Congratulations Silvia, winner of our 'Win a Homestay Experience' competition

Thank you to everyone who entered our 'Win a Homestay Experience Anywhere in the World' competition to celebrate the one year anniversary of Homestay.com... but of course there could only be one winner!

We are delighted to announce that the lucky winner is Silvia Russo from Naples in Italy. When we contacted Silvia to tell her the happy news, she was thrilled and surprised.

"When I got your email...well, it definitely made my day! I couldn't believe that I was the winner! It still seems so unreal to me. When you enter a competition you never imagine that you could be the the winner but it just happened to me," Silvia told us.

Silvia is studying psychology, which she says heavily influences her experiences when she travels. She is particularly interested in nationality and identity as part of her studies and has already visited many countries in Europe. As the winner of the homestay trip for two people, anywhere in the world, she wants to use her prize to travel outside of Europe. Some of her dream destinations include Australia, the United States, Canada or Jamaica.

She told us that in her opinion it’s the opportunity to interact with locals that really makes the homestay experience stand apart from other types of travel accommodation.

“The most exciting thing about being the winner of this trip is that Homestay.com will give me the opportunity to compare my culture with a completely different one in the best way ever: by staying in a native family's home, sharing their habits and living their life not just as a tourist, but as a local.”

Once Silvia has decided where she would like to go on her homestay trip, and which host(s) she'd like to stay with, there's just one tricky decision left to make: who will she choose to bring with her?

“I just have to decide among all of my friends who want to join me: that's the most difficult part, I guess!”

A happy decision to have to make, no doubt!

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Want to learn more about our guest and host homestay experiences? Check out some the other stories from our hosts and guests about their homestay experiences, our guest testimonials and host testimonials.

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