How To Find The Best Florida Vacation Rentals When Holidaying

Are you yearning for a change in scenery? Do you want to escape to a location where it’s sunny (almost) all year long? Do you wish to unwind, have fun, and stay at the best vacation rentals? Your best option is to visit Florida, the Sunshine State. Here’s how to find the best Florida vacation rentals when holidaying.

Floridashould be one of your chosen destinations as a quick getaway or a week-longvacation. Of course, you need to find suitable accommodations to complete yourholiday.

Vacationsrentals are not new to the tourism industry. Vacation properties, like Singer Island Vacation Rentals, continue to gainpopularity because of the benefits it provides guests, such as:

• The comforts of a real home – fully furnished!
• Reasonable prices to suit any budget
• Perfect for groups, although some vacation homes are alsosuitable for couples
• Save money by cooking your meals
• Great overall value compared to hotel accommodations

How to Find the Best Florida Vacation RentalsWhen Holidaying

Now,here are some simple but useful tips on finding the best Florida vacationrentals for your holiday.

Identify Your Needs and Requirements

Findingthe perfect vacation rental is challenging, especially if you’re unsure of whatyou want. It’s crucial to identify the things that you or the family need in avacation rental before looking around. You may end up going in circles andfrustrated when you have no clear definition of what you want in a vacationrental.

Lovethe ocean? You should look at beachfront vacation homes. If your itinerary hascity-related activities, it’s best to search for vacation properties near orwithin the city.

Research Before You Book

Itmay be tempting to book to get the entire process over with. However, doing somay lead to disappointment and frustration later on. It’s vital to researchthoroughly about a potential property before booking it.

Areyou dealing with a legit vacation rental company or owner? Is the propertywell-maintained? What are the previous guests saying about their stay at thevacation property you’re eyeing? You can find out a lot about vacation rentalsthrough their social media accounts, blogs, and websites, such as https://vacationrentalssingerisland.com/.

Try to Book in Advance

Youcan score better prices and deals when you book a Florida vacation rental inadvance. Apart from the discount, booking a vacation rental earlier willbenefit you if there are special events, tournaments, or festivals in yourchosen destination.

Vacationrentals are booked faster than hotels, and there are also fewer vacation homesthan hotel units. Avoid last-minute vacation rental bookings to ensure you’llhave the most suitable vacation home available.

Review the Contract

Vacationhome renters can get into trouble by not reading the terms and conditions oftheir rental. Renting a vacation property is similar to renting an apartment.If you don’t bother reading the contract, you can lose your deposit money.

Forexample, a contract may stipulate that the tenant will forfeit the return ofhis or her deposit money if the place is not cleaned up before leaving theproperty. Don’t hesitate to ask questions that you may have about the vacationrental.

Bookinga Florida vacation rental is not complicated. Once you find your perfectaccommodation in Florida, you and your companions will truly enjoy yourmuch-needed break.

What Makes Florida A Great Vacation Location?

Theme Parks

Florida is the number one tourist destination because of its awesome theme parks. There are so many theme parks, including water parks, to satisfy your hunger for fun and excitement.

Miles and Miles of Beaches

Floridais blessed to have almost 700 miles of beach, which makes it a fantasticlocation to have some fun in the sun. Whether you’re looking forfamily-friendly beaches, island getaways, coastal towns, and big-city beaches, Florida has them all.

Sports Haven

Floridais the perfect vacation place for sports lovers. Thousands of guests flock toFlorida to get a glimpse of professional sporting activities, like football,hockey, and baseball. If you’re the adventurous type, Florida is thedestination to participate in outdoor and water sports activities.

Food, Arts, and Culture

Floridais a foodie paradise – a mecca of various cuisines. The Sunshine State not onlyoffers fabulous beaches and exhilarating outdoor activities, but you can evendrown yourself in its arts and culture. There are incredible art and historymuseums in almost every city and county.

Great Weather

Floridais called the Sunshine State for a reason: it’s a place where you can soak upVitamin D all year long. There’s occasional rain even during summer, but mostdays are gloriously warm. Perfect for frolicking on the beach and getting thattan you’re dying to have.

Conclusion

Whenstaying at a Florida vacation rental, you must learn to manage yourexpectations. Unlike booking a hotel room, you’ll be staying in someone’s home,which means you have to be more mindful of your actions and behavior.

Findingand booking a vacation rental in Florida can be challenging. But once you finda great property to rent, the feeling of satisfaction is unparalleled.

Marcus Beach, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Ever since the children were toddlers I’ve tried to take them away for a summer vacation. This year we decided to go to Marcus Beach, Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Marcus Beach is located on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It’s the next beach after Peregian Beach travelling north and just south of Noosa Beach. I’ve been going to the Sunshine Coast since I was a baby and it’s my most favourite part of the world. We usually vacation at Coolum Beach, just south of Marcus Beach but leaving it until the last minute, I couldn’t find any accommodation for the dates we needed so we found a cute little house at Marcus Beach. 

I love the Sunshine Coast for it’s unspoilt beauty. No high rise buildings, no fancy hotels. Just wide open spaces, beautiful beaches, sand dunes, natural bushland adjoining the beach and crystal clear ocean. Except for the busy times people walk their dogs, you can sometimes feel like you’re the only person on the beach.

Accommodation

When my husband and I vacation just with our two dogs, we take any accommodation but because we had the children, we chose a place with a swimming pool. When we weren’t at the beach they were in the pool. It was so refreshing to see them get back their childhood with absolutely no electronic devices brought with them at all.  

Even the dogs went in for a quick dip. The drive up was so hot. We put them in to lower their body temperatures. They aren’t too keen on the water at the best of times.

My husband is such a good step Dad. The kids absolutely adore him. He loved playing with them in the pool and they loved it too.

The house we rented had a real retro feel about it, resembling something like a Swedish sauna with timber internal walls and vaulted ceilings. We had all the creature comforts of home and that’s all we needed. As long as we have a bed, a shower and somewhere to cook, we’re happy. Considering the small window of time we were able to go away, the house was really reasonably priced for the location. Only 1 street away from the beach and surrounded by beautiful trees and nature.

The evenings were spent watching television, playing board games and winding down from a hot, tiring day.

The Beach

In the afternoon, we took the dogs for a walk along the beach. It was a bit windy the first day and there was a really bad storm brewing back home in Brisbane so we didn’t stay long.

The second day we went back to our favourite place, Coolum Beach and a walk through Stumer’s Creek, a dog friendly beach that we love. The dogs immediately remembered it and felt right at home.

Our little miniature Fox Terrer, Bonnie will be 16 years old after Christmas and she still goes alright for an ‘old girl’. She loves the beach and keeps up with us walking even having a little game with ‘Dada’. (We love our dogs and they come everywhere with us.)

My husband is such a joy to go away on vacation with. He packs the car, unpacks it, looks after the dogs, looks after me and makes holidaying a real joy.

It was only 3 days long but hopefully the time we spent together will have a lasting memory for the children. Holidaying with them as they’re getting older is definitely a lot easier compared to when they were toddlers.

 

Christmas Vacation 2013 - Coolum Beach

I love our week’s vacation every year. There’s no doubt it will always be at the beach. I had every single holiday at the beach as a child (and as an adult for most of the time) and I’m pretty sure my kids love it too. Probably comes with the territory and the fact that we live in a wonderful part of the world. One such place is just over an hour north of where we live on the Sunshine Coast called Coolum Beach. That’s where we headed this year.

It’s always a pretty stressful time for me as a single Mum to make sure I’ve got everything packed, food organised (I ordered groceries online and collected just near our destination), and all the other things that need to be organised before we go away but off we went. I was so, so tired emptying the house in readiness for the floors to be polished while we were away so I really wanted to get there and relax.

We rented a beautiful little pet friendly house about 5 minutes walk from the beach with a pool and nicely decorated in resort style furniture. It had all the modern creature comforts of home and just what we needed for our week away.

The kids hit the pool as soon as we got there and I was happy to sit and watch. Our days were made up of swimming in the pool daily and just being lazy.

We’d wake every morning and go to the beach before it got too hot. The kids played in the sand while I went for a run.

Coolum Beach is one of my most favourite beaches and brings back fond memories of my childhood when we would camp at the nearby Lutheran camp site with our church. The beaches are unspoilt and up until http://creditcardnow.us/comment/181#comment-181 recently, was free of fast food chains. (Thanks for nothing McDonalds.)

Every afternoon we took our dogs to the area designated for dogs at Stumers Creek, a couple hundred metres north of the main part of Coolum Beach. A beautiful fresh water creek for the dogs to splash around in, poop bags, water bowl and hose for the dogs plus toilets and a park for the humans as well. I’ve had our Mini Pinscher, Willy for 10 years since he was 9 months old and I don’t recall ever taking him to the beach before. He absolutely loved it.

The boy and his dog.

On our second last night, I treated us all to dinner out at the Coolum Beach Surf Life Saving Club and it just so happened to coincide with the grand opening of a new bar and new renovations. There were Christmas parties galore so the place was really pumping. Who wouldn’t want to dine with the sea breeze blowing and that view to look at.

I had a pasta dish with Moreton Bay bugs (similar to lobster) and prawns with garlic and chilli. The kids had a kid’s meal and enjoyed time in the kid’s club while I had a little break and enjoyed the view.

As we wandered back to the car, the Friday night craft markets were on with lots of beautiful jewellry and things to look at. It was a beautiful evening and nice just to browse.

We finished the evening with an ice cream and headed home. The next day, our last, we relaxed by the pool before we headed home on the Sunday morning and back to preparations for Christmas. I’d love to live at Coolum Beach one day but in the mean time I can dream and think about where we will go next year.

Paradise Resort, Surfers Paradise, Queensland

This photo of Paradise Resort Gold Coast is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I love vacations and have done quite a bit of it in my life. Since having children, we’ve managed to take the children away for a week around Christmas time to a resort or holiday house style accommodation and they’ve loved it Me, not so much. I’m always worried about the noise they make, if they break something, how they might behave in a restaurant (so we don’t usually go out to dine). I’m not saying they’re terribly naughty. They’re just being kids but it drives me crazy and I worry about them getting into trouble.

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

That was until we discovered Paradise Resort at Surfers Paradise. I’ve known about it for years but never found the opportunity or the money to go but we scored a really great deal at the start of this year for around $120 per day for 2 adults and 2 children with lots of inclusions. Winter obviously isn’t the best time of year to go but it didn’t deter my kids. One minute they were in the heated pool and the next they were rugged up ice skating in the indoor skating rink.

After arriving in the mid afternoon, we checked out the place and as soon as the kids saw the pool, that was it. The air temperature wasn’t too bad but lucky the pool was heated. I didn’t go in but the kids had a blast.

Busting some moves at the live gig

After a nice warm bath, we ordered some takeaway pizzas and headed back to the room for dinner, TV and bed and the fight over who was going to sleep with me. 

In the morning we headed to the kid’s first buffet breakfast. They thought it was wonderful and my fussy daughter could’ve knocked me over by grabbing a bowl of cocoa pops but ummed and ahhed about it being something or other and left it and finished up having a piece of Vegemite toast.

From there it was on to 4 hours of Kid’s club, including lunch. The theme was cowboys and indians and they had an absolute ball, making friends, playing and keeping amused. I ducked out to the nearest shopping centre for a browse but I no longer got there and it wasn’t too long before I had to come back. Roadworks to make way for a light rail network were absolutely dreadful near our accommodation. I wanted to make sure I was back in time.

After that we had the option of cupcake decorating (or was that hair braiding or poolside activities or plaster painting, I can’t remember) but waited a little while before we went to our free booked 2 hour ice skating session. My daughter had tried roller skating once before and I honestly thought she’d be way too scared to give this a go but she surprised me. She kept it up for the whole 2 hours. We had an early dinner and both kids hit the hay soon after. They must’ve been exhausted.

This pool was not heated. They were killing themselves laughing. Oh to be young again.

The next day, after breakfast, we visited my dear blogging friend Amanda from Cooking for Busy Mums and when we got back the kids went for a swim. They wore themselves out again and played with their toys in the room until their Dad arrived to spend the last night and day with them while I headed home to the fur babies. I’d never left my dogs in 12 years by themselves. I had the lady next door come and feed them. They had a doggie door to go in and out. They didn’t make a sound and were so good. I got the best welcome home ever.

I’ve loved all the vacations I’ve had with my kids but this one has to be the best. Although the accommodation and actual resort might be a little ‘tired’ and in desperate need of a complete refurbishment, you couldn’t ask for a better kid-friendly resort or atmosphere. Don’t expect anything gourmet. The food is filling and reasonably priced for a resort. It didn’t matter that my kids argued over a hot chip at the dinner table, bounced around, spilled drinks at the table or ran loudly through the accommodation. Every other kid did it and you didn’t feel out of place. I highly recommend it (if you’re holidaying with kids that is).

Paradise Resort

122 Ferny Avenue

Surfers Paradise  Qld  4217

http://www.paradiseresort.com.au/

Disclaimer:  I was not paid to write this post but wanted to share my thoughts on our time there. All thoughts and opinions are my own.