The Secret to Free Accommodation in Ireland

Just back from 2 weeks Home Exchange holiday in Sneem, Ireland, and now I understand why people say it is the most beautiful place in the world! We were lucky enough to secure a gorgeous 3 bedroom house, located right on the Ring of Kerry, and it worked marvellously for a family of 5 adults.

The beauty of all this, once again, was the opportunity to stay in a gorgeous house, amidst the locals, and all of that for free, a family of 5! Sneem is a gorgeous little village which is bumper to bumper during the day when the tourist busses arrive, but at night, when all of them had gone, it is just a peaceful, quiet village where everyone knows each other… The perfect place to have a restaurant or souvenir shop!

My kind host agreed to give us some input from her perspective and experience as a Home Exchanger and the opportunity to visit South Africa in return, and I thought it was a good idea to see this from someone else’s perspective.

Her version follows:

In many ways discovering home exchange is like an epiphany, a moment of sudden or great revelation or realisation (according to my on-line dictionary!). Before having a casual conversation with another member of the local primary school board, we were just an ordinary family who were lucky enough to own a holiday home in a beautiful part of the world –Co. Kerry, Ireland. We had spent many happy and active summers and weekends there since we bought it in 2007 and our daughters have grown up knowing both the fun and privilege of that. However, the downside of a holiday home is – when do we ever go somewhere else? So, to ensure that we did explore other places, we made a family tradition of going on a city break once a year to Europe, where we always rented an apartment – (which led to another, separate question of – why do we never stay in a hotel?).  So we have visited Nice, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Munich and London over the years and went as far as San Francisco in 2013 where we stayed in an Airbnb property.  So we were used to staying a little bit off the beaten track and in someone else’s place and luckily, it had always worked out very well for us.

 Meanwhile, back in Kerry, our house was getting good use from family and friends during the summer and we 

had struck up a good relationship with a local woman who looks after the house and anything that we need to get done and so we were content. Then, one ordinary evening, Patrick announced that he would miss the next couple of board meetings because he was going on holiday to Australia. He was going to stay in three different locations and they were all house swops for his holiday place in Kerry. “You should try it” he said. “The website is homeforexchange.com.” So we tried it! And we love it! We did our first house swap last summer to France – over near the French Alps. We enjoyed a location that we would never have been to as it is not on the tourist track, we helped ourselves to the vegetables in their kitchen garden, minded their chickens and drove their car. In return they enjoyed a holiday in Kerry, kayaked, swam, walked and used our car.  

 We have had offers of exchanges from all over the world, from all types of people and for all types of properties. Even though, for various and obvious reasons we cannot do all of them, it does inspire some very enjoyable armchair travelling and a lengthening of our bucket list for our future retirement.  This year we have two exchanges lined up. We were looking forward to welcoming Elna and her family, and then in July we are going to Normandy to a family home while they come to Kerry. This time we are both travelling by ferry so will have our own cars. In January, we hope to pay our return visit to Elna’s place in South Africa. While France was very much in our sights as we like it and it’s not too far away, South Africa was not. However with home exchange, one email can open up new possibilities. A click on an email, some Google searches, a bit of “What do you think?” and “Why not?” and we’re off!

Here are some of the great things to do in Sneem, there are plenty more and I will give more details in a follow-up post.

Blueberry Hill Farm could be one of the highlights of the trip if there are children in the party. They will have a fantastic time with the hands on experience of feeding and holding all the animals

We enjoyed the trip to Blarney Castle from Sneem.

The motorised kayaks is a great way way be able to cover a longer distance than to paddle as normal. The seal colony is wonderful to see and there are plenty of birds. The sea is very calm and the lagoon is amazing.

Staigue fort is a nice old fort to go and see.

Gorgeous Derrynane beach is part of the Derrynane mass path. A beautiful walk along the beach and shore of Derrynane if you take the path from the rescue station along the coast and sort of turning back but up when you reach the pier and then take the route that picks up the Kerry Way track to Derrynane House. It makes a nice walk of about 3 hours with beautiful views of the coast. Or if you decided to take the bike and visit this beach, you would love it. The beach is big and beautiful with great views and the water shallow. Just beside the beach is an old churchyard as well.

Also, simply walking or cycling the kerry Way among all the sheep and ducks, is a marvelous and relaxing experience.

My only advice… visit ireland, you won’t regret it!! Second, try Home Exchange, it will change your life…