Upscale Vacation on a Shoestring Budget

Are you and your family wishing you could afford that pie-in-the-sky vacation at your dream location? Does the thought of hundreds of dollars in a high-priced hotel destroy that thought?

Wish no more! Here's something you may not have thought of before: Vacation Exchange.

The premise is simple: you simply swap your home or apartment with someone who lives where you want to visit. Everybody wins -- both parties slash their vacation expenses, and the accommodations are often nicer and roomier than what you could probably find at the alternative.

A good place to start your research can be found at these websites:

• Homelink International lists one home for $80 a year. Additional listings cost $15 each. Visit www.homelink.org.

• Intervac offers a variety of membership options (Web only or catalogue and Web), starting at $78.88 a year. Visit www.intervac.us.

• www.HomeExchange.com is offering a special $59.95 for one year, and if you don't exchange your home during the first year you get a second year free.

• www.Invented-City.com charges a fee of $50/year and allows you to conduct as many home exchanges during that time as you wish.

Once you've signed on and have researched the area you're interested in, now is the time to make contact with the other party. Before you agree on a home exchange, make sure you have had several contacts with the person you're exchanging with. Be clear about your expectations and communicate any rules you have ahead of time, get references on the family you're swapping homes with and update your home owners insurance policy.

No matter how much trust and faith you have, it is advisable to store or pack your valuables in a storage locker or with family or friends. Ask them to check up on your home, to make sure everything is ok, for both you and your guests.

After all, you want your guests to have as much fun as you're having, and perhaps, spending those couple of hundred bucks you saved on hotel rooms.