Want to travel? Even retire? But you can’t afford either just now? Well think again. There are ways you can enjoy more travel rather inexpensivelyand not just when you’ve retired.
Today you can travel virtually anywhere your heart desires for the cost of an airfare and food. Thanks to the benefits of the Internet and several major organizations providing reputable house sitting, house swapping, orcouch surfing services.
For the uninitiated couch surfing involves being hosted on a couch (or a spare bed) for a few days while your host shows you their hometown. House swapping is exactly that, giving your home to someone else while you stay in theirs. However, most people house swap a second home, rather than their primary residence. Then there’s house sitting. While this may entail looking after pets (but not always), you have the residence totally rent and utility free, and often with a car.
In the last few years house sitting has exploded globally. Beginning inUSA, UK and Australia, it’s now commonplace in Western Europe, Middle East, South-East Asia, Central and South American countries.
Ranging from a few days to evena year or more, house sits provide the ideal way to live and integrate with the locals. It’s much more rewarding than typical and often bland tourist accommodation.
You’ll find a variety ofreputable companies on the Internet. Sitters pay a minimal annual fee to register their services, while homeowners place their ads for free. Owners can also browse the people available and may contact you directly. Either way the choice is yours, including where you go and how long for. It’s all negotiated with the owners up front. Interview them, just as they’ll be checking you out. You must feel comfortable too.
After retiring early, almost four years ago and having travelled regularly for work I knew I couldn’t give it up. But my new retiree income didn’t allow for extended periods away from home. In fact from Australia I’d be lucky to afford an overseas trip ever two years. That’s when I discovered house sitting.
My amazing house sits have included the remote wilds of western Canada, Vancouver Island, Californian wine country, Florida, several areas of southern France and Provence (yes more wine country), and Spain, as well as Dubai and South America. In fact I’m writing this from Santiago, Chile.
Additional trips in between the sits also enhance my experiences in these areas. I recently spent five days on Easter Island on my way to Chile. Ever since learning about the huge statues at school, it had been my dream to see the Moai first hand and now I’ve finally achieved it, along with many other earlier dreams.
After a four-month sit in the Monashee Mountains, British Columbia, where a black bear regularly visited just out of hibernation, I spent a month touring inland Alaska and the Yukon, then a cruise back to Vancouver before beginning the next house sit in Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Two years ago in Provence, Stage 16 of the Tour de France passed my door. It was a spectacular affair, even more exhilarating than on television. And to be able to personally cheer Cadel Evans on his way to victory made it more memorable.
Each house sit brings new rewards, delightful friendships and cultural exchanges along with history and lifestyle discoveriesthat provide the fodder, background and characters for my novels.
If your business or work can be delivered remotely viaInternet, try a little house sitting before you actually retire. Enjoy the benefits of a mobile office with the joys of local Provencal markets, wines and history at your doorstep. Travel through house sitting provides more than just a change of scenery; the change of pace and living the local life is uplifting and invigorating. I’ve proved it and my friends continually envy my lifestyle.