Do you have a favorite home exchange destination? Mine is Quebec. We have completed both halves of 35 home swaps, and four of them have been with different families in Montreal. That is rare for us, since we almost always pick a new destination. For instance, we enjoy going to Florida in the winter but we pick new areas within that large state so we can sample different communities.
Montreal is different. We visit as often as possible. Part of it is that we love Canada. The people are laid-back and genuinely friendly. Their social policy is sane, at least from what we can tell. I have never seen so much inter-racial harmony as I did on Canada Day. Watching all of those families happily and peacefully expressing their appreciation for their country made me proud of Canada, and I'm not even Canadian.
We have been to Toronto, Ontario, Victoria, Vancouver, Quebec City and Montreal. In each of these Canadian cities we found warm, welcoming people; clean, safe streets and lots of interesting things to do.
We haven't visited much of Canada, but of all the places we have been, Montreal most quickly stole our hearts. It's the best of France but with peanut butter.
WHAT MAKES A SWAP DESTINATION YOUR FAVORITE?
We like the people, the sights, the architecture, food quality, nightlife and many other things about Montreal. Besides the city's inherent attractions, there are some clear logistical reasons that we love to do home exchanges to Montreal.
PROXIMITY, PROXIMITY, PROXIMITY
Vancouver looked like an interesting city too. However, it is as far across North America from our home as it is possible to go. It is not logistically convenient for us to do repeated trips to Vancouver.
ACCESS
Montreal, by contrast, is less than a six hour drive, or a slightly longer train ride from our home. The train departs from a rail station which is a five-minute walk from our apartment. It arrives in an equally convenient area of Montreal. Quebec City is fascinating as well, but we have to add several more hours to our travel time. That's just too far for us to go with our toddlers.
SWAP OPTIONS
There is no shortage of people who want to swap their Montreal homes for our Manhattan apartment. We noted in our listing that we are interested in visiting Quebec and we receive at least one offer per month to do so. If our favorite swap destination were a small rural town our swap options would be limited by the low number of families living there. Since Montreal is a city with a large population there are hundreds of swap homes on offer.
YOUR FAVORITE?
Is there one swap destination you have visited more often than others? Tell us about it. Use the comments link below.
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