Swappy holidays
Retired couple lap up travel by ditching hotels and opting for house exchange
We’ve always travelled an awful lot
SINEAD MCWALTERS ON CHOOSING SWAPS
are often abroad but say they are not interested in making money from their home swaps. Sinead said: “It’s not a financial thing, I don’t like asking people for money because I think it takes the whole feeling out of it and goes against the ethos of it.”
Sometimes the couple stay at home while people visit, calling it a hospitality stay, where they are on hand for tips or help.
Sinead added: “We never rent out our bedroom during home exchanges so we use the spare rooms for guests.
“When we’re also home, we give them their privacy and have a separate sitting room that they can relax in, and they have their own private bathroom. Often though, we find that people who come to visit want to talk to us about their plans and share their experiences. They’re always so positive and it’s lovely.
“We’re also on hand if they need a babysitter and they want to go out for a date night, which we’re happy to do. We’ve always been massive travellers and I still love camping but it’s a summer activity.
“And now that we’ve retired we want to be able to go away all year round and we’ve found that home exchanges are far more comfortable than other travel alternatives.” Sinead and Ronan bonded so well with another couple that they wanted to name their baby after Sinead. She said: “They are a couple from Turin and they really wanted to call their baby after me but their friends and family made them realise that it would be unpronounceable in Italian.
“So instead they named their little girl after my daughter Meabh, but are spelling her name the English way – Maeve.”
After 10 years, David Leon is back as Joe Ashworth on police drama
– and he might be around to stay.
David, 43, says Joe “gets sucked into the thrill of working with Vera”.
Asked how long the ITV show will run, he praised star Brenda Blethyn, 77, and said: “Vera will continue for as long as the demand remains and Brenda feels like she can continue to… be challenged by it.
“She puts so much into it and it is an exhausting shoot.”
Vera