Vacation Home Rentals Blog

A fire pit. Two red chairs. Low tide at Carpinteria.

Your own hideaway in the millionaire mecca near Montecito, where California vacation rentals shed light on what it must be like to live like Oprah, or at least, her struggling neighbors. And when I say struggle, for most of us, it’s hardly slummin’ when your temporary nest a three-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage with views of the Pacific.

Carpinteria is a classic California coastal town with quaint cafes, gorgeous lookouts and lots of chances to catch glimpses of seals, and birds like the American Kestrel and Red-Tailed and Cooper hawks. Pack a surfboard, skateboard or golf clubs to practice your swing at the driving range. Or do something very Santa Barbara: Watch a polo match at The Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club on Sunday, when the events are open to non-members.

Yes, at least during your vacation, you can be part of “the club,” too, without having to pay the mortgage on that gorgeous piece of Mother Earth.

Consider yourself lucky.

If a Malibu vacation home was on your list of must-visits or you own a property in this glitzy zip code, be forewarned: Renting and owning could hit you deeper in the pocket.

That’s because as of July 1, Malibu property owners will have to pay a 12 percent transient occupancy tax for vacationers who stay less than 30 days, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Will it affect those of us who “summer” in the playground of the papparrazzi?

90623 landlords: Here’s your chance to sound off. Will you be raising prices to offset the tax burden?

And luxury vacation home renters: to Malibu or not to Malibu this year?

The mortgage meltdown forced a glut of California home owners to lose their shirts–and the keys to those fabulous manors that most of us only dream about when we’re watching HGTV. Because when it comes to luxury real estate, no state does it quite better than the Golden one.

The odds are, many of those borrowers turned to California vacation home rentals, bringing caviar dreams to everyday folks and turning that sitting real estate into cool cash.

The Napa vacation home pictured above? Yours for just $4,375 a week. Situated next to Cline Cellars, the Gloria Ferrar Champagne Caves and Viansa Wineries, the house comes to $364 a night when divvied among 12 guests. Not cheap, but this is wine country, friends. You won’t see Friesian horses in Queens.

Now, for a few other properties that could fuel lotto fantasies …

Oxnard vacation home
This Silver Strand Beach property screams brocation or girlfriend getaway. Tricked out with a 60-inch HDTV, game room, rooftop deck and barbecue, the party-ready home is the pad the newly rich might call a starter home after they’ve banked their first million. Not overly flashy. It only has one elevator after all.

Santa Barbara vacation rental
You know a house is big when it requires an aerial shot to fully capture its size. Don’t be fooled by the four-bedroom spec–this is a true California hacienda with cathedral ceilings, expansive verandas with daybeds, Brazilian wedding hammocks, a lit tennis court, pool and spa. Swathed by avocado and coral trees, the home also comes with a private chef upon request.

Well duh.

I’ll have my dinner by the outdoor fireplace, please.

We hope that Florida vacation home you booked for July is still in the works, but a new poll suggests that folks have canceled at least one of their planned trips.

A survey by AP-Gfk claims that 42 percent of Americans will be going on summer vacation, compared with 49 percent who said in a 2005 AP-Ipsos poll that they would be taking one. And most notable: While 43 percent of 30-49-year-olds will be vacationing, only 39 percent of 65 and older Americans plan to do so.

Can’t say I’m surprised.

The entitlement generation is used to Starbucks, Louis Vuitton purses and high-end denim. Personally, those are luxuries I can live without, but a vacation? No way.

If your company is teetering on the edge of layoffs or you’re living paycheck to paycheck, I can understand why you’d want to bypass the holiday in a Maui vacation rental, but an abbreviated excursion, even an extended weekend, can do wonders. Just choose carefully and don’t be stupid. If a road trip to Colorado is more feasible than a splashy European adventure, more power to you. And don’t rule out the savings and space benefits of renting a vacation home.

What’s the truth, though, America? We want to hear from you. Are you sticking by or scrapping your summer vacation? Leave a comment here or follow us (and speak to us) on Twitter @checkincheckout.

You’re confused. What would a vacation home blog have anything to do with food?

Think about it.

At least 75 percent of a getaway–shoot, sometimes 100 percent–is devoted to sampling the locals’ cuisine. Unless you’re planning to fully utilize that Viking stovetop in your vacation rental, you’re going to be dining out.

Because to be a tourist is to eat like the natives.

Having said that, I’m craving hot dogs, blue cheese and blue crabs this evening. I could easily score the first here in Chicago, but I’ll have to bank some vacation time to visit the next two places that have developed a national reputation for the pungent, creamy stuff and those hunky crustraeans that make my mouth water the minute my plane hovers Chesapeake Bay.

For blue cheese, book a Bay Area vacation home and drive up to Point Reyes National Seashore, which is known first and foremost for its wide open headlands, powerful breakers and multiple opportunities to hike and whale watch. San Franciscans also coo about the locally culled Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.’s Original Blue, a creamy, silky, robust wedge that will be sure to impress all the foodies in your life as gifts, especially when paired with a nice port.

As a Virginia Beach native and former Floridian, I’m constantly on the hunt for the perfect crab. I’ve already found it back home: the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, the mackdaddy of crustraceans. Nothing has come close. My mom used to buy them buy the bushel, steam them in a stock pot, then dip the hunky meat into a sauce of white vinegar, pepper and lemon. This was no easy task by any means. We could sit around for hours cracking those pesky shells with our teeth, hammers, whatever we could find. It was a labor of love, though, and I’m happy to recommend the experience to anyone, even if you have to catch the creatures yourself.

Yes, the cost of a Chesapeake Bay vacation home is well worth it just for a bite into that jumbo-sized claw and hunky shell meat.

In fact, any getaway that involves food–street or high-end–and wine, is justifiable in my book.

Recognize that skyline?

It’s none other than balmy San Diego, home to miles of coastline, days of sun and a zoo that Kung Fu Panda would envy.

Speaking of the zoo, it’s a bastion for gorillas, polar bears, flamingos, exotic birds and Cuban rock iguanas (which suddenly occurred to me would make for a great band name). Hundreds of creatures roam freely thanks to the numerous cageless exhibits. Lush botanical gardens filled with rare and endangered plants (flytraps, neato) underscore the venue’s commitment to to conservation.

On May 23, the zoo will usher in its Elephant Odyssey habitat that will walk visitors through the Pleistocene period complete with fossils and life-sized statues of American lions that inhabited Southern California 12,000 years ago. Seven elephants will be on hand to offer that real-life lesson in zoology that no Disney flick can capture, even if yes, Jack Black’s animated alter ego is pretty cool.

Get back to Mother Nature. Reserve your San Diego vacation home and go to the zoo.

Much to the detriment of this blogger’s aching fingertips, Check-In, Check-Out has given in to Twitter. Follow me at checkincheckout, and I’ll follow you, too. (Yes, I did use first and third person in the same sentence.)

If it means getting the word out about your dream California vacation home or that Florida vacation rental you thought you couldn’t afford, I’m up for the tweet.

With this invitation comes one request, however.

Do not tweet while on vacation. It isn’t cool nor does it make you look better to all your friends. Secretly, they hate you–and especially if you’re writing about sunsets like the one above.

Leave the gloating for your Facebook page.

These folks have the right idea.

Pack up your wetsuits and go with them (in this case to Dana Point, Calif.) for the rush of surf, sand and sunsets. It’s time to get beach on the brain.

From the laid-back shores of Southern California to the family-friendly coastal towns of North Carolina, there’s a vacation home waiting for you. We snatched up three on both coasts that won’t force you to a diet of Cheerios and Ramen noodles.

1. Dana Point vacation rental
This comfortable vacation condo–sitting in the front row of the Niguel Beach Terrace complex on the oceanside of Pacific Coast Highway–shares the same sands as the guests of the Ritz-Carlton: the Salt Creek Beach. You’re wiser than those VIPs, though, because your two-bedroom place, complete with a full kitchen, barbecue grill, cable and more, costs just $900 week until the end of May. Plus, the owners once left a bottle of Two Buck chuck for previous guests, according to the first user review. Score!

2. Outer Banks vacation home
Three words: Spring break specials. The Whispering Sands, a king-sized house with seven bedrooms and space for 15 guests, falls in price to $820 a week from Feb. 28 to March 7 and March 7-14 and $845 a week from March 28 to April 4. Time to call the extended family and divvy up that price. What a deal. Don’t forget to bring a good cook or three.

3. Fort Myers vacation condo
Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando … Everyone falls for the obvious spots in the Sunshine State, but visitors shouldn’t discount the seduction of the Southwestern part. Wait until May and rent this puppy for just $50 a night. It’s only one bedroom, but that just means someone else will have to take the kids that weekend. The beach and purple pink skies shouldn’t be denied.

This year, nix chocolates and flowers (which are overpriced anyway) from your Valentine’s Day plans.

Your sweetheart really needs a vacation.

Surprise her with a trip to this Oceanside beach rental, where you’ll spend days on the balcony overlooking the Pacific after breakfast in bed. By night, you’ll say cheers with bubbly–or if you can figure it out, that mysterious ruby red cocktail pictured here–in the private spa tub.

Spoil each other and get spoiled with the views.

Now this second rental by owner may not be in the cards exactly for V-Day, but it’ll certainly make a memorable present that will set the bar high for future vacations.

Whisk her away to Tuscany.

At Villa Il Paradisino, time isn’t measured by Facebook updates or Blackberry pings. To borrow the landlord’s words, “Life at Villa Il Paradisino is unhurried, filled with the scents, flavors and furnishings of a past that is still alive.”

The circra 1839 paradise–owned by the same family for four generations–sits on a compound with several apartments surrounded by acres of landscaping, from lush grapes and olive trees to vegetable gardens. The farm produces its own extra virgin olive oil, red wine, jams and other homemade goodies that you’ll be able to enjoy in between trips to your lovers’ lair.

Choose the La Torre apartment for privacy, a sturdy wrought iron “tester” bed, plus a panoramic view of the countryside.

After your romantic retreat, you’ll be glad you didn’t spend your money on the roses.

With budgets tighter for splashy vacations, let’s make a prediction: 2009 will be the year of long weekends.

Folks won’t abandon their plans–they’ll just cut their trips shorter.

For Southern Californians, a two-hour drive into the oasis that is Palm Springs is time well spent if the final destination is a vacation home like this retro rental by owner. Bring your best guide to classic cocktails and don your favorite Buddy Holly glasses or Marilyn Monroe halter dresses for an escape to 1952.

Palm Springs, long-known as a desert playground to the stars, is that postcard-perfect community, thanks to its kidney-bean shaped pools, manicured backyards and mid-century aesthetic that appeals to modern hipsters.

Shoot, even “The Hills” filmed there (so it must have cred, right?). Justin Bobby and Audrina took their first official vacation as a couple at a luxe hotel.

Singles, check your calendars for long weekends that could use a little swimming, cocktailing or golfing (So that’s what President’s Day is for.). Nothing against parents, but the house looks more like a bachelor pad than family-friendly getaway.

If you can find a babysitter–thank you, grandma–more power to you.