house swap to help decision

[Alz]

We are at the very early stages of thinking about moving to cananda. Obviously it is a huge decision to make and as we have never visited Canada before feel it would be stupid not to come over prior to going any further in our quest for a new life. What I would like to know is is it possible to do a house swap holiday with someone in Canada preferably in Ontario. Any help with this idea would be great.

[squeekyclean]

Hi Alz,
I don't know about a house swap but you can have a really inexpensive holiday over here, if your not sure whereabouts you may like then surely touring a few different areas would be the way to go, we did this several times, just book your flights and a hire car, plan where you'd like to visit and just go! We stayed overnight in various motels, there's lots of them, you don't have to book just turn up and it's really cheap, in 2004 we had 3 weeks touring Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, we did about 6000 kms and saw some absolutely beautiful locations, cost all in was less than 1500 quid! If you definitely want to look at just one area you can rent condo's or cottages by the week/month, just trawl the net. On another reccie trip we had a 2 bed condo for a month for $1200 near Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood ON.
Canada is such a vast country with a varied landscape and you may find as we did, your holidays for several years turn into reccie trips. We haven't been anywhere we didn't like although some places do feel very isolated, so choose your route carefully as it would be a shame for your first experience to give you a false impression!

[jessica]

Tee hee, I was plannning a house swap holiday too but events overtook us and we moved over more quickly than I expected. I was searching through the Guardian newspaper as I'd seen house swap holidays mentioned there. I think it's a great idea to see if you like "living" in Canada (rather than holidaying) and a way to really check out an area if you already have an idea about where you want to live.

[Alz]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure we'll be able to afford any reccies, certainly not at the moment even if it is cheap. Of course, I would love to come over for a holiday and will definately have to should we decide to move but I thought the house swap would make it a little more realistic. Also we have 2 small children so travel might be a little stressful!
I will have a look in the Guardian newspaper for house swaps. Thanks again.

[jessica]

I went onto the newspaper's website and searched for house swap holidays I think.

It would definitely be easier this way with children. Hotels are soooo not-for-children. You can't have a bowl of cereal when you want

[dearness]

Hey Alz,

Where are you (ie. where would the house swap be) and when are you looking to go?

My husband, daughter and i are moving to southern Ontario in September but reckon we'll need to come back to the UK ocassionally so a house swap may suit us too - depending of course on where you are.

cheers,
dearness