When the heat of the summer has faded and the hoardes have gone - this is how I like it to be when I visit La Herradura, a lovely, quiet spot between Almuñecar on Granada´s Costa Tropical and Nerja on Malaga´s Costa del Sol.
 |
| La Herradura Beach |
In early September I spent a long weekend at La Herradura, a favourite spot of mine and one where my eldest son learnt guitar making. A long horseshoe bay (hence the name Herradura meaning horseshoe in Spanish) that is popular with both Spanish and international visitors. In my search for a house exchange with HomeExchange I opted for a flat just two minutes walk from the seafront. The home exchange was simple, the son of the owners who speaks English and Spanish was the intermediary for his aging parents who were a little nervous as this was their first exchange.
The owners themselves welcomed us to their holiday apartment and showed us around enabling us to ask any questions we had too. A great idea as it can be a little awkward if you don't understand something or know how it works. They then left us to it and we assigned the four bedrooms easily.
 |
| Seafront Statue, La Herradura |
My stepfather had the double with en-suite just off the lounge, my middle-son and girlfriend had a twin on the same level, hubby and I went upstairs in a double with a bathroom on the same floor and youngest son chose the rooftop attic bedroom with a double sofa bed. We all fit in very comfortably and had a great weekend.
It was our first house swap with Home Exchange but not the first one we'd done. We swap our holiday home, not our own home and usually not at the same time or as with the Home Exchange swap to La Herradura we 'paid' with a balloon - the currency used to make a swap if it's not a simultaneous swap.
 |
| La Herradura Headland |
Exchanging homes is a great way to holiday, take extra weekends away and get that little extra out of your own rental property. Our exchange in La Herradura and the lovely family we met there is one we'd certainly repeat if the world wasn't so large and there weren't so many places to see.
 |
| Balcon de Europa, Nerja |
If you've never done a house swap I encourage you to give it a try, it's often so much friendlier and comfortable than just renting a property. We were told to help ourselves to any food in the cupboard and make ourselves at home - we did. We felt very comfortable, we, six of us, fitted in with room to spare.
Would we recommend HomeExchange? Definitely, it's the easiest house exchange platforms to use. Where shall we go next? It's time to start planning.
