What are you doing this summer?
Mar 19th 2011 | 9:53 pm
#17
Thread Starter
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,140
From: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Re: What are you doing this summer?
If the person you are exchanging with agrees to look after your dog, then yes.
My husband would LOVE a dog to look after!
I have pm'd you.
Last edited by scampicat; Mar 19th 2011 at 10:01 pm.
Mar 19th 2011 | 11:39 pm
#18
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,429
From: Velez-Malaga
Re: What are you doing this summer?
Scampicat, I would be grateful if you could pm me with details of the Home Exchange website too, please. This is something I have often thought about but for various reasons (the current one being that all the streets around my house are in the process of being dug up and repaved in pretty pebble mosaic designs over the next few months so I wouldn't want anyone to be coming to stay here until after it's finished!) the time has not been right up to now. Maybe next year, ojala!
I like spontaneity, but I also like to have things planned to have something to look forward to, spread throughout the year. We've had 2 trips back to the UK already this year, unfortunately not for happy reasons, and I have 2 more booked for shopping/visiting family and friends, in late June and early December. We also have a trip to Madrid booked in late September, which we will be combining with a visit to another city we've not visited before (Avila, Segovia or Toledo are on the shortlisted, have yet to decide) plus a trip to Sevilla in mid November.
We are waiting for the weather to settle down in order to get some work done on the outside of the house, and once that's finished and we are feeling virtuous we will reward ourselves with a couple of nights' stay in Granada, I also want to visit the new Thyssen collection in Malaga which is due to open at the end of next week, and the Dolls House and Miniatures Fair to be held in Fuengirola in mid June.
We tend not to go away at the height of the summer (places where good weather can be almost guaranteed are too hot for sightseeing, but nor do I want to risk getting rained on), plus flights and accommodation are at their most expensive and it is school holidays (nuff said!).
I like spontaneity, but I also like to have things planned to have something to look forward to, spread throughout the year. We've had 2 trips back to the UK already this year, unfortunately not for happy reasons, and I have 2 more booked for shopping/visiting family and friends, in late June and early December. We also have a trip to Madrid booked in late September, which we will be combining with a visit to another city we've not visited before (Avila, Segovia or Toledo are on the shortlisted, have yet to decide) plus a trip to Sevilla in mid November.
We are waiting for the weather to settle down in order to get some work done on the outside of the house, and once that's finished and we are feeling virtuous we will reward ourselves with a couple of nights' stay in Granada, I also want to visit the new Thyssen collection in Malaga which is due to open at the end of next week, and the Dolls House and Miniatures Fair to be held in Fuengirola in mid June.
We tend not to go away at the height of the summer (places where good weather can be almost guaranteed are too hot for sightseeing, but nor do I want to risk getting rained on), plus flights and accommodation are at their most expensive and it is school holidays (nuff said!).
Mar 19th 2011 | 11:44 pm
#19
Moderator
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 15,150
From: Costa Valencia
Re: What are you doing this summer?
The important thing is to make sure that you visit all of the places that you can and enjoy your life, no-one knows what is around the corner so make the most of it whilst you can.
Rosemary
Rosemary
Mar 19th 2011 | 11:49 pm
#20
Thread Starter
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,140
From: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Re: What are you doing this summer?
Lynn R, I have pm-d you with the details.
Mar 20th 2011 | 12:17 am
#22
Thread Starter
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,140
From: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Just being nosey, where did you stay in Pembrokeshire? My part of the world.
Mar 20th 2011 | 2:12 am
#24
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 5,367
Re: What are you doing this summer?
Indeed, I think it's great to read of people travelling around and exploring Spain and UK, rather than just festering in the same place.
If you can afford it and have good health, why not, what better way to spend your retirement years? Friend of ours is widowed and she shoots off all over the place on her own, sometimes with friends, she seems to have had a new lease of life.
If you can afford it and have good health, why not, what better way to spend your retirement years? Friend of ours is widowed and she shoots off all over the place on her own, sometimes with friends, she seems to have had a new lease of life.
Mar 20th 2011 | 2:36 am
#25
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 2,143
From: London (mainly)/Oliva
Mar 20th 2011 | 2:36 am
#26
Forum Regular
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 226
Re: What are you doing this summer?
We are on a Home Exchange site, it costs about 50 euros a year, I think, we have had offers from all over the world including a beach house near the Great Barrier Reef, an apartment in central New York and a chalet on Reunion Island (had to look at the atlas to see where that was).
We have only exchanged in Spain and UK though (our choice). So far we have been to Cordoba, Granada and Pembrokeshire. You can specify when where you want to go and you can turn down anything not suitable (so you don't have to go to Norfolk if you don't want to).
We usually just clear a space in the wardrobe, lock up valuables and leave instructions on how everything works, but otherwise we just leave the house as it is. You can exchange cars as well if you want, but we never do.
You don't have to have a posh house, just neat and tidy and somwhere where people want to go. Even if all you have is a flat in Salford it is still worth trying as quite often Americans or Australians or expats in these countries want to visit their families.
No money exchanges hands unless you agree together, for example we ageed to pay the cleaner when we went to Pembrokeshire, but we didn't have to agree to this.
Hope this helps!
We have only exchanged in Spain and UK though (our choice). So far we have been to Cordoba, Granada and Pembrokeshire. You can specify when where you want to go and you can turn down anything not suitable (so you don't have to go to Norfolk if you don't want to
). We usually just clear a space in the wardrobe, lock up valuables and leave instructions on how everything works, but otherwise we just leave the house as it is. You can exchange cars as well if you want, but we never do.
You don't have to have a posh house, just neat and tidy and somwhere where people want to go. Even if all you have is a flat in Salford it is still worth trying as quite often Americans or Australians or expats in these countries want to visit their families.
No money exchanges hands unless you agree together, for example we ageed to pay the cleaner when we went to Pembrokeshire, but we didn't have to agree to this.
Hope this helps!
Mar 20th 2011 | 2:38 am
#27
Thread Starter
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,140
From: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Re: What are you doing this summer?
We had a great time, it was terrific, one of our favourite parts of the world.
Would love a place there.
Mar 20th 2011 | 2:43 am
#28
Thread Starter
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,140
From: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Re: What are you doing this summer?
Mar 20th 2011 | 4:25 am
#29
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 5,367
Re: What are you doing this summer?
National Geographic recently voted Pembrokeshire the second best coastal destination in the world.
Mar 20th 2011 | 5:03 am
#30
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 582
From: Alhaurin el Grande
Re: What are you doing this summer?
I had a couple of holidays in Broadhaven as a kid, then went back years later to work at the Texaco refinery. Nice place just a sod of a drive to get to
