The arrival of summer creates the call of the road, the ultimate vacation, the excuse to vacate your premises and invade a new one. Adventure is always fun and I love packing the kids up and taking off for the nexts fun adventure. I travel with my husband as much as we can, but often his job does not allow him to get away with me, so family travel in the summer is me with the kids and in the winter it is us with the kids. Sometimes I think adventure would be most fun if we just were to drop a coin on a map and wherver it lands we go, but as a little less adventurous MOM side of me kicks in, I decided that wherever we will travel it will just have to make sense for our family. What I want is to make sure that wherever we end up traveling to the kids will have a great time. I find that space is a requirement for all of us and a bit of privacy is always nice. Squashing into one room is not lavish to me nor luxurious and I don’t like listening to everyone snore or anyone hearing me snore, lol! I am Pro Home Rentals as some of the best adventures by day are best pampered by night when you all get to slink into your own room and your catch of the day gets to be pan fried or grilled in your own kitchen. The luxury of a home rental for vacation really sinks in when you take into consideration that I have a child with horrid, life threatening food allergies which creates the need to be able to serve and prepare foods faster than I can seek out safe eateries. Don’t shake your head, don’t think twice, rental homes can be just as luxurious as a stay at a 5 star hotel as there is such a thing as the luxury of a home rental for vacation when you know where to rent from. Here’s to lavishly living adventure out loud in the luxury of a home rental for vacation.
Hotels/Motels
Many of the new incentives for traveling and staying in hotels are very aggressive and money-saving as the stay often includes anywhere from all meals to one meal. Our problems with some of the hotels is health for our one son, he is latex allergic and coming into any contact could create a potential disaster. We have to watch what he eats, where the food comes from, was it touched with latex and was the room cleaned with someone wearing latex gloves? In addition, some hotel chains we have come into contact over the last few years leave a bit to be desired from the cleanliness aspect and noise, so this is weighing heavily into our decision. Hotels are often right where the action is, so for your older kids, living in the hub of it might be the best option so they can hang out a bit and you can just be. It is nice when things are within walking distance and your older teens can join in on the fun and you don’t have to worry because they are close enough but having fun. In addition, the morning meals are often included with most stays so you don’t have to venture any further than the lobby dining area to eat. Often there are happy hours that offer great appetizers and drinks all included with the stay. One place we stayed had a popcorn machine and fresh cookie rack and my kids were in love with this feature, at least 2 of the three kids! My one child, who is plagued with allergies was taunted by the smell and even more sad that he could not have the treats his siblings were having, talk about disaster! As far as transportation, many hotels offer shuttles everywhere so once you get there you are all done driving. There are separate rooms, suites and in a place like the Residence Inn, goodness you have your own mini-apartment if you so choose but not all places are equal and unless you have a lot of time to investigate you may never know what allergens are there, and who wants to end up in the hospital based on chance?
Timeshares
This is an interesting way to travel. Did you know that you can opt to buy into a timeshare for a particular week, year after year at a facility? You may never be in the same living quarters, but you are guaranteed your week at that timeshare facility. Timeshares offer kitchen facilities as well as laundry and as many beds as your budget can afford. Staying in a Timeshare saves hundreds of dollars in food expense as you can dine in, take part in some of the facilities that offer ‘happy hour’ and activities and cook what your family can eat. This is particularly enticing in our situation with one child that is allergy plagued. My parents traveled to timeshares, condos, and different rental units until making the decision to just buy a second home in another part of the nation, because Timeshares were not all they were cracked up to be for them, and after some of their stories I have to agree. Now, Timeshares offer you the option to rent your unit out if in fact you can’t travel for that time period that you have it, a nice benefit. Timeshare means that you won’t receive a bill on check in or check out because you own it for life, oh this can be good or bad, depending on the economy and you know what we all have just lived through so I am not too sure a Timeshare would be for my personal preference. Being in a condo often means that your rooms are larger than a hotel and you have all the great perks of a home in a smaller area. What may be somewhat less conducive to your travel schedule and your kids schedule are some restrictive Pool hours. These pool hours may be mandated by the facility and don’t forget about the acceptable noise levels in certain facilities. The cost o f a Timeshare can be fairly attractive, but Timeshares work best if you are planning on visiting the same area year after year. *(there are other options that allow you to travel to other places; I will review that at a later date)–
Home Renting.
We actually fell in love with renting a home for a week, or 2 as with kids, it is a treat on many levels to come home to a house after a long day of sight-seeing, touring or traveling to amusement parks. It is hard to come back to a hotel with kids that are revved up, or over-tired and get everyone showered, and fed with a snack when you are living in a single room, or when the room only has a small fridge and a compact coffee maker. Suites are not all they are said to be. The need for multiple bathrooms (because inevitably everyone has to go at the same time), and to get cleaned up from a rough day out (lol) all can challenge even the best parenting skills. Let’s face it, when you get in from your day, you have been out all day long, your feet , back, and everything else hurts, the kids are tired, cranky and beginning to catch a second wind and of course hungry.
When you come into a rented home, they can all scamper to their rooms, everyone gets to spread out, use their bathroom, and you can quickly prepare a quick snack in the kitchen and often the kids will opt for a swim in the pool as a great end to their day. Many rented homes have actual game rooms in them with hoops, pool tables and foosball, and we have stayed in plenty of homes with these rooms. The kids shower off from their day and challenge us to games and then everyone goes to bed. The nice thing about the next morning is that everyone had their own bed and room, slept well and each person wakes up when they want not when the kid farting, snoring or waking up and moving wakes them up because they are not on top of each other. Everyone wakes up refreshed. The kids generally hit the pool in the morning and we get breakfast ready and pack up lunch. We take off for the day and the house is again waiting for us at night. If we don’t feel like eating dinner out or can’t because of allergies and no possible restaurant choices we make pizza, order pizza (if it’s latex free) and we hang out. We prepare snacks on call, we are in complete control of our vacation as I know what has been touched and by whom. We bring in the food that he eats and our favorite part of the day is the swim in the pool, the time that we just get to hang out. I also love that we pack less because there are washers and dryers and its so easy to just toss it in and forget about it! We have rented through many great home owners in the past and I can assure you we will continue to do this as it is an AWESOME option.
Traveling via Home Rental, Timeshares, or hotels are a few of the ways we all get out and about, which way do you travel? I love the rentals and getting on the road to strike up a daily adventure, and then have that separate time. The costs associated with a Rental often beat the pants off of any deal we can find in a luxury-driven hotel and if you consider the amenities from an alarm on the home to private pools you know that you are far ahead with a home rental. Don’t forget the fun of having multiple families stay in a home, that is always a ton of fun as well and it also lessens the costs. If we stay in a hotel, we prefer suites so that everyone has their space. I do believe that age in children makes a large difference in how people find vacation amenities necessary, such as multiple rooms, and multiple bathrooms.
Lavish living on vacation is different to everyone, but you can definitely find a great space when you look into a rental home. You will find that rental homes offer a variance of amenities from WiFi- to private pools and everything in between. Many of the homeowners go above and beyond to accommodate and their rental firms also are so grand to work with. There is nothing we could ever want for when we are in our rental homes except MORE TIME! Lavishly live life out loud and enjoy The Luxury of A Home Rental For Vacation.
