apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Renting an apartment is definitely the way to go, especially for longer vacations.

How does one go about finding an apartment to rent on vacation? This sounds like a good idea, but I don't really know how to get started.

We rented a cottage for two of the three weeks we spent in France and it was great! We were able to cook out of several Provençal cookbooks IN the South of France using local food and the money we saved on dining in most of the week we were able to really indulge when we did dine out and upgrade our hotel for the week we spent in Paris.

I've done all three. Back in student days, I was all about hostels and/or crappy student hotels/pensiones. These days, my husband and I fly standby on last-minute trips because he works for an airline. So we usually end up getting a hotel online the day or two before we leave, since our plans are always so up in the air (so to speak). We've actually booked a hotel while boarding a plane to take us there... yikes.

We did manage to rent an apartment in Paris for a short trip last year (we used Frenchy Rentals on advice from a friend, and they were great!). We truly enjoyed the apartment and neighorhood, and getting delicious food from the market was so much cheaper than eating all of our meals out.

We just went to St. Lucia over the 4th of July, and our hotel was split into little private villas (sounds expensive, but it's hurricane season so therefore prices are cheap). Ours had a full kitchen, so we hit the local grocery store and made all of our breakfasts and lunches from local foods. Cheap and tasty! We enjoyed the fact that while we had so much flexibility and privacy, it was still a hotel (i.e. maid service, shuttles to the beach, etc.).

That being said, I'd probably choose to rent a flat if it was convenient and affordable.

Oh, and Jessimuhka, you can often find about about apartment rental services in guide books like TimeOut (our favorite brand of guide). The rental services' websites list the apartments or rooms you can rent for your trip. We rented a room in someone's house for a trip to Amsterdam this way.

i love to rent apartments while on vacation. it makes me feel like less of a tourist, it gives me the option to eat in, it gives me an excuse to go to a different neighborhood... i also love to get the sneak peek into what it might be like to live in any city.

places to look for vacation rentals:
craigslist, of course! - just go to any city and look for the vacation rental category under housing

vrbo.com - vacation rentals by owner, title says it all

just plug the name of your city and vacation rental into a google search and see what you get. when i went to Copenhagen i found hay4you (http://www.hay4you.dk) by doing a search on google and we got an *amazing* apartment through them in the Norrebro neighborhood.

there is also homeexchange.com, which we did once with a couple in Paris (their Paris flat for our SF apartment), and it worked out great!

We are trying to do home exchanges. Did it once last year, and will be again this fall. craigslist, homeexchange, diggsville all do this. I am hoping this becomes more commonplace. With cost of air going up, not having to pay for a place to stay is a great way to save some of the vacation money.

like josie said, there are some great sites where you can exchange homes with other people/families for vacations.

of course, it all depends on whether you want to go where they live and they want to visit where you live, but if you live in a fun city, it shouldn't be a problem!

http://www.homeexchange.com/ has a really convenient reverse-search feature.

I'm an ADD vacationer, if I can even bring myself to take a vacation. This summer (actually, in like 3 days!) I'm doing a mini-roadtrip vacation, only staying in each place for no more than two days. We mostly rented rooms at B&Bs, except for in San Fran, where we're going with a hotel room.

My daughter went to London with two older friends (our former neighbors), and at the native Brit wife's insistence (and arrangements), they rented a flat. It was a disaster, as everyone had to use coins to pay to heat their room & hot water, and linen wasn't included. When she goes again on her own, she says she'll arrange for a flat without all those restrictions.

I like VRBO.com for finding apartments. (VRBO stands for Vacation Rental By Owner.) You can read how previous guests have reviewed the place before you commit. Also check out LondonPerfect.com--we spent a wonderful week in their Kensington flat during our first week in London. (They have flats in Paris too.) Much more affordable, comfortable, spacious, and convenient than a hotel.

The best part of an apartment stay is breakfast. You can shop the neighborhood market for your breakfast fixings, feel like a local, and enjoy a leisurely morning without spending an outlandish sum on ordinary fare. (When traveling, breakfast is often the least important meal of the day!)

I also like the freedom to take an afternoon nap without worrying about housekeeping coming in to make up the room.

Still, as much as I love apartment stays, I prefer hotels in countries where we don't speak the language--having English-speaking hospitality staff available is worth the extra expense.

For a wonderful Tuscany rental, perfect location inside the wall in Lucca, on the train between Pisa and Florence (and Delta flies now to Pisa from JFK), go to casadelborgo.com

It's a big 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with a nice little terrace, steps away from great restaurants, and last year it rented for 450 euros a week. Strongly recommend it. You can do it without renting a car.

well...since I have 3 apartments in Amsterdam that I rent via VRBO (#'s 141072, 176551 and 44723), I have to say I prefer apartments. LOL There are times when I might prefer a hotel for the convenience or assistance they can provide but that would normally only be in less developed or riskier (you define risk) countries.

Aside from all the conveniences of having your own space, you find you have much more interaction with the local population, meaning neighbors and shopkeepers who normally don't have as much tourist trade. In a sense you become a part of the neighborhood, albeit temporary.

A good apartment host should be able to give you just as much information on the area as any hotel employee. I would also say a good host is always reachable (for free) by telephone for both routine questions and emergencies.

For apartments in some of Europe's most popular cities Loving Apartments is a good and reputable web site:

www.lovingapartments.com

Thanks southender! I'm going to check on the apartment in Lucca for a week in Oct/Nov.

I have had 1-3 places on VRBO.com and have met people from around the world when they came to CA. Some have made repeat trips.

When I lived in NYC and vacationed somewhere other than visiting family in the LA area (before I bought these places), I used Relais and Chateaux because I had a business trip in France in Feb. and Relais and Chateaux actually had some places I could stay that were open in the off season. I stayed in chateaux around the Dordogne/Bordeaux/Biarritz areas. It was wonderful. I found I had a chesnut allergy when I was having a dinner in one of the places in the Dordogne--my throat started closed up when I was eating with another couple from AR who was visiting the same place. Thankfully they didn't need to get me to a hospital! I also stayed in the www.hotel-du-palais.com when I went back for a business trip the following year and had the BEST hot chocolate EVER.

I need to get out more...damn that exchange rate!