I always thought bolded is what VRBO was for. Have they changed?
I havenāt looked much since itās barely available in Europe. Just assumed that it wasnāt that.
Sucks.
Iāve only looked in US, but all the ones Iāve seen there are very nice, high-end properties.
Originally, they were distinct in their businesses:
VRBO = more vacation and larger property oriented (vacation rentals by owner)
AirBnB = smaller places often for 2 people (like a BnB)
Both have obviously crept quite a ways from their founding charters, and Iām not sure either is more high end focused than the other.
AirBnB has changed its interface somewhat making it a little harder to make clear that I do not, in fact, wish to stay in a space ship.
Itās unfortunate how much hotels have declined since Covid. So many just seem to be constantly understaffed, shoddy housekeeping, canāt get a change of linens, forever to check in, uncleaned pool, joke of a breakfast etc. And yet still more expensive than before.
The hotel I stayed in last night said they had breakfast, but it was a ābreakfast bagā from 6-9am. Ok. I set my alarm to wake up for it and it turned out to be a small water and a granola bar lol. I would have preferred if they just said weāre not doing breakfast anymore. And why wouldnāt you just leave that out on the counter instead of having to put it in a bunch of dumb individual bags?!
Anyway Iād like to support Airbnb less, but sometimes itās difficult
All of travel is this way. Flights, rental cars, airports, hotelsāall of them are still struggling massively.
Hotels are honestly the least frustrating to me. Rental cars always being sold out and/or unable to allocate cars automatically and airlines canceling or delaying flights all the time are both huge headaches. I donāt schedule my trips nearly as aggressively as I used to.
I stayed in 7 different hotels this month and everything seemed fine? I guess I run good.
My wife and I decided weāre done with air travel for now. Even Delta seems to be FUBAR
Maybe Iām running bad the last few days. Driving down to Florida and every hotel Iāve stayed at has been annoying, hairs on bed, faulty AC units, always something.
But yeah I know all travel is kinda fāed right now. Definitely glad I donāt need to rent a car. Airbnb experiences havenāt really declined though!
Eh, my trip hasnāt been that bad. Sure, I had to drop an extra $40 due to a shitty airbnb host and schedule a last minute flight because trains and buses were booked for the Islamic holiday. But honestly, the flight wasnāt much more expensive than a bus ticket and was super short.
I do hear you on the understaffed hotel. Thereās one guy working in the hotel Iām in. Literally one person only.
It is definitely much drier and youāre right that thereās more shade. But, it was 103 today. Supposed to be the same tomorrow, and Fridayās forecast is 108, which would smash the all time record. Pretty fucking hot!
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I was actually surprised with how cool Turkey was. I think it went over 90 once. In the mornings in Goreme, it was cold enough that I wished I wore long pants.
What are some destinations/countries where good diving can be easily integrated into a more ātraditionalā tourist itinerary?
Ms. JordanIB dives, I do not (but I snorkel), so thereās always a bit of give and take as to how far out of the way we will go to include diving on the bigger trips. We try to get to the Caribbean 1x per year, but including it on the other trips is always on the wish list.
What I consider āgoodā examples:
-
Australia, where GBR is a destination even for snorkelers. Port Douglas is also a great place to just relax for a few days, we did a day trip up to Daintree/Cape Tribulation, etc. So itās not just about the diving.
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Yucatan in Mexico, you can visit the ruins, some cities/towns, the cenotes, etc, and then pretty easily include a few days in Cancun/Cozumel for R&R + diving.
A ābadā example:
- We looked into a short Cuba trip a few years ago, but it seemed like the great diving was on this archipelago off the coast, which is either done via liveaboard, or some far-flung location that had a single motel that catered to divers and Iād be twiddling my thumbs for 2-3 days. Seemed like a PITA to combine with Havana in a 5-6 day trip.
Back on the Airbnb subject:
Staying in a nice two-level apartment in Florence. The two bedrooms are both upstairs and the kidsā bedroom AC does not work great. Last night the kidsā room did not cool down well - one slept in the living room, one just slept super badly in the warm room. One the one hand, this is nobodyās fault - as previously noted, the whole area is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. On the other hand, itās a pretty big inconvenience. I reached out to the host and they went out and bought us a fan.
Mention this in the review?
My fiancĆ© says that Belize is pretty elite. Thereās rainforest/ruin stuff inland (and you can go to Guatemala as well) and then some very cool beach islands with great scuba diving.
Just had my second really good experience with Touro. Was in LA for 4 days and ended up with a pristine 2019 5-series BMW all in for $273 including delivery and pickup at LAX. Definitely worth a search when youāre renting.
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absolutely
I was going to mention Belize. Lovely place.
Iād mention in the text, but I wouldnāt really ding them in the star rating. Iām pretty lenient on these reviews.
Ironically we did Belize before she got certified. So maybe a good excuse to go back. Blue Hole definitely gets mentioned from time to time. We were recently joking about some of the things we did on that trip (the caving, climbing up steep ruins) and whether weād be up for that again in our āolderā age.