How would you like to travel in luxury for as many months each year as you fancy travelling for? How would you like to do that on a staycation budget?
Well, I am lucky enough to have found a way to do just that and am living proof that it works.
A few of the run-a-rounds in Nice harbor, south of France
My partner and I travel the world, and stay in rooms larger than the biggest suites in the most lavish of hotels. We drink sumptuous local wines and sample temptingly delicious foods. We chat to locals and discover the hidden secrets of foreign shores typically available only to locals.
Children in cherry festival in Italian village
As a semi-retired baby boomer I want to travel, travel, travel in style. I can afford the luxury of taking as much time as I like to relax, never wearing myself out trying to cram as much into a few weeks as possible so that none of my vacation time is “wasted”.
Delicious cheeses and hams in the European markets
I have discovered the world of home exchange and I have never looked back. I am based in Queensland, Australia and now spend a large amount of my time in other people’s houses all over the world. Sometimes I only have short breaks within Australia, and other times I will take much longer breaks, up to six months where I will travel continents.
Exchange House in Bodrum, Turkey
For example, last year my trip began in Turkey, staying in houses in Izmir and Bodrum, each with large private swimming pools overlooking the Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas; then moved to the Greek Island of Syros where we stayed in a quaint white house with blue trimmed windows on the edge of a hill overlooking the ocean (it was straight out of Mamma Mia!); then to Italy where we lived in a tiny mountain village within an easy drive to Rome and to the Adriatic, then to Nice in the south of France where we drove daily to spots such as MonteCarlo and Cannes; then we spent Bastille Day in Paris on the Champs Elysees before flying back to Australia. All my accommodation was free of charge as I stayed in home exchange houses which belonged to other people. I also had their vehicles to drive free of charge.
Women in cherry festival parade in Italy
We stayed between two and four weeks in each of the houses and became very comfortable, buying local food and wine and visiting the local sights, many of which we had been unaware of until we actually stayed in those houses.
I highly recommend this travel lifestyle. At the moment I am in California for a month and later this year I have a two month visit to Scotland planned.
View from exchange house in Sydney, Australia
Learn more about Ainslie Waldron through her blog and in her latest book, the breakthrough Luxury Globetrotting on a Staycation Budget, Ainslie Waldron has developed the art of luxury travel for virtually the same cost as staying home! Ainslie shares these strategies with a fun, easy-to-follow guide to the Home Exchange lifestyle opening the world up to anyone with wanderlust in their heart who would like to experience world travel without sacrificing their financial futures.
Ainslie may be in Peoria, Paris or Perth today but you can be sure she’s living an enviable lifestyle using the precise strategies she shares with us in Luxury Globetrotting on a Staycation Budget. Just as the Internet made us all mobile, Ainslie is making mobility fun and affordable.
Luxury Globetrotting on a Staycation Budget is available now on Ainslie’s website or on Amazon. It is an insider’s guide to the home exchange experience where home swappers skip hotel bills and enjoy the comforts of living like a local. Full of very practical tips. Be sure to also follow Ainslie Waldron on Facebook to follow her travels around the world!