Nomadic Texan

Experienced in home and pet care?
You can travel the world without paying for hotels. Here’s how…
Exchange your experience in home and pet care for free accommodation by housesitting for home and pet owners all over the world. Yes really, it is possible. If you love animals, you’ll have a wide range of opportunities to visit new locations and live like a local in someone’s home. Yes, really! However, you may still need travel insurance for your trip. With this in mind, you may wish to visit the one sure website.

Marbella Beach at Sunset

Join a housesitting network, get verified and police checked, and then apply, it’s as easy as that. Tell the home and pet owner how and why you would make a good housesitter, tell them about your pet care experience, any particular breed of cat, dog or horse that you have known well. If you love gardening or don’t mind turning your hand to a few household chores, all that information is great to help you build your housesitter profile online. If you are chosen you’ll have a wonderful opportunity to explore a new location, with your host as a guide before they leave for their holiday. With multiple pages and web articles such as befreela exame article and guides on youtube, there is little excuse to not go out and start exploring!

Eiffel Tower at sunset, Paris

Why join a managed Housesitting and Petsitting network?
By joining a managed network you secure the opportunity of free accommodation and flying private with jet card programs like Jettly in a wide range of locations. And in exchange for free petsitting you enter into a collaborative relationship with the homeowner which often leads to making new friends in new places and a deeper discovery of your new location.

Many of the travelling housesitters on HouseSitMatch.com share their stories via the blog telling of their experiences of the pets they have cherished and cared for, the fantastic travel experiences or discovering new locations from a new perspective. It can be a wonderful escape to sample life in a new country, visiting some extraordinary places while staying in a comfortable home rather than an anonymous inner city hotel or hostel environment.

St Paul’s Cathedral, London from the South Bank

Client Testimonial, Dianne and Mike (Travelloafers)
If you are considering house sitting, we highly recommend HouseSit Match. Lamia has guided us through every step of the way making the signup process easy. We’ve already had a wonderful experience house sitting in the UK and are looking forward to more all over the UK and Europe in the near future! 5 stars all around!

Dianne and Mike, travelling housesitters and digital nomads from Canada
(aka The Travel Loafers)

Dianne and Mike Housesitting near Oxford, England

Why should petsitters and housesitters get checked and verified?
It builds trust online if other members of a network can see that you are visibly checked have a current and clear police and background check! HouseSitMatch enables members to get checked online wherever they are in the world, they can then display these checks against each profile. Homeowners feel more confident approaching a housesitter who has taken the trouble and time to ensure these details are dealt with. They feel they can go on holiday with peace of mind knowing that an experienced person they have chosen as a pet sitter who is looking after everything at home while they are away is checked with a clear record. If homeowners want to check deeper, then they may want to use an online police check qld service, depending on where they are based, so they can be as thorough as possible for their safety.

Building a good housesitter reputation online.
To build a good reputation online you start with the checks, then with each completed housesit you gather a new homeowner review. To ensure a fair approach and a balanced perspective, HousesitMatch asks housesitters also to review their homeowners so all members must build their own reputations online.

Are there any costs?
Yes, there is a small membership fee starting as low as 49 per year. By joining this housesitting network you can secure access to checked free petsitters all year round. By joining as a Premium member for 79 per year the HouseSitMatch admin staff can help you at every step.

Who are these petsitters and why will they want to housesit for free?
Most of the petsitters who join HouseSitMatch are looking to spend time in a new location and to exchange their experience for free accommodation while they discover a new location. Many of the petsitters are retired professionals wanting to travel on a fixed income. For them, your petsitting assignment is a working holiday.

Client testimonial – Nina, Pet owner
This company have been excellent from start to finish in finding a House-Sitter for us in Andalucía (Spain). They have checked up at all stages and also after the event. This gives us confidence in using the system.

Nina – petowner in Andalucia, Spain
Check out all the HousesitMatch testimonials on Trustpilot.

Do you need a house or petsitter? Get in touch. House-sitting can be a win-win for both parties, free house and petsitting, and the experienced and checked sitters get free accommodation! Register as either housesitter or homeowner now with a 20% off introductory offer using coupon code PERFECT20. To find a house pet-sitter go to www.HousesitMatch.com.

***This blog post was sponsored by Housesitmatch.com. and restitution was made.

Cambridge is famous across the globe for its elite University, that is ranked in the top three in the entire world. But like any hotbed for scholars the area in steeped in history and has many rural delights. The city also has a rich arts scene with many live music venues and museums open around the clock for locals and tourists to visit.

However, away from the more urban parts of the city there is an abundance of countryside that populates the outer regions of Cambridge. The River Cam became a focal point for industries and even today, local’s use it as an alternative way to travel and admire the city. One of which ways is via a boat called a punt.

A punt is basically a “flat-bottomed boat with a square cut bow,” and they were originally designed for use in small rivers or to operate in shallow waters. They are similar to gondolas, but punts are maneuvered using a pole rather than an oar.

Punting in Cambridge

Because of their design features and due to them being easy to maintain many tour companies in Cambridge now sell luxury punting packages to visitors. Running along the River Cam and out as far as the Ely on the Great Ouse package companies run trips throughout the days and weekends for visitors especially during the summer months.

Summer Punting

Visit Cambridge highly recommends Camboats as it also offers narrowboat tours which take tourists past many of the city’s riverside pubs, colleges, museums, the Kings College Chapel, University Real Tennis Club and much of the wildlife that inhabits the rivers and surrounding fields. The tours provide insight into the history of the city as well as all the notable landmarks that tourists pass while seated in the punts.

Punts have also become popular additions to bachelor and bachelorette parties recently. However, these are equally as popular for family days out as the River Cam is a wonderful and tranquil setting in the summer months.

Hen Party Punting

There’s also the prospect of seeing the University’s famous rowing team practicing on the river. Every year the University competes against its biggest rival, Oxford University in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The race happens in April and is attended by some of the Royal Family. It’s televised on UK television and is attended by thousands in person.

Travel Information:
For foreign tourists travelling to Cambridge for the first time, there are a number of ways to reach the city upon arriving in the UK. Firstly, there are many train routes available to travellers from all of the major airports. However, expect to change multiple times before finally getting to your desired destination. Secondly, there are buses routes that connect London to Cambridge, but be warned these trips can be arduous due to the high level of traffic that London and the outskirts of the city has to contend with on a daily basis.

Finally, and probably the most preferred option of all, is by car or cab. With airports like Gatwick only being 50 miles away from London and Heathrow approximately 28 miles away, it means that Cambridge is accessible in less than two hours from both airports. The M11 runs directly from London to Cambridge and although it gets busy at times it is a pretty stress-free road for travellers to drive on.

***Written by Thomas Hill