A family of 6 people travels the world for free for 8 years, they just change accommodation with other tourists: how this system works

An enterprising English family of six who have lived in 25 different countries in just eight years say they have saved $116 and vacationed nearly free non-stop by trading in their home for stunning chalets and villas around the world. Independent.

Photo: IStock

Daniel Prince, 46, and his wife Claire, 46, both from Essex, began traveling the world in 2014. They moved overseas to Singapore because of Daniel's job, but by 2014 he found himself constantly tied to his desk while she took care of four young children at home, and they knew they needed a major life change.

Having sold their family home and most of their possessions, the couple made the best of a nomadic life, swapping their holiday home in Thailand for glamorous properties in places like America, Canada, Australia and Europe.
The family homeschooled their children, Caitlin, now 17, Sophia, 14, and twins Lauren and Samuel, 11. The family lived in 80 properties around the world before settling in France for several years, including during the pandemic.

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Now eager to embark on the home exchange journey again, Claire said: “Eight years ago, we thought life shouldn’t be like this. Daniel was constantly working, and I was here, there and everywhere, looking after four children.
We just thought life should be more fun. And we did just that – we made our life fun. All the houses we lived in were so quiet and comfortable and we could live on a reasonable budget.”

“We would never have been able to travel the world like this with such a large family without swapping houses, which saved us so much money and allowed us to travel luxuriously and without compromise. It’s been amazing – and we won’t stop,” she said.

After moving to Singapore in 1999 due to Daniel's currency exchange job, the couple enjoyed traveling around Asia before settling down with their children.

But they found themselves stuck in a frustrating cycle.

“I was at home with four kids, trying to keep up, traveling here and there and everywhere for children's ballet, music and school. Meanwhile, Daniel worked 24/7 to provide for us, but we never saw him,” says Claire.

Holidays were also rare due to the high cost.

“We would need two hotel rooms, which would be very expensive, plus lunch and dinner every day, which could cost $600 a day. We simply couldn’t afford it,” she says.

Desperate for change, the couple began looking for a way out and stumbled upon the site lovehomeswap.com.

“It looked amazing and we immediately thought, should we do this?” - she said.

For several months, the couple agonized over this decision, but in early 2014, they made up their minds.

After selling their house in Singapore and most of their possessions, Claire and Daniel left their holiday home in Thailand to trade with other travelers.

The house swap started in the UK, the couple wanted to visit family and friends, then traveled to Croatia, Dubai, Thailand and Cambodia before arriving in Australia for Christmas 2014.

“We stopped in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and ended our year of traveling in New Zealand for three months, which was incredible,” Claire said. “We couldn’t believe how amazing it was - we thought, why doesn’t everyone do this?”

With a steady income of around $1160 a month from renting out their house in Thailand between exchanges, and paying just $140 for a yearly membership to lovehomeswap.com, Daniel and Claire were able to live modestly.

“When you trade in your home, you pay for the electricity in your own home, but the money we get from rent offsets any bills we have accumulated,” she said.

And while they quickly settled into their exciting new lives, Claire admitted that it took some getting used to.

“It took a long time to realize that this was our reality,” Claire said.

“With homeschooling, we kept it very flexible depending on where we were—so, for example, when we were in Rome, it was a history lesson wherever we went,” she says. “Whereas in New Zealand we had time to relax outside the house, sit and study.”

After visiting New Zealand, the family began trading houses again in the United States, starting in San Francisco and then moving on to Seattle, Vancouver, New York and Virginia.

“Out of all the places, Croatia was probably our favorite because it was stunningly beautiful and the village we stayed in had such a great sense of community,” Claire said. “There were so many moments that amazed us - like horseback riding along the beach in New Zealand, or a yacht ride from the port of Marbella, or a picnic at the Sydney Opera House on Christmas Eve.”

Returning to Europe after two years of travel to visit the UK and Italy, Daniel and Claire have decided to put their travels on hold.

“We've been traveling for two and a half years, but we wanted our kids to learn another language, and the best way to do that was to immerse ourselves in it,” she said. “So we changed houses around France until we were offered to rent one of the apartments, and we ended up staying there for the next two years.”

She added: “We did do some home swapping while on holiday while we were in France in 2018, including swapping our house for a house in the French Alps. We borrowed clothes so we only had to rent ski boots and ski passes.”

While the family only settled briefly in France, the pandemic extended their stay by several years and Daniel began working as an online consultant before starting a financial podcast hosted by his daughter Lauren.

Now that the borders are open again, Daniel and Claire are eager to get back on the road.

“Now Daniel is being invited to speak at conferences for his podcast, so he's going to tie the house swap to work. It's hard to say how much we've saved, but it could very well be $160 - all we've ever had to pay for is transportation to every location," Claire said.

She added: “The change this has made for the kids is amazing – they have such an incredible outlook on life and acceptance of different people, no matter where we are in the world. Especially for the twins who were three when we started traveling. They are all so independent, adventurous and self-confident.”

“It will probably be more difficult for us as parents in the future because they all have plans to live in different parts of the world,” she said.

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Planning to start the house swap again, Daniel said: "It's been almost a decade since we made the decision to go for it, and if we hadn't, we would never have had the experience we had. We could never have done what we did without the house swap and I can't wait to start again."

“There's a big world out there with a lot to explore, and we'd be crazy not to make the most of it while we can,” he said.

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