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Unconventional Accommodations: Vacation Rentals

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Marissa’s Birthday celebration in our Melbourne Rental home.
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Our beautiful beach rental in Torquay, Australia. We really wanted to stay longer…
The world of Vacation Rentals has drastically changed. When we can’t find a home or hospitality exchange or if we are staying for an extended period of time we have found vacation rentals are the best option. We recently had the opportunity to stay in Australia for three months moving from Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane and the places we rented were both affordable and incredible. Once again you get the true feeling of being part of another community and culture. We had people over weekly for dinner and to learn about where we should go in the surrounding area. Vacation rentals have all the benefits of home exchanges but with a cost. Usually the cost is as much as half that of a hotel and so the savings here also help the bottom line of the travel budget. Plus you get more room, a kitchen and great neighbors. 

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These are a few photos of our fun chic rental apartment in Sydney, Australia.
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In Australia, we rented two and three bedroom apartments for around $120 per night. If you were to get a similar size hotel room it would cost well over $300 per night.
www.airbnb.comhas drastically changed the vacation rental industry. In the past the big boys were www.vrbo.comand we still check out their options but have found Airbnb to have an incredible selection and an easy interface to find what you want where you want it. It is also easy to pay and if you are on business, easy to expense. Other sites you pay for in cash and receipts are not quite up to travel expense report standards. Keep in mind that on many home exchange sites they will offer vacation rentals too. These are often at very low cash, paid at the time of rentals. It is always good to look there first and then venture into other sites. Rental sites often cater to special accommodation options like cabin rentals or boat rentals –  so do your homework and search for the one that best fits your needs.
 
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Here is our adorable neighbor Taj admiring his artwork that adorned our apartment we rented from his parents, a lively ‘Beach Shack’ in Brisbane.
 
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The view from our window…. wow!
 
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This is the beautiful Swiss Chalet that the Kluth’s rented for us while in the Swiss Alps, complete with cowbells ringing in the morning to wake you up, fresh crisp air, intoxicating green everywhere you look and fabulous prices for a night stay. They are called the ‘Friends of Nature’ houses. At the time we went, it was $10-20 Euros a night… WOW!

Ultimately the way we travel is simple and flexible. Have your top ten destinations that you want to go. When you find airfare that is cheap for any of them, that’s the one you take. Then find the accommodations that fit your needs best. When you are rigid in your travel plans, you usually spend much more because you don’t look at any other options. We hope you discover the world as we have and you find incredible ways to travel your way both inexpensively and free. 

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We wish they would rent these out… we would be first in line!

Italy…. what more can we say? Day 12 and 13

 

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A replica of the statue of David just outside the Academia
Our little apartment is situated close to downtown and located under a grocery store, this cute well maintained apartment is a perfect place to set up camp on your next trip to Florence. It sleeps 4 and has a full kitchen, large bathroom and is air-conditioned. Having the grocery store just above you is perfect as we bought our food for the next few days for about half the cost of one meal out. The first thing we did was to go into the center of town and do a little shopping and exploring. The open market is huge and is a great place to pick up those few special trinkets to remind you of your stay in Italy. We also found an Internet café as neither the farmhouse nor the apartment had Internet. 
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It seems that on this trip we have been doing deserts before dinner and enjoyed some delicious Gelato before heading home to make dinner.  We decided it was time for hamburgers, so we purchased form Italian sausage and hamburger and mixed it all together with herbs, olive oil and some balsamic to make a delicious Italian hamburger toped with fresh tomatoes, lettuce. 

 

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Finding an internet hotspot while eating Gelato…. of course!

On Sunday, after a good night sleep we decided to find a church nearby to attend. It is always fun to attend church in different counties. You may not be able to understand everything, but it is a good place to be and to meet others who can help direct you to new and interesting places to visit that you may not have thought of. Before we arrived we looked for some places to provide some humanitarian service but had a hard time finding any. While at church we met a lady who told us about two places we could check out.

We finished the day by exploring more of Florence and enjoying the warm sun and beautiful day. 

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While driving we found a beautiful field of sunflowers

*Originally posted 6/2011

 

One of our favorite places to relax………Capezzana Carmignano – Tuscany.

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DSCN9808Of all of the places we have stayed in Italy, Capezzana has to be our favorite – so far. We are not sure if it’s the quite out of the way location, the wonderful memories and friendships we developed over the years or simply a combination of the all, but this place holds a certain magic for our family. Set in the Tuscan hills just outside Florence among olive groves and vineyards is the main villa which is the home of the Count and Countess Bonacossi. The villa dates back to the Medici family as it was originally built for one of their daughters. On our first stay here a few years ago we rented from the daughter and son in-law of the Bonaccosi’s in their 600-year-old restored farmhouse. Since that time their daughter passed away and Marcello has moved from their home in Florence into the farmhouse, so we rented a farmhouse directly from the Villa just down the road from where we stayed previously. We were surprised how quickly everything came back to our memory. The roads, buildings and landmarks all came flooding back as we wound our way through the narrow roads of the region of Carmignano in Tuscany. 
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Because we were planning on visiting Florence on Saturday and Sunday we just took this time to relax and unwind in Capezzana from the nonstop adventures and there is no better place to do this. Here we became real Italians, in no rush just living life and even taking a nap in the afternoon while the rain fell outside. We also renewed old friendships with Marcello and his family and simply recharged our batteries. 
*Originally posted 6/2011

Prague……Day 1

After what seemed like eternity, we arrived last night in Prague. We continued to have our challenges as all of our luggage arrived except for one. However, Air France had already sent word to the Prague airport that they would be sending it o the next flight and we should have it by morning. 
 

 

Right before our flight from Salt Lake we were notified by the people renting us the apartment, that the Mozart apartment we booked had water issues and they would need to move us to a different apartment down the street. Although this new apartment didn’t have the reputation of having Mozart staying there, it is a beautiful apartment and is much closer to Old Town Prague than the Mozart. The building was built in the 15th Century and has room for seven. The kids all slept in the main room where they combined beds to make a giant bed, while Dale and I had the bedroom. It has a full bath and a large kitchen, which will come in handy and will save us on our food budget. If you are planning to stay in Prague we highly recommend www.pragueresidences.com. As we walked to the bridge last night we stopped at a Hostel just to compare prices. The cheapest, dorm style rooms with no privacy  $17/night/person compared to our $20/night/person/apartment.
 
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Jet lagging sleep time. They pulled all the beds together into one ginormous bed!
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Our cute apartment from the outside
A few blocks to the left is St. Charles Bridge where you can get the most incredible view of the Prague Castle. A few blocks to the right is Old Town Square where we will begin our exploration of the city tomorrow.  Tonight we took a short walk to the bridge and to get acquainted with the streets around the apartment. Prague is lively, streets full of people, small shops tucked away in every corner. We can’t wait to discover some hidden treasures. 
 
*Originally posted 6/2011