04Mar14
It’s Travel Tip Tuesday. But first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Chris’s mom!!! She’s coming to visit us in Buenos Aires in April; we’re excited to have our first visitor.
Today’s travel tip has to do with a project we’re currently working on: finding house sitting opportunities.
Imagine you own a home — maybe have a pet or two — and want to travel for a month. Who will take care of your pets? Pick up the mail? Make sure your garden doesn’t get overrun with weeds? That’s where people like us come in.
There are websites such as TrustedHousesitters.com that connect homeowners with house sitters. We had to pay for a subscription, but it’s worth it if we land an opportunity. Sometimes house sitters are paid if there are tasks that go above and beyond day-to-day care, but usually people do it for free in exchange for free accommodations in a new location. We’re in the latter category.
So we’re working on making that happen. Our first step is putting together a really thorough profile that will hopefully stand out from the crowd. It’s hard to communicate both responsible and cool at the same time.
The good news is, if we find an opportunity, we get to live somewhere for an extended period and get immersed in the culture, and we’ll feel good making it possible for other people to travel. The bad news is that these opportunities tend to be pretty competitive, especially if you only want to house sit in the south of France or something.
Either way, should be an interesting learning experience. And it’s perfect for folks like us who want to travel slowly. We’ll share what we learn.
