HOMES SWEET HOMES

Inspired by the Kate Winslet rom-com The Holiday, Patsy Williams launched her own global house-swapping odyssey.

- Sam Wostear

To date, she's exchanged residences 45 times, visiting picture-perfect destinations in more than a dozen countries without paying a penny for accommodation

IMAGINE waking up in a room with fish swimming beneath a stilted bed on the shores of the ocean, or a luxury villa in Martinique with its own private cove to swim in. Better still, a house in Panama with wrap-around verandas and breath-taking views of the jungle landscape in which it nestles.

Sounds heavenly, doesn't it? Yet while any of these out-of-this world habitats could feature in a high-end travel brochure with prices only available on application, they're actually the travel diary of a house swapper who stays in luxurious properties in exotic locations for the same price as a package deal to mainland Spain.

Patsy Williams, 43, globetrots all through the year staying in stunning homes in incredible places for a fraction of the usual cost by swapping houses with other keen travellers. In the past ten years she has exchanged homes 45 times, visiting more than a dozen countries without having to pay a penny for accommodation.

Patsy estimates she has saved up to £15,000 with her clever travel hack, meet-ing like-minded people online who want to visit her hometown of Dublin and stay in her house. And it means that she has been able to visit and stay in places she would never have considered an option if she had to pay for her accommodation.