities. The extra days the families would have in my apartments in France would help them save a lot of money, since Paris and Nice are two very expensive towns and the exchange rate is 40% in disfavor of the dollar. So everybody saves some money in a friendly atmosphere.

Traveling in a foreign country is always very expensive, but although I spent more than US$ 10 000 during this 80 day trip I also saved between $12 000 and $15 000!
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Practical benefits

Living with guest families made it easy to discover each new city. Most of my families shared some activities with me and drove me straight to the best local places that tourists usually can’t go. It made me save a lot of time and in two or three days, thanks to the tips of my guest families, I could visit whatever needed to be seen. Without doing home exchange, I would have been alone and would have taken two or three times more to plan all the things that needed to be seen in each town. Moreover, all these people have a lot of connections everywhere, and thanks to their family and friend’s networks, I had numerous experiences that would have been impossible to access alone and even more at no cost. Many people gave me some personal tours of private and public institutions. Some of them asked for confidentiality, but you will find some of my home exchange experiences on this site.
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Psychological benefits

Traveling this way was safer. First of all, the families always can provide you some with good advice and help in any kind of situation or problem, no matter where you go. It was easier for me to avoid the bad neighbors, for example. It was also psychologically more peaceful knowing that my belongings and electronics like my laptop was in the security of their home.
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Emotional benefits

While doing home exchange you’re never alone! It would have been very sad for me not to share all those experiences without people around me. I could not imagine myself doing a trip of such magnitude alone or even with just one or two friends. Sharing all theses intercultural and intergenerational human experiences brought me invaluable happiness. Thanks to the 37 families who welcomed me during this trip, and thanks to their contacts, family and friend’s network, I met thousands of people.

There was also an opportunity to talk about and share my values, my vision of life and my projects. The truth about doing a home exchange is that it always works both ways. While I’m trying to discover the things that people have learned in their life, they are also open to my experiences. The hundreds of warm and instructive intercultural and intergenerational experiences I had with all those families taught me a lot about life.
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A true connection

A home exchange is very rarely just a formal house swap and very often its leads to a friendship. People who exchange their home are most of the time people who are open minded, interested in discovering new cultures, life styles, your values and personality. For example, after my trip around the USA, I came back to San Francisco and lived one month with a family who invited me in their house without anything in exchange because thanks to an exchange we made few months ago we shared deep experiences, and a true friendship was born at that time.
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A friendship network!

Doing a trip around a country by just home exchanging was the best way to build a friendship network quickly everywhere in the United States. I kept in touch with almost everybody and all of them extended me an invitation anytime in their house. The reason why a home exchange leads quickly to a true connection with people you don’t know is because living in their house is intimate. You share time with them in their personal environment and private life. The fact that you share meals in their home is important because at this time people have time to listen to you: without the stress of work people pay more attention and have more willingness to be open with you. Those true connections in a personal environment are golden to understand different culture and lifestyles.
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