Travel the Home Exchange Way can include Riding your Bike

Congratulations, Paris, for the introduction of the 'velib' service. Vélib’ is a Self Service “bike hire” system available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Multi pick up and drop off location points allow you to pick up your bike from one service point and drop off to another.

The Vélib’ Service Points are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They are located 300 meters apart, consisting of terminals and stands for fastening the bikes.

At the Vélib terminal you can:

- Hire a bike
- Take a short term subscription using your bank card (1-day or 7-day Vélib’ Ticket)
or take out an annual Vélib subscription.
- Find out information on how to use Vélib’ and access information regarding our services
- Consult a map for a nearby Vélib’ Service Points
- Top up your annual Vélib’ card using a bank card

Every Vélib’ station is equipped with roughly twenty bike stands (the exact number has been determined depending on the location of the Service Point and the estimated level of use).

The Bike Stands consist of :

Bike locking mechanism
Pilot light (the color of the pilot lights lets you know whether the bike is available or not)
Card Reader

Even better, if you subscribe for a Vélib’ Account they give you the first 30 minutes of each journey free of charge. The Vélib’ Bike Card allows you to make an unlimited number of journeys for one year. Cost of journeys longer than 30 minutes will be debited from your Vélib’ account. Top up your card anytime at Vélib’ terminals near you or on the web using a bank card.

Of course it takes a little nerve to ride a bike through a big city, but think how much more easily you can stop at will and take a closer look at the sights, whilst doing your bit for the environment!

Make Sustainable Tourism a priority

At the World Travel Market taking place in London this week delegates endorsed the declaration issued by the second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in October. It calls for the development of "truly sustainable tourism" and demands the sector responds to climate change by mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the changing climate and improving energy efficiency.

United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary-general Francesco Frangialli said: "It is in our interests to ensure it is possible to ski in the Alps at the end of this century, to dive at the Great Barrier Reef or experience the wildlife of Africa. To consumers, we say give priority to sustainable tourism and avoid wasteful choices."

UK Tourism Minister, Margaret Hodge, said: "It is not for the Government to deny people the right to travel or deny the industry the opportunity to respond to demand. We need to reflect people’s desire to travel and the opportunities this brings, but also minimise the impact of aviation growth.

The industry is doing a lot, but more can be done. Aircraft technology is improving, airports are taking measures to minimise emissions, and some parts of the industry are offering carbon-offsetting schemes."

She emphasised: "Offsetting is not the only answer and is just one tool in combatting climate change. It is up to all of us to reduce energy use.

Offsetting can help people to appreciate their impact on the environment. This is essential if we are to meet the Government’s carbon reduction targets.

Air Passenger Duty has played a valuable role in signalling the environmental costs of travel to passengers and we will replace APD with a per-aircraft duty in 2009.

This will create a better correlation with the distance travelled and encourage more airlines to fly at full capacity."

Whilst Green Theme International Home Exchange is an organisation which enables people to travel, we have always acknowledged the need for and encouraged sustainable tourism, and are seriously concerned about the increasing environmental costs of travel. Please send us your comments about what you see as the future for the travel industry and how carbon emissions should be reduced.

Stepping into the Unknown

The above is the title of a recent article about home exchange in the Evening Standard Homes and Property magazine, published on 5th September. Although the article emphasises London's global popularity and that therefore home owners living there should find it easy to swap their homes and get their dream holidays free, it is a way to make the most of your investment in your home wherever you live. While those living in London and the home counties have easy access to a choice of airports to take them to such exotic destinations as India, Brazil and Costa Rica;



in effect a veritable worldwide choice of exciting destinations to be found when browsing through the lists of swaps on the Green Theme International Home Exchange web-site, those visiting the capital on a home exchange basis will be saving enormously on their costs too.

The article quotes "The hurdle is accepting people you have never met will be living in your home, eating off your china, and possibly, even driving your car, if that is part of the deal." People who are having difficulty facing up to this might find it encouraging to obtain a copy of the Home Exchange Academy e-book that I reviewed yesterday by Athena Rickby who has had experience of more than forty exchanges over 25 years.

Lastly, there is, of course the cost of membership of one of the many home exchange agencies now in existence, and which of them to choose. Home-swap companies annual charges range from £25.00 to more than £100.00, depending upon how many photographs you want in your listing. But there is more to consider than just the fees charged, as Athena helps you to discover.

ENTER OUR HOME EXCHANGE COMPETITION - Closing date: 30/09/2007.

GTI Home Exchange is offering the prize of a free year's membership of Green Theme International Home Exchange chosen at random from entries identifying which of the companies mentioned in the Contact List published in the Homes and Property article charges just £25.00 for a 12 month membership subscription. Just forward your name and email address and your answer to admin@gti-home-exchange.com. A runner-up prize will be a copy of the Home Exchange Academy e-book reviewed yesterday on the GTI Home Exchange Travel blog.

Home Exchange and Pets

One of the great attractions of a home exchange holiday for many people is that when listing their offer on a home exchange web-site, they can request simple pet care for their pets from their home exchange partners. Care of a variety of animals has been requested on the GTI Home Exchange web-site in the past although usually the pets involved are cats and dogs. As not everyone wants to be tied down to pet care, this may limit potential home exchange partners, but for some, particularly families with children, having pets included as part of a home exchange is a welcome bonus.

However, some people do not have pets and would not wish to visit homes where there are animals, perhaps for allergy reasons or simply because they are not used to caring for animals. In order to try and meet every requirement our membership registration form gives people the opportunity to indicate in the Conditions of the Exchange the variations on the subject of pets by clicking on the various boxes: No Pets allowed (perhaps for allergy reasons, as mentioned above, or because their homes are not suited to pets), Pet care required and Pet care offered, and on our Advanced Search page people may search for exchanges where Pet care is offered.

But it would seem that there is always one more variation that we ought to include, and as yet do not. I recently received an email from a prospective member saying “we have been swapping for a few years now – but I was concerned that you don’t have an icon for ‘pets accepted’. It means that I have to search each property and view all of their text/info before knowing if pets are allowed whereas an icon, alongside the property itself (as with children – pensioners etc) can be seen at a glance. Would this not be possible?”

I agree with Ron, not only because I think it is a very good suggestion, but for another reason too! As more and more people are becoming aware of the damage we have been collectively causing to the environment, there is a growing trend for many individuals and families to want to do their bit to reduce their impact on the planet by reducing their frequency of air travel and choosing to take their holidays within their own country, perhaps opting to travel to their destination by public transport too if possible. This prompts the thought that if people are spending their holiday within their own country they might wish to take their pets with them more often, particularly their dogs who are usually so much part of the family, and who can become very stressed and melancholy even if left in the care of kind strangers for only a short time.

It would seem therefore that prospective member, Ron’s, suggestion of an icon indicating “Pets welcome/accepted” is a suggestion which should be seriously considered. I have put the proposal to our associate agency members of FHEA ( First Home Exchange Alliance), and hope to arrive at a positive decision in favour. However, the immediate reaction from one of our associate colleagues has been that we have enough icons already. Failing agreement on the inclusion of another icon with our FHEA partner agencies, at the very least we could change the negative condition "No Pets" showing on the full listing, to Pets welcome/accepted, and include this as an Advanced Search option.

Swap Homes, Cars and Wild Birds?!!

Yes, I am talking about the feathered variety. For the last six months we exchanged our home in mid South-West France for a cottage high up on Cartmel Fell in the English Lake District. The cottage was just above the cottage in which Arthur Ransome lived and wrote his children’s books, the most famous of which is Swallows and Amazons. It was easy to see where Mr Ransome got his inspiration as the view from the top of the Tor just behind our cottage, on a good day, was incredible.
But as autumn faded into winter and the wet weather prevailed the mists closed in and we were often lucky if we could see more than ten yards ahead.

Surrounded on the Fell by sheep, bullocks, badgers, pheasants, the odd hare or two, and many other creatures, we soon discovered that a very handsome pheasant, although nervous of us at first, seemed to think that this was his territory. As the weather deteriorated poor Frederick as we named him would appear looking very forlorn and bedraggled. It wasn’t long before we took pity on him and offered a few titbits, nuts, seeds, and homemade bread. Obviously to his liking he began to makea daily visit to see what was on offer, becoming so bold as to eat out of our hands, a particular favourite of his being cold chips. He would even enter the cottage if the door was left inadvertently open.

Well, I know that dogs are very intelligent animals, and cats even more so judging by the way that they are able to twist their owners round their little paws, but when Frederick took to visiting three times a day at breakfast, lunch and tea-time, knocking on the door with his beak to let us know he wanted feeding, or jumping up on the windowsill and croaking to attract attention, we were amazed! Were we really at the 'peck and call' of a pheasant?! (Excuse the pun!)

When the time came for us finally to leave the cottage, we were happy that it was almost the first day of spring, as we felt that Fred should have a relatively easy time fending for himself and we comforted ourselves with the thought that the new residents would surely respond to his forthright requests should the need arise!

Holiday Home Exchange - What exactly is it?

Apparently there are lots of people out there who have still not heard of holiday home exchange. If you are one of those people and would like to learn more you need look no further than an excellent introduction published on
The Travel Blog which takes an impartial independent non-hype look at the topic.