Find the Right Vacation Rental for Your Family Beach Vacations

Family beach vacations are a lot more fun in a house -- with a kitchen, separate bedrooms and a patio -- than one cramped hotel room. Especially if you've got fussy eaters, afternoon nappers (of any age), cash-strapped family members and traveling pets in your crowd.

Best Family Beach Vacation Rentals in California

Best Family Beach Vacation Rentals in Florida

Here's what I love when I get together with my extended family (me, my husband and our three dogs, my retired parents and my brother): everybody can do his or her own thing throughout the day. My Dad can sneak off for a nap while my husband checks e-mail. My Mom and brother have a private chat on the deck while I feed and walk the dogs.

We come back from a day of sightseeing with fresh fish and goodies from the local markets for dinner. Then it's a big bowl of buttered popcorn and a movie. Typically one of us turns in early and a couple of us get up at the crack of dawn to walk the beach.

It's also fun for two or three families to share a home or adjoining vacation rentals. The kids can play together while the adults chat, cook or just relax.

When American Express polled its travel staffers about trends for 2009, renting a home for an multi-generation family vacation was right there in the top five.

And why not?

A family friendly vacation rental at the beach is (usually) more economical.

The nightly rent for a two- or three-bedroom home can be less than what you’d pay for a nice hotel room—much less when you split the cost among four, six, eight, or more people in your party.

Enter the location, then the number of adults, children and nights you expect to stay. Then whether you'll cook, or eat some or all of your meals out.

If you're traveling with kids and planning to eat most meals in, you'll save more. Eating in is still one of the best family vacation planning tips I know.

Try out this calculator and see what you come up with! Click here for more tips on travel on a budget.

Having a fully equipped kitchen also saves you the expense (and hassle) of eating out three times a day. You can enjoy your favorite cereal on a deck over the water, pack a picnic lunch and throw some fresh fish on the grill for dinner—or you can havedinner delivered without paying room service prices. That gives you more to spend when you do decide to splurge on a nice meal out.


5 Tips for Scouting the Perfect Rental for Your Family Beach Vacations

#1. Choose a home that makes you want to stay in.

It should feel like home, only better. Don't have lots of people on sleeper sofas. Get as much space as your budget allows. That means a bedroom (with a door that closes) for everybody, as well as a few different kinds of living spaces. A family room for those marathon games of Monopoly or Charades. A quiet deck or patio with a knockout view. A rec room or yard for the kids.A roomy, well-equipped kitchen where meal preparation is fun.

#2. Splurge on kid-friendly features.

Build some peace into your family beach vacations. Make sure easily bored siblings or bonding cousins have plenty of safe places to let off steam away from adults. Some houses are kid palaces. A swimming pool, basketball court, trampoline, well stocked game room, big screen TV and sports equipment like kayaks. Many come with board games and a library of DVDs for all ages. Some include have bikes and beach gear.

#3. Anticipate safety issues.

In addition to peace, you need peace of mind on your family beach vacations.

Steep steps and busy streets are not ideal for toddlers. Some baby equipment rental companies provide baby gates free or through a local rental company. Some will deliver them to your home or condo so they're ready to use when you arrive.

If you're got an active band of older kids, set them loose in a gated, resort-style complex. There's lots to do and the premises are discreetly patrolled by security staff with 24/7 video surveillance as a backup.

#4. Do an amenities 'audit'.

If this is your first time renting a vacation home, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that most homes include laundry facilities (essential whenever you mix kids and the beach), Wi-Fi for the workaholic in the crowd and multiple TVs and DVD players. Some have chef's kitchens and include fresh ground coffee and cooking straples. Don't assume anything. Make a list of your must-haves and make sure you can check everything off your list before you book.

#5. Tweak.

Every family, group and vacation is different, so here are some more resources.

If you're planning a family get-together with 10 or more people, click over to the Reunion Sites page for tips on scouting out the right rental for a group of 10 or more.

For many of us family beach vacations are complete without the whole family. Good thing that more and more beach house vacation rentals are great for pet friendly vacations (so you save kennel fees and enjoy the company of four-legged family members).

If you're doing everything you can to travel on a budget, click here for some creative ways to save money on your family beach vacations -- and have more fun in the process.