Friendly neighbours and language skills came with houses swapped by Spanish and Irish families, writes SHEILA RYAN

AT FIRST ANA Sanchez de Castro was anxious about handing over the keys of her house to strangers, but her worries eased as the two families started to get to know each other before the exchange.

It was the first exchange holiday she and her husband Juan had done, swapping her sister’s holiday house in La Coruña, on the Galician coast of Spain, for a family home in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow.

“Once you locate the house you like, and start to get in touch with the owners, you lose that fear,” she says.

“The family we traded with is lovely and gave us everything; one of the daughters even made a complete guide to the best sites in Ireland.”

Apart from the attractions of Ireland and the convenience of direct flights between La Coruña and Dublin, one of the reasons Juan and Ana chose Ireland was to give their two sons, eight-year-old Alonso and five-year-old Alvaro, an opportunity to learn some English. Their exchange family arranged for a neighbour in Kilmacanogue to give the boys English lessons during their holiday, something that would have been difficult for them to arrange themselves from Spain.

Meeting the neighbours is one of the advantages of a home exchange. Ana and Juan’s temporary neighbours even invited them over to dinner on the last night of their holiday.

With two young boys, Ana and Juan appreciate the fact that they were not crammed into a hotel room together. Their temporary home in Wicklow had ample space for the whole family and there was a dream garden for the children, complete with trampoline, tyre swing, slide, tree house, pet rabbits and resident cat.

Meanwhile the owners of the house, Ian and Susan Cassidy, with their daughters Jane (14) and Emma (12), enjoyed a Spanish holiday far from the resorts.

“Myself and my husband hate apartment holidays with no outdoor space,” says Susan. “This way you can afford to be choosy.” The Cassidys were also keen to pick up the language, and Ana found someone to come to the house and teach Spanish to Susan and Jane for an hour every morning.

“You get a kick out of it when you go out to the shops and you can speak a bit of Spanish,” says Susan. “In the area where we were there was no English spoken.”

Susan said the family will definitely do another house exchange, but will probably go further afield next time, perhaps the US. She plans to begin the search for an exchange earlier this time, in January or February, to have as many options as possible and to avail of cheap flights.

Ana and Juan already have their next home exchange arranged. “Next Easter we will go to Copenhagen, exchanging again,” says Ana.

“We really love Ireland, and may return, but for next summer we will also look at houses in other English-speaking countries.”