Mumsnet Talk

The first time I stayed with family and friends alone with the dc and it was awful. The second time I rented in the Cotswolds and it was much better. I used google to see private websites and holiday lettins/ owners direct. I also use the trips to the uk to stay in different places like Cornwall for a week and see the beaches etc. I also stay in France and rent there. If your home trip is all summer then you could look at a week or so in a villa in Spain too and people join you.

It's the car hire that makes me gulp though! Can't do without a car though.

I have a car that I leave in the UK. I bought one that was old enough to be reasonably priced, but new enough to be reasonably reliable, big enough to get us all in it, but small enough to be cheap to insure! I can't be spending thousands on car hire every summer, that's ridiculous.

Bump. Any more [London-based] ideas? Before I press 'book' on a dismal studio down a street I don't want to live in?

I always stay at my Dad's and probably will always do so until he's no longer around. But we're not there the entire time - I'm usually off up and down the country visiting people, often with overnight stays elsewhere too. Usually manage to be put up in people's houses. Just me and DS1 up until this time but at Easter I'll be taking DS2 (will be 6m) with us, so it could get interesting!
My Dad has a car that I use when I'm there as well, so that is useful. I would say it saves me money - up until last year that was true but I got stung for paying the insurance for the whole year, so it's cost me more than a hire car would have done for 3 weeks.

We used to stay with my parents (3 dcs, but big house and cool laid back parents

My DB and SIL come back and arrange housesitting with various friends as they all go off on holiday in the summer. Works but means moving on every 2 weeks.

When we were little my mum did one christmas staying with family and friends and swore never again, so they ended up buying in the uk and coming back there in holidays (but we were back 1-2 times per year)

We now have same problem when we visit Holland (dh is dutch) We used to stay with DFIL, but then he moved to small flat. Then we stayed with SIL, but now she has 2 kids and we have 3 and she is not well a lot of the time, so don't feel that we can stay there any more.
Last time we went and we camped near one part of the family and made a holiday of it. Never Again. Weather was crap and it didn't work.
Next time we will rent a holiday home, or even a static caravan so that we have a base and I am not trying to take tired cold children to visit great granny.

Hope you get it sorted this time steppemum. Complicated, isn't it?

If you are interested in house swaps, try www.guardianhomeexchange.co.uk

We have used this website for a few years now and have only ever had great experiences.

That site is brilliant viktoria - I've just spent hours on it thinking of possible places to stay. Has it been easy to find people to swap with?

I have house swapped! Got a house in the exact location we wanted so it was perfect. We swapped it with our beach house tho, don't know that I could be bothered with the faffing around otherwise. Anyway, you can browse thehomeforexchange websites, see if there is anything that would suit you, then sign up. Good luck. I would definitely do it again.

Oh yes, and you get the car with the swap too.

Am so intrigued with the house swapping. Although not palatial, our house is lovely, pretty big, has a pool and has easy access to NYC.

But my car is my 7th baby (after kids and dogs). I don't HAVE to share my car, do I?!

We just had 5 weeks in London. My parents very kindly gave us their house and they went to stay with my sister. My sister also lent us her car.

You don't have to lend your car. Sounds great, fancy nz? Oh, I forgot, you can also swap pets!!

Found a great place with airbnb. Love that site!

ClaudiaSchiffer, we're not very flexible in terms of timings as we can only go away during school holidays, but then there are lots of other families on the guardianhomeexchange website in the same situation.
I found that we needed to be a bit more flexible in terms of location. We have just returned from a week in Italy. I really wanted to go to Venice, but couldn't find a swap there. So instead we stayed in a little town, about 40min by train from Venice - which was great. We got to see Venice, but actually I think a week there would have been a bit too much. Instead, we got to explore other areas nearby which was brilliant. Same as a few years ago, we wanted to go to NY, but couldn't find anybody to swap with, so we had a week house swap in Washington DC (which we wanted to visit too) and then 3 nights in NY in a hotel.
We are also restricted as I have a cat allergy - basically, the more flexible you can be, the better the chances of finding a swap. Apart from that, just be pro-active and contact lots of people.