Published at 19:35, Thursday, 08 January 2009

Holiday swap: Fran Walker and son Adam on holiday in Paris

with file pic of Fran Walker and son Adam (used N&SSatdy)plus Have Your Say box: Will the credit crunch change your 2009 holiday plans?EVER fancied stepping into someone else’s shoes for your annual summer holiday?

That’s exactly what teacher Fran Walker and her family from Great Broughton did last year – and now more people could be following their lead.

A survey from holiday website travelsupermarket. com found that shorter, cheaper breaks will be favoured in 2009, with people looking at ways to make their pound go further in the holiday market.

Mrs Walker, her husband Mark and young son Adam swapped homes and cars with a Parisian family for 10 days, as part of a house swap holiday through the website 1sthomeexchange.com.

“We paid to join the house swap website which we thought was a bit of a risk if we didn’t get any holidays,” explained Fran.

“But within a week we had five replies wanting to swap.”

The Walkers saw a house swap as the perfect holiday for a family with a three year-old.

Fran added: “Because we’ve a three-year-old who goes to bed at 7pm, we didn’t want to be stuck in a hotel room from seven every night.”

“We chose a family who had a two-year-old boy, so when Adam arrived he had a ready-made bedroom with toys.”

The only minor hitch was when the family lost their car in a car park at Disneyland Paris.

“All we knew was that it was a silver Ford Focus, and a lot of French cars seem to be silver!” said Fran.

The holiday was an experience that they’re keen to repeat.

“The only downside was that I was really fussy cleaning the house and I didn’t realise how much work that took,” she said.

“On the other hand our house was really clean when we came back.

“I think we’ve found our niche, there are so many benefits. We’re looking at it for next summer and have found a family in Orleans who want to swap with us.”

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk