Hi all, i would like to ask any UK members who have experience of House Sitting outside the UK, in particular, Europe, USA and Canada please
You may want to just ask your questions so people can answer them as they have time. At this point all you’ll get is a bunch of ‘yes, i’ve done that’ responses because that’s all you’ve asked for.
Yes is the answer. What’s your question?
Sorry, i was not clearer, it was really a general query about peoples experiences on these sits, just some short bullet points of how you got on?
We have done sits in Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. In November we are off to Greece and Cyprus in January. All great experiences. Nothing negative to say about any of our trips abraod. We do a minimum a month each time so really get the feeling of living as a local and makes the extra travel expense well worth it.
Hi @drm My hubby and I have sat in many countries other than UK. Including Australia, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, France, Spain, Germany & Switzerland.
What exactly would you like to know? If you are interested in any of the above countries you are welcome to ask me specific questions.
I have sat in Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and US. I will shortly go to sit in Italy and Malta.
In my experience, as far as sitting goes, there’s no difference that can be attributed to nationality. The latitude, climate, culture or language are different. So are entry requirements and travel arrangements but the sitting itself can be similar everywhere or as different as people are anywhere.
We are a Brit Turk pairing (one with a UK passport) and have sat in a lot of Europe including Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Montenegro plus lots of sits in Africa and West & SE Asia. All have been great so far. As @Lokstar and others say, what is it exactly that you are trying to learn? And as @Newpetlover says, the sitting experience is similar from the host perspective (minus snakes & other critters in more exotic locations) it’s the culture, language, transport, lifestyle outside that needs adjustment. #moreinfoplease
You might want to read this thread:
In the last 30 months on THS I have sat in Neverlands, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Italy and Crete. As well as a few UK sits across the country.
Enjoyed most sits and different countries. A few I’d not had a chance to visit before.
Thank you to @Colin and @Lokstar, i now know where to direct any questions I have my wife and I are off to France next Feb for 2 weeks, our first abroad sit, super excited, just unsure on whether to fly or train it there, we are heading for Bordeaux…
@drm , for us, the deciding factor on which transportation to use is cost. We used eurostar for the first time last year and loved it, far more relaxed and comfortable than flying, and the cost was very similar.
There are some really good flight prices too, our tickets Gatwick to Corfu , before luggage, cost £39 each - there was an £18 option but it was too early for us!
We also, when flying, always try to book a sit close to the airport before our flight date so that we are not stessing about travelling to the airport on the travel day.
We have a sitting booked close to the airport that ends at 12 noon, just in time to head for the airport for our 4pm take off!
If you are just going for two weeks I’d suggest to just fly in and rent a car at Bordeaux. Unless you’d prefer a more leisurely overland trip -then take the train!. We ourselves always drive (in our own car) everywhere on the continent when we are going sit to sit but if your 2 week sit is a one off then maybe its good to keep the travel simple. The cost difference may also help you decide.
Our last French sit in the summer was near Bergerac- not so far from Bordeaux- its a beautiful region- Enjoy!
We’ve sat in Spain, France, Portugal, Crete, Cyprus and now in Croatia. We started housesitting when we retired 8 yrs ago and started travelling in our motorhome. We always pick sits that are in locations we intend to travel to anyway, they need to be in the right place at the right time, we’ve had some great experiences, we particularly love it when a home owner from abroad cooks for us, its a great way of living like a local. We don’t have the motorhome now so fly to locations and use a mixture of airbnb and housesits, we travel to New Zealand in Decemeber for 3 months and have 2 sits, 1 in the north island for over the Christmas period and the other in Christchurch when we go to the south island.
I dont see many sits outside UK/US/Canada/Australasia on THS, have you used other sources too?
There are some, but they’re relatively few and very competitive. You usually have to be actively looking to catch them in order to apply.
@drm our first international sit was in France this summer. The home was in a rural location, so we drove and took the ferry.
If you are staying in Bordeaux itself, flying will be quickest and most simple. I would have thought taking the train, and coming from the UK would involve taking the metro across Paris. This would definitely take longer, but if you have time, it might be a fun way to see more of the country. You could even combine it with a couple of nights in Paris.
There are quite a few other sits just not in the vast quantity of the locations you mention. FB sites work well in SE Asia, we sit in Turkey through THS, ditto Costa Rica, Panama, Georgia (a random mix I know). Nomador is good for France. Mind My House is worth a shot for other destinations as it’s so cheap to join but we found the HOs flaky on there. Those three options added to this platform and you can use the house sit search site for general sits everywhere (like Trivago for house sitting) and that will also help. #choiceschoices
I would absolutely love to know how your sit in Neverland went… Was it easy to look after the ticking crocodile…? No probs with the neighbour, Captain Hook? (Not meaning to be snide, but your typo set my imagination going. Maybe we need a thread on Fictional Places Where We’d Like To Sit…)
@outdoorsy We use THS exclusively.
This year and, last year too, we spent 6 months doing back to back sits in Spain & France. We are pretty flexible on location and have our own car which does help. But I also think the more 5* reviews you accumulate the more chance you have in competitive places.
Re-Asian sits. We did several pre-Covid but the last Christmas sit in Singapore was just two years ago. You have to be very on-the-ball with sit search- checking the site multiple times a day if necessary, but you can also just get lucky! The 5 applicant limit has certainly made it more challenging so you need to be active and persistant and apply instantly if you get the chance before the listing goes to ‘reviewing’!
Many sitters use other sites and FB groups with varying levels of success. So far we haven’t used anything else but that can change at any time!