Travel for Cheaper with Home Exchange Programs

I've been thinking so much about travel lately, but it's costly! My two biggest wish list places are England, and Brazil. The airfare is expensive, and so are accommodations especially with currency exchange seeing as GBP are far more valuable than American dollars. The more I watch 'The Holiday' the more I think that those people are on to something!

I've be looking into the most cost efficient ways to travel for some time now. Hostels seem odd, and I'm not big on sharing that much space with people, Hotels and apartments are nice, but seasonal rentals are pricey. A home exchange seems like the most awesome idea ever. Two people who want to visit where each other lives, but need a place to stay.

For some reason it seems odd to get over that inbred fear of another person living in your house, and you going to theirs. But we're in the company of strangers all the time! Whether they work with us, live next door, or we're renting their house.

The only thing I know is that this could cut massive amounts of money off your travel bill. Especially if you're wanting to be in another country for a long time.

How much could this potentially save you? Lonely Planet has a nice site with cost estimates for different travel destinations. I've been checking their site out to see how much cash I should plan to save to bring with me on my different excursions. I definitely don't want to find myself in a new place with no money.

Let's take a look at the average expenses for a person staying in London. Lonely Planet suggests you budget at least 25 GBP a night to stay at a hostel. This translates to about $36 USD for a tiny room you're going to share with at least three people you don't know with zero privacy.

A Mid-range to a room you might actually like to spend time in as they put it will cost anywhere from 60 to 120 GBP a night. Which will bump your total up to $80 - $170 a night! A two week visit in the low range of that would cost you about $1120.

As you can see knocking off the accommodation portion of your travel bill will leave you much more spending money for things like dining out at nice restaurants, attending events, traveling over more of the country, ect.

I'm currently browsing itamos - checking out how this whole thing works! If anybody has ever done this before I'd love to know how it worked out for you!