anyone done a house swap?

[tomate]

any recommendations for sites to try, pros and cons etc?

anyone?

A holiday house swap? or one of these permanent house swaps?

sorry - holiday house swap

Hi if you are mainly looking for UK based house swaps, then you can do it through the NCT. It's £35 a year and we have done 2 now with 2 more arranged this year.

Pros are free holidays, toys if the children are near yours in age, loads more space than you would have normally and potentially a chance to explore somewhere that you might not have considered as a holiday destination.

Cons are cleaning your house and tidying garden before arrival, its a nightmare because I usually bung all the rubbish the spare bedroom but if the family needs more bedrooms then can't do that. Also tidying away all personal stuff that you don't want someone else to see. When staying there I find it less relaxing than being in a holiday cottage because of other peoples stuff. However these are only minor grumbles. When DS is older and we are restricted to school holidays then we will look at joining a foreign exchange group, the Guardian website has one that has been recommended here.

thanks for that - we're looking at going overseas and it sounds like a good option