How Home Exchanges Work

How Home Exchanges Work

Author: Francis Tapon November 10, 2019 Duration: 1:04:09

Lauren Kahn has done 72 home exchanges!


One way to immerse yourself in a foreign environment is to do a home exchange. 


Lauren's blog offers plenty of advice on how to do a home exchange.


This podcast comes in two parts.


Due to a technical snafu, Lauren thought she lost our first interview. So I interviewed her twice, thinking that we lost the original recording.


We managed to recover it. I took some of the highlights of the original interview and appended it at the end of this podcast. Therefore, if you're seriously interested in home exchanges, make sure you listen to the bonus interview in the second half.


Homelink and Intervac are her two favorite sites, even though HomeExchange.com is the most popular. 


3 Sponsors


1. Tour Radar

Do you want to take a life-changing travel adventure, but you either hate planning or you don't know where to start?


TourRadar is a trusted online marketplace that helps you find, compare, and book multi-day tours that will expand your horizons through life-enriching travel experiences.


Just type in a region you have always wanted to visit or your preferred travel style and TourRadar will do the rest.


And right now, WanderLearn listeners can visit TourRadar for a chance to an amazing travel contest! Every month, there's a new contest! Enter at https://www.tourradar.com/wanderlearn 


2. The Steelman Family Foundation

Rene Steelman leads the Steelman Family Foundation which helps families with non-ambulatory children to acquire wheelchair-accessible vehicles.


Their mission is to help families with children diagnosed with a permanent disability participate in the community. The Steelman Family Foundation also supports events to benefit cerebral palsy education and activities. They work exclusively with United Access and serve families nationally.


Learn more and donate at https://steelmanfamilyfoundation.org


3. Health Access Sumbawa

One of WanderLearn's top patrons, Kathy Kennedy Enger, asked me to draw attention to Health Access Sumbawa. I am happy to promote this remarkable nonprofit.


In 2014, Jack Kennedy founded the organization to bring malaria control and healthcare to remote, impoverished communities. It started on the remote island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Since then, it's expanded thanks to generous donations. Visit their website to learn more and to donate: https://healthaccesssumbawa.org


More info

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There's a certain kind of travel that changes you, not just your location. It’s the slow, immersive kind where the journey itself becomes the teacher. In WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life, Francis Tapon acts as your guide into this world, exploring how leaving familiar ground can fundamentally reshape your perspective. This isn't about quick tips or itineraries; it's about the deeper conversations that happen at the crossroads of culture, society, and personal growth. Each episode delves into how we engage with places and people, often weaving in discussions about the role of modern technology in both enabling and complicating these profound experiences. You'll hear stories and insights that challenge the conventional tourist mindset, pushing toward a more thoughtful, engaged way of moving through the world. Francis draws from a wealth of experience to discuss concepts like vagabonding and deep travel, making the case that the greatest souvenirs aren't trinkets, but transformed thoughts. Tuning into this podcast feels like sitting down with a well-traveled friend who understands that the real destination is often a shift within yourself. It’s for anyone who believes that travel, at its best, is a powerful catalyst for learning and living differently.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 388

WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life
Podcast Episodes
Eradicating Malaria in Sumbawa, Indonesia and Beyond [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:56
Jack Kennedy got malaria in Sumbawa, Indonesia. After that tough experience, a lightbulb went off in his head.He wondered if, at the cost of a few thousand dollars, he could eliminate malaria in Sumbawa.He founded Health…
How To Avoid and Survive an Avalanche [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:07:07
What would you do if you were caught in an avalanche? How do you minimize your risk when you're traveling in the snowy mountains?Robert Hahn has studied avalanches and still managed to get caught in one. He works for the…
Touring the World with Jessica Husson and TourRadar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:07
WanderLearn fans get a special chance to win $1000 in travel credits on TourRadar by going here:https://www.tourradar.com/wanderlearnAbout this episode: Jessica Husson was one of two people (out of thousands who applied)…
How Does A Colonial Ghost Haunt Africa's Borders? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:31
Elias Papaioannou is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Business (at the start of the podcast, I incorrectly say that he's at the London School of Economics).Professor Papaioannou has authored the following…
How To Travel Responsibly and Ethically [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:27
You might think that you're a responsible and ethical traveler, but are you really?I talk with Alexandra Pastollnigg, who is the Founder of FairVoyage. She climbed Kilimanjaro. She's biked from Cairo to Cape Town. She's…
Algerians Reveal Their Unseen Sides [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:36:46
Algeria is Africa's biggest country.It's also been the least touristy North African country for the last 100 years, on average. During Kadaffi's time, Libya received more tourists than Algeria. It's only since his fall t…
Are Humans Part of Nature? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:18
Over a decade ago, when I was yo-yoing the Continental Divide Trail, I had a lot of time to think. When I got to a town, I would have all this pent up writing energy that would explode on my blog. One of my most profound…
The Unseen Egypt with High-End Journeys [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:29
This is my 50th podcast!To celebrate, I've produced an unusual WanderLearn episode.Instead of one guest, I have two! Instead of one location, we wander throughout Cairo with two Egyptologists of High-End Journeys: Ramez…
AMA About the Book, Jail, and Languages [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:25
Rejoice Tapon and I host an Ask Me Anything episode on our podcast. The video is only available to my WanderLearn patrons.In this episode, we discuss:The Eko Atlantic Project in Lagos, NigeriaIs there going to be an audi…
Biking To Over 150 Countries with Patrick Martin Schroeder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:43:25
Whenever anyone has visited over 150 countries, I'm impressed, but probably not for the reasons you think.To get to 150, you had to have gone through some shithole countries. Those countries may not be warzones, but they…