Vacation Planning TipsThese vacation planning tips are for anybody who'd rather wake up in a house on the beach than in a cookie-cutter hotel room half a mile away. Are you in? Great! I'm sharing six field-tested vacation planning tips that will help you plan a truly extraordinary getaway -- without breaking your budget.
If you can't wait, scroll down to Tip #5 for five great ways renting a vacation home can save you money. Followed by a link to Trip Advisor's "Vacation rentals vs. hotels" calculator.) Tip #1: Realize that renting a vacation home isn't for everybody. … If you love being spoiled by room service and having your bed made in the morning and turned down at night (by somebody else) … If you feel more secure having a lobby between you and the street, STOP reading. You'll have a much better time staying at a hotel. You will have to make the beds and do the dishes. Maybe even take out the trash. And if a storm knocks out power for a few hours, you’ll have to find some candles and wait it out. If you want a vacation where your every need is catered to, renting a vacation home is probably not for you. That said, you don't have to settle for an everyday hotel room with little to no living space. Some of the best timeshares and resorts are located right on the beach, so you can enjoy your own space combined with a staff dedicated to fulfilling your every whim. But if you’re flexible —- and willing to be a little resourceful —- renting a home will transform your vacation by giving you a deeper connection to the beach you're visiting and the people you love.
There are some times when renting a vacation home makes all the difference. Here are a few. A
family vacation or multi-generation family reunion. It’s so much more natural to spend time together in a living room than trying to squeeze into a “common area” shared by other guests in a hotel or B&B. Click here for 7 steps for family vacation planning. One of my favorite family vacation planning tips for larger groups?
Tip#3: Check out large occupancy vacation rental homes as reunion sites. Rather than try to cram a group of 10 to 20 into a block of hotel rooms, think mansion. Think private compound, ranch, chateau, villa even. These are just some of your choices when you rent a vacation home. Click here for tips for finding great reunion sites.
Girls getaways
(or "Man-cation") A special celebration. Vacation rentals on the beach are also great places for a
babymoon
A place to grieve A way to live vicariously Tip# 4: Embrace la vida local. An owner’s personal recommendation is worth its weight in guidebooks. When you know the best places eat, shop and play, you feel less like like a tourist and more like a member of the community. Each beach house for rent reviewed on this site includes "Owner's Favorites", friend-to-friend recommendations.
Given these tough economic times, this is one of the vacation planning tips that could make or break your vacation. First of all, do some simple math. Let's say my family of five rents a three-bedroom home right on the beach for $1,500 a week. So $300 per person ($600 for my husband and me) per week is about $85 a night. There's no way we could get a comparable hotel room on the beach at that rate. Here are a few more ways to save:
Eat in. That may not sound like much of a vacation. But the reality is, you don't have to get showered and dressed just to have breakfast. You can lounge around in your robe until noon. (Sometimes the best vacation planning tips involve no planning!) A fully equipped (sometimes gourmet) kitchen saves you the expense (and hassle) of eating out three times a day. I pack my favorite coffee beans and cereal and staple fixings for several meals. Some days we pack a picnic lunch and throw some fresh fish on the grill for dinner. You can even have dinner delivered without paying room service prices. Not having to eat our three times a day give you more to spend when you do decide to splurge on a nice meal out. Click here for more ways you'll eat better in a vacation rental. Leave the car in the garage. Bring the dog along. Consider pet friendly vacation rentals. Go to Pet Friendly Vacations for more information about traveling with your pets and links to homes that welcome the whole family. Travel in the off-season. Prices are down (by as much as 50%), and the weather is still beautiful. The off-season doesn't always mean gray and dreary. California beaches are best in late summer and early fall. The June gloom has past and kids are back in school. When the weather gets colder, I love to cozy up to a fire and watch the waves. You can also snag the best tables at restaurants you couldn’t get close to in season. Click here to read more about vacation planning tips to help you score a discount vacation rental. And my favorite of all the vacation planning tips?
That one's easy. With no maids, bellman or room service waiter, there's no need for tipping, so you can pocket the extra change.
Beach Vacation Rental Scout Recommends: Trip Advisor's Vacation rentals vs. hotels calculator will give you a good idea of how much you can expect to save by booking a vacation rental instead of a hotel room according to the location you're planning to visit. 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. Savings vary by location. Here are my results for two adults, no kids and eating some meals in three locations: Pismo Beach $160 saved! San Francisco $100 saved! Santa Barbara A tie (It will cost about the same to rent a home as book a hotel room.) 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! When You’re Ready to Rent You'll find more vacation planning tips in this handy checklist.
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