My wife, 10-year-old son and I were hoping to get away this summer *and* save some money.
About the only way I can make that work is if someone wants to do a homeswap.
Wife and son want “castles” and/or other historical things to do.
We’re flexible on location (Britain or mainland Europe), date (July and/or August) and time (7 to 14 days).
We’re not after any five-star resorts. On our last trip to London we stayed in one of those dilapidated apartment-turned-tourist hotels near Hyde Park and it was fine. It was London, after all.

Our place:
Six-year-old two bedroom (one king, one queen bed) plus den, two bathroom apartment located in university area.
Wifi, 42” TV, 100 cable channels, Nintendo Wii, DVD, washer, dryer and dishwasher, propane grill out back
Singletrack trails 100 metres from front door, golf course, Museum of Anthropology, botanical gardens, a canopy walk (elevated walkway through the treetops) shops and restaurants all within 500 metres.
Pacific Ocean beaches are a 5 minute drive (30 minute walk) plus we’re near a major transit route.
If you’re a bachelor, you’ll be glad to know the university sorority houses are 300 metres away and Vancouver’s only nude 😯 beach is a 300-metre walk the other direction (please don’t walk there nude with a sorority girl).
We’re 40 minutes from North Shore bike trails, one hour drive to Squamish and two to Whistler.
I’ll even throw in the phone number of a neighbour/riding partner who moved here from Liverpool nine years ago and never left. He’s always keen for a ride and has a tab at the local pub.

I’m amazed you haven’t had any responses yet- even if its just to tell you to post this in the wanted ads!!
Anyway- good luck, hope you get something sorted.

Googles sorority… 🙂

Your email address doesn’t work papa

Wow if I hadn’t already booked our summer holiday I’d be talking to you about this. We live in Ilkley, a Roman Spa Town on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales national park. There’s Abbey ruins around here and a castle at York an hour away. There’s also quality moorland riding from the doorstep and it’s a 30 minute train ride from one of the biggest cities in the UK.

Maybe next year.

Edit: there’s actually a castle 15 mins down the road at Skipton which I forgot about. Don’t know why I’m trying to sell this to you though as I can’t do anything about it!

Blimey, I’d love to do this, spent 2 days in Vancouver and fell deeply in love. I also think our house would be perfect, BUT, I don’t want to fly all that way with an 18 month old…

However, we’re going away for 2 weeks in early September, you can catsit and we bank the credit.. 😉

Also you should know, in England, July and August is now the Monsoon season…

We have family who do this kind of thing.

They have been to some exceptional places and made some very very long term friends out of it. They recommend it wholly.
They use a website for their negotiations, I’ll get the address laters.

We did this with a family on the North Shore about 14 years ago & had a great time. I visited Cove bikes before they started making their own frames, & bought a Norco from Whistler.
Our kids are past that age now, so good luck with finding a swap.

oh man, if we were not moving I would be offering…. We live in central highlands currently…
View from out house..
Dochart by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

I’ve emailed you.

Have to ask, matt; why exactly are you moving????

Papa, can you mail me please, failing to deliver here.

I’d love to take you up on it. One of the places on our short list of where we are thinking of moving to.

Have to ask, matt; why exactly are you moving????

The view is idyllic. Life here is not.
Village life – an hours drive from anywhere, kids about to do 27 miles to school each day, the nasty treatment of incomers/anyone they do not like by some villagers and the fact that I was offered a nice new job nearby that although away from mountains means no more weekend work, no more days that start at 7am and finish at 10pm once a week on duty, no more being ‘on call’ 24/7, no more not taking holiday when the kids are off etc etc.

Crikey. I bet you didn’t think people would be shit when you moved there.
And people talk about little englanders……

Don’t get me wrong – majority of village have been great and real proper community feel going on, unfortunately in such a small place, the few that want to be nasty seem to swing a fair bit of influence and many do not want to know that such things go on…It is not unique, gossip is rife in many small places. Just here seems to have some more issues than other places.

Email address has been updated.
matt_outandabout, your place in the central highlands looks fantastic.
If you ever get the urge to head to the mother-in-law’s place for a couple of weeks, we’d be happy to look after the cat. Or dog.

Damn, somebody take the dude up on his offer! Just got back today from an amazing Canada/USA driving trip taking in Vancouver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Reno and San Fran amonst other places – I love Vancouver to bits and have spent this evening browsing realty sites – not cheap is it? 🙁 . Second visit to the ‘shore for us and extra special this time as our youngest is at SFU for a year (hadn’t seen my baby since August) – it’s an amazing and massive place and I can confirm that Cove Bike’s Chaz is a super-friendly guy!

Go people!!

Hi, have sent you an email.
Angela House (ang.baro)

would love to take you up. We are right in the middle of Castle country with about 8 castles within 40min drive.
Down side would be that our place comes with two spaniels, chickens, fish , oh & the mother in law.

We’re booked up this summer, but if you’d be interested in a similar arrangement in the future, swapping with us in central Helsinki, Finland, then we’d be keen.

would you like to visit Leeds next year? I bet you would…

The last two sound interesting.
I’m assuming there are daily non-stop flights between Leeds and Helsinki?
Seriously, Europe is so exotic to us, well, my family at least, we’d take anything.
My wife and I have spent our entire lives living in smallish towns in North America. Nothing but forests and strip malls.

We were lucky enough to get in on a house swap last winter. Friends swapped their Sydney home for a Colorado ranch in Steamboat Springs.
We got a house dog & a 20 yr V8 Jeep too, good times 🙂

My home is my castle and Brighouse is beautiful at that time of year 😉

Hmm, very interesting. I’m in North Wales (lots of castles), mountains, opportunity for gentle and more full-on biking, hiking and have a large cottage by a river. We also have a cat that would look after you should you give it a few biscuits in return. I’ll have a chat with the missus…

Nothing but forests and strip malls

As someone living dangerously close to Earlestown all I can say is dude, you don’t know you’ve been born. 🙂

Another one for next year please :). Currently buying a house in Hebden Bridge. 5 mins walk from area of outstanding natural beauty, historic hilltop weaver’s village, near Bronte country, great biking and walking, nice independent shops, cafes etc (and STW magazine). Not sure where the nearest castles are though.

Another one for next year, for any area really, (I’m either near Reading or Wantage)