If you love to travel, and especially if you have flexibility with your time to do so, house sitting provides an exceptional alternative for first class accommodation at little or no cost. And, it often brings you to spectacular corners of the world you might not travel to otherwise.
There are many web sites that link homeowners with sitters, some listing assignments around the world, while others are country or region specific. Most house sit assignments include pet care, but some do not. However, if you like to base yourself in one place when visiting a new locale or an old favorite, the pet sitting aspect of house sitting may not be a constraint, often allowing you to make day trips, or even overnight trips away from your base.
During the past three years, my house sit network, trustedhousesitters.com (“THS”) has afforded me the opportunity to stay in some beautiful homes and visit places as diverse as Austin, Texas, the Portsmouth, N.H. area, Merida, Mexico, and London, England. I’ve even bonded with the animals “trusted” to my care. A recent house sit owner called me to speak to her fish a few days after she returned home – she said she thought the fish, a good-sized goldfish, missed my voice.
I was introduced to the pet-and-home-sitting-for-travel concept by some friends who own a second home in Xcalak, Mexico. They advised they always use THS to find reliable sitters for their two dogs and to otherwise look after their beachfront property while they are away. One can sign up on the site as a homeowner, a sitter, or both, for a nominal membership fee.
Sitters set up a profile on the site, which is then viewed by prospective clients who list assignments with THS. The site provides guidelines for creating your profile, and recommends that you obtain a police background check that can be made available to clients, though perhaps the most important aspect of your profile is accumulating good references, especially from past assignments, that can be checked by prospective clients with whom you apply for sits.
One of my most favorite aspects of house sitting is getting to really know and explore a region. A prime example is a recent trip via an assignment in southwest France, in the small hilltop village of Lacoste, in the Herault valley of Languedoc, about an hour west of the city of Montpellier by the Mediterranean coast.
The home owner, Marie, was taking a road trip to Italy with friends for about three weeks, and needed someone to look after her orange and white cat, Rusty, who proved to be a very affable fellow with a big purr, and who could come and go as he pleased through a “cat door” fixed in the front door of the home. Marie, like many cat owners, advised I was welcome to be away from the home for a night or two, as long as I made sure Rusty had sufficient food and water while away. It was a perfect arrangement for using the home as a base for visiting the region.
My friend Louisa joined me for the assignment and we settled into Lacoste, a quintessential charming 
French village on a hilltop. Our “home” for three weeks was at least 300 years old, with two-foot thick stone walls, low ceilings and rough hewn timbers – not your usual “hotel” lodging. We reveled in the 20-mile view to the east over the Herault valley, filled with vineyards heavy with grapes, the mountain views to the north, and the Mediterranean to the south. The small village itself, with only a few hundred residents and no services other than a classic, centuries old church, had a very medieval feel to it, with its narrow cobblestone lanes lined with flower pots in bloom, and featuring low, stone archways.
Even though Rusty provided no advice, Louisa and I soon found two of the best beaches in the area at nearby Serignan and Argeles, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. With Louisa being a retired art teacher, we were thrilled to venture to nearby Arles in Provence to drink wine at Van Gogh’s famous Night Café. And we even took an overnight trip to Aix-en-Provence and enjoyed cocktails at one of Cezanne’s favorite meeting and drinking places, Les Deux Garcons.
When not traveling afield, just enjoying the neighborhood occupied our time. Nearby Clermont l’Herault, three winding miles down the hill from Lacoste, had a wonderful, colorful street market every Wednesday morning. There vendors set up their stands featuring locally grown produce, regional and area cheeses, meats and pates, fresh live escargot in the shell, a wonderful array of breads and pastries, and prepared foods such as gigantic pans of aromatic, saffron-colored paella, chock full of prawns and other “fruits de mer.”
It was definitely a fairy-tale house sit assignment – staying for free in a beautiful and charming home and getting to leisurely explore this exquisite, laid-back region of southwest France. I highly recommend this form of “affordable accommodation.” It’s not only a great way to travel; for some, it might be the only way.
All photos by Louisa & W.T.
