Ramblings

Attention brides!  If you have your heart set on a wedding in the wine country, but are finding prices at local wineries hard to swallow, here’s a really lovely alternative in Sonoma County.

Have the ceremony at the historic Kenwood Community Church. Founded in 1888, the New England-style building is set in a quiet residential neighborhood off Warm Springs Road in Kenwood. The church pastor encourages couples to craft their own personal ceremonies. You can add your own ideas, favorite readings, and traditions ensuring your day will be meaningful (and spiritually appropriate) to the two of you.

Two-bedroom Kenwood House, next door to the church, is a great place for the family and wedding party to gather before the ceremony and for the newlyweds to spend their first night together.

After the ceremony is over, borrow a wedding tradition from Italian and Scottish couples and lead guests in a procession (about two blocks) to the reception at the Kenwood Depot. (In small Italian villages, the newlywed couple would walk through the town plaza greeting friends, neighbors and relatives after the wedding. In Scotland, the wedding party would be “piped” -- led by bagpipers -- to a lavish wedding reception/party.)

Now a distinctive historic landmark, the Kenwood Depot once welcomed crowds of visitors from San Francisco who summered in the wine country to escape cold city summers.

Stationmaster Anne Coffect gave us the grand tour of this architecturally unique rough-hewn stone building. Inside we found a 1,000-sq.-ft. room with oak floors, the original built-in station benches, a bar area and a full kitchen. There's also a fireplace you can use in the off-season.

The rental fee ($775 to $975 for weekend days April to December; midweek and off-season rates are considerably less) covers the facility, tables and chairs and cleaning service. Seating is available indoors and outdoors—on the lawn and original train platform, where there are glorious views of the neighboring vineyards and a brick BBQ.

If you want a truly memorable wedding day -- that won’t set you back the equivalent of a down payment ona new home -- check this out!

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Believe it or not, I’ve seen vacation rental owners in Yahoo groups debate ad nauseum which ply toilet paper is best.

Is it necessary to provide higher thread-count sheets? Should you iron the sheets? Is Ivory okay or should you invest in botanicals?

I’m not talking about personal notes, fresh flowers and bottles of wine here. (I covered that in an April 13 post called "FEEL THE LOVE" (kudos & caveats). This is about the basic, under-the-radar stuff. Very few renters will make a beeline from the front door to the bed to check the thread-count of the sheets. But many of us have breathed an involuntary “ahhhh!” slipping between the sheets. 

Although I'll concede that everybody’s “ahhh” level has a different setpoint. I’m not an exceedingly fussy person. I can get by on less ... but, in case you were wondering, here are a few things that get an immediate “ahhh” from me:

-Luxurious sheets

-Reading lamps on both sides of the bed

-A TV/remote that’s simple to use (so that I don’t need a manual to change the channel)   

-Cushy toilet paper (yes, I know you know what I mean)

-Toilets that don’t make me afraid every time I flush (compelled to stand there and watch to make sure everything goes down)

So do the little things matter? Sure. Haven't they always?    

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You heard me. Electronic guidebooks have live links, more up-to-date information and they’re easy to carry along for on-the-spot reference. The latest entre in a smorgasbord of online trip planning resources.

I don’t know about you, but I make all my travel reservations online these days. Have for years, so I guess I was among the 63.8 million travelers using the Internet to make travel plans in 2004, according to “Travelers Use of the Internet” a study published by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). I bet that number is much higher today.

So it just makes sense that online travel/trip planning resources are becoming more diverse. Among the information hubs (such as Frommers), mammoth portals and booking sites (such as Travelocity), traveler review communities (such as TripAdvisor) travel-specific directories and the other usual suspects: e-guidebooks are carving a respectable niche.

An e-guidebook, or e-book, is an electronic document published in a digital format. Some e-books are PDF files (files that can be read by any computer operating system). Others are formatted to be read using electronic device (such as a Palm or other handheld computer). Amazon.com lists hundreds of e-books and e-docs (shorter, containing more timely information).

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Eighty-eight cities, 22 states, 28 countries…  “Around the World in 80 Homes” (on the Fine Living Network) is a pinch-yourself, armchair-tour of the world, vacation rental by vacation rental.

Ah, go ahead. Treat yourself to a sneak peek. I love that each half-hour episode has a theme… “Active Escapes,” “Offbeat Retreats,” On the Water”. The "Family Friendly Homes" episode featured a rustic Yellowstone log cabin that sleeps 15. "Across America” toured a French Caribbean casa in Florida and a traditional adobe in New Mexico.  

The Redwood Tree House (also featured in Renting Paradise: Sonoma County) was showcased during a previous season. The owner, Rolly Wahl, told me the Fine Living Network shipped him a digital camera (return postage paid in advance) along with some guidance for taking the best shots.

Rolly did his thing and then the Troika Design Group production crew put everything together with music, graphics, voiceovers...voila. It’s a trip via your remote.

Not that you couldn’t pick up the mouse or phone and book one of these babies. All properties (occupancy: 2 to 20) are available to rent, with prices ranging from $700 to
$17,000 per week.  For a show schedule check Fine Living’s online
calendar. 

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10. Rent an entire home for less than you can rent a comparable luxury suite.

9. All your friends can stay over … without sleeping in the same room.
8. Every vacation home is unique — not a corporate-designed, carbon-copy box.
7. Instead of “Smoking or non-smoking?” choose a "backwoods cottage," "Victorian flat," a "houseboat," even a "gated estate".
6. No elevator to the lobby, just steps to the beach, or the private dock, or the hot tub.
5. No tipping the bellman after you check in. (No tipping at all!)
4. No maid tapping at the door at 9 a.m.
3. You can eat breakfast in your robe.
2. Cooking feels like fun in someone else’s kitchen. You can even barbecue (generally frowned upon in hotel rooms.)
1. Truly welcoming touches like fresh flowers and personal recommendations on the best local places to shop, eat and play.  

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The overwhelming array of travel web sites and guidebooks can mean more (not less!) homework when you’re planning a trip. You can simplify your research--and more or less guarantee better results--by looking for “unbiased” recommendations and reviews.

“Unbiased” simply Means the recommender has no axe to grind. No money is changing hands between hotel or restaurant and person recommending it. The recommendation—the review—is based on unvarnished personal experience.  Here are three of the best ways I know to tap into that quality content.    

1. Fellow travelers. They can be relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues. The key is that they know a little something about your preferences. My husband and I once stayed in a thatched-roof hut at a beachfront resort near Tulum on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. The first morning we awoke to an iguana poised on the wall above our bed. I’d recommend this place without reservation—except to those folks who I happen to know thrive on Five-Star (hermetically-sealed) luxury. It might be the end of the friendship.   

2. Reader-written columns and web sites.  Travelers love to talk about their trips. If they’ve had a good experience, they love to share the wealth. If not, the result can be scathing. Before every trip I take I check TripAdvisor. (There are other similar sites. This just happens to be my personal favorite.)  Here, quantity often counts as much as quality: the more resoundingly enthusiastic reviews, the better. When I find 10 glowing stories and one “worst night of my life,” I figure majority rules. The key is read closely. The honesty is often there, but disguised in someone else’ preferences or communication style. Point is: I’ve never been disappointed--and more often than not turned on to places that would never have appeared on my radar screen if I stuck to the big portals like Expedia. (Slow Travel is an especially good resource for people who want to rent a villa or apartment in Europe.)

Larger metropolitan area newspapers may have a column like “Follow the Reader” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Every week travelers wait for the latest reader-inspired recommendations.   

3. Authors who specialize in unbiased reviews.  Well-known personalities like Rick Steves and Karen Brown have developed near cult followings for their guidebooks detailing the best accommodations, restaurants, sights and itineraries in the U.S., Mexico and Europe. What I love about these experts—and try to emulate in my own Renting Paradise e-guidebook series reviewing vacation rentals in northern California—is the fact that they have visited every place they tout. You may not know them, but their personal idiosyncrasies and “attitude” shine through. Their consistency makes them almost friends.

Websites can have the same quality, though they are few and far between. I first encountered the U.K. site i-escape.com  while planning a trip to southern Spain. I was so impressed  I begged them to let me write reviewer. They did! The majority of reviews covering much of the world excluding the U.S. are five pages long with 15-20 photos.   

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My hearty apologies to all hotel service employees -- the valets, the baghandlers, the chambermaids -- I'm sure I've left somebody out. But the fact that I don't have to tip any of you is one of the biggest reasons I prefer rentals over hotels.

It's not that I begrudge anybody a little extra for a job well done. But reading "Tipping and Travel: It's No Easy Equation" (Cindy Loose, April 16, 2006) in the Washington Post reminded me again that trying to figure out the who, the when, the how much ... the etiquette of tipping ... steals a little joy from my travel experience.

In contrast, when I park in the private garage and schlep my own bags to the front door of my vacation rental, I enjoy turning the key in the door myself. I get to discover where everything is in my own time. I've already paid a cleaning fee. Nobody's going to be knocking on my door before I'm ready to leave in the morning. I can enjoy my vacation guilt-free. (sorry.)

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Ah, eBay. Where else can you rent a vacation home, buy new luggage for your trip and update your leisure wardrobe all in one place?

Like any other vacation rental web site, eBay is a mixed bag. Primarily a dumping ground for condos and unused timeshares by large property rental companies and “wholesale travel companies,” it also attracts a few individual owners. The larger companies tend to be more likely to offer last-minute and of-season deals.

Among the pros: feedback. Buyers (in this case, renters) comments are posted and tabulated as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative” and tie directly to the “Seller’s Reputation.”  I was impressed (and just a touch suspicious) that many sellers have spotless records. This is the real world after all. (While eBay doesn’t actively discourage negative comments, buyers are prompted to think twice before they post—an ethical real world policy.)

Any seller of air, hotel, lodging, cruises or vacation Packages, must be verified by Square Trade. While that can’t guarantee your transaction will be problem-free SquareTrade's services—such as dispute resolution—can substantially lower the risks of buying online. It’s common in a lot of industries including the California Association of Realtors ®.

Because of these safeguards, “The instances of people getting ripped off by eBay are actually few and far between,” William May, executive director or VROA (Vacation Rental Owners Association), told me.

The cons:  Positive comments are rarely specific:  “A+++++” or “Thank you for a pleasant, easy transaction.” Okaaay. But what about the view? The location? The experience?

Despite long lists of amenities and even multiple photos—some better quality than others—you’re still often stuck with a too-short description of the property. Some listings link to the owners’ (individual or corporate) web site. That might be enough to satisfy the ski lodge or beachfront condo crowd. If you still have questions, or a seller's record has any negative feedback, use eBay’s online form to ask for an explanation. In fact, ask as many questions (each limited to about 1,000 characters) as you need to before you bid or purchase.

By the way eBay encourages the more vs. less policy. “Avoid questions later, and minimize miscommunication, by anticipating a buyer's concerns.” On it’s list of “essential facts to provide”: “Make it compelling—what makes this a great travel purchase? What's there to do and see? Are they included?” and “The fine print—are there any disclaimers that the bidder needs to know?”

Bottom line: if you love the experience of renting and the details really matter to you (guilty as charged!), you may be better off searching the dedicated rental sites. On VRBO (an acronym for Vacation Rental By Owner) many descriptions are lengthy and full of detail.

As the author of a growing series of e-guidebooks offering unbiased reviews of vacation rentals (San Francisco/Marin County and Sonoma County), obviously I gravitate toward that end of the spectrum. But more about that in a later post.

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Did you ever think of using your vacation to ‘test drive your dream job’? What could make more sense?

First of all, if your work is something you’re truly passionate about, it won’t feel like work. Secondly, it’s much less risky (to your mental health, as well as your pocketbook) to test-drive a career you think you’d love … until confronted by the day-to-day reality.

Putting vacationers together with their dream jobs is the mission of a unique company called VocationVacations®. You can choose from one- or two-day-long get-your-hands-dirty introductions to more than 75 unique careers.

Like wine making. Book the VocationVacations Wine Maker Holiday package in Sonoma County and you’ll live in the vacation rental on the property of on the property of the 70-acre Larson Family Winery and spend two days shadowing Tom and Becky Larson.

From April through September, your education will include tramping among the vines to thin leaf clusters, sample leaf tissue and monitor grape pests. From November to May, the focus is on the process of preparing wine for bottling: clarification, cold stabilizing, fermentation, racking, topping barrels, wine blending and clean up, of course.

To help you put things in perspective for your own life, All VocationVacations® include pre- and post-mentoring coaching sessions re: strategy/life/career repercussions.

At $799 for the two days (not including lodging), it’s not cheap. Here’s a recommendation for arm chair voyeurs: tune into “This Job’s a Trip,” premiering Thursday, April 27 (8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific; 7 p.m. Central) on the Travel Channel.  

Or heck, just book the rental, called A Captain’s House. ($350 per night for up to 4; $450 for 5-7 people.)

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“I love Sonoma in the springtime…”  …in the fall? Not so much.

During the fall harvest, Sonoma Valley is teeming with tourists. And it can be hot. Very hot. The vine-covered hillsides are parched yellow. Good restaurants have humbling-ly long waits.  

Which makes off-season trips look pretty darn good. According to Adrien Glover in “Suddenly Sonoma” (Budget Travel Online, Feb. 18, 2005): “Springtime is still considered ‘off season’ but it’s an excellent time to visit. Not only are plum trees, quince, and yellow wild mustard flowers in bloom, you're almost certain to land a good deal at an area hotel. And there’s plenty to do year-round.”

My husband and I spent a wonderful March weekend exploring Kenwood. From our home base at a stylish yet cozy rental, aptly named Kenwood House (look for a full review of this rental right here in the coming weeks), we ventured out to explore nearly deserted tasting rooms. Winemakers aren’t busy at this time of year so you can actually spend time chatting with one.

Because it had been an unusually rainy winter (we had hail and snow during our visit), the landscape was lush green, with Spanish moss dangling from bare branches of valley oak trees. We lingered at the fascinating Bartholomew Park Winery Museum. We enjoyed a delightful hike to the remains of Wolf House in Jack London State Park. We were seated right away at some very good restaurants, including the new Doce Lunas, where there was a guitarist playing at the bar and signature sticky toffee for dessert. At night, we cozied up to the woodstove and watched movies.

Most of my review trips are planned during the off-season. I’m so spoiled, now I won’t go any other time.

HINT: Treat yourself to a trip during the “shoulder” weeks—just before some invisible bell clangs and the high season floodgates open on throngs of tourists. You may never subject yourself to that kind of madness again.

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On a vacation rental owner’s recommendation, I did what I don’t usually think of: took the long way to the Sonoma coast from the forest pocket of Occidental.

To be honest, my natural impulse is to get there the quickest way. Yes, yes, I know, “The road less traveled.” Everybody talks about it. So, why do so few of us literally follow it?

This time I decided to follow Bittner Road away from town, I turned right on Joy Rd. (a good omen, I thought). Then I turned left on Coleman Valley Road.

This two-lane country road must have been an Indian trail or deer path. It had so many curves it forced me to slow down and enjoy the scenery. Coleman Valley Road took its own sweet time, winding through meadows that swept up to pine-ridged hills. I drove under canopies of valley oaks and finally did a freefall to Pacific. (My ears were popping!)

What a treat to turn off the radio during the trip and just listen to the thoughts in my own head. What a luxury to take twice the time getting there. Just because I could. Instead of suburban tracts and retail chains, I met dairy cows, goats, lambs and turkeys in full Thanksgiving fan. And realized that the “small” world” encompassed by a Sonoma Valley farm is larger and more “natural” than the insular suburban world I’m accustomed to.  

At the end, you decide: Turn left to Bodega Bay and right to more beaches,  Jenner and a side trip to Duncans Mills.

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Like fitness, renting a vacation home is a choice you make. One that has the potential to transform your vacation from a visit to a much deeper experience.  

One site that’s been getting a lot of buzz these days promotes a lifestyle concept I love called “slow travel”.

I've never understood the 14 cities in 10 days concept. The site’s founder and webmaster Pauline Kenny recommends renters apply a “Concentric Circles" plan to day-tripping. “Think of your touring area as a series of concentric circles around your base,” she says. The first circle includes everything within a 30-minute radius of your home. The second, an hour, and so on. “See what is close to you instead of dashing about on long day trips to see the ‘highlights’ or ‘must-sees,’" Kenny says.

Kenny has authored a dozen more really helpful articles to guide renters in choosing and booking vacation rentals, planning your trip and what to bring with you when you rent.    

Slow Travel is primarily focused on Europe -- where renting a villa or self-catering cottage has been a tradition for generations. But, hello? The concept applies just as well here in the U.S., even for weekend trips to places like San Francisco and Sonoma County.

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More often than not, the best thing about renting a vacation home is the owners. Here's why.

Most I've met or spoken to are passionate about the home they rent -- and tickled pink that you'll be staying.

Like trusted friends, they'll clue you in on the best restaurants (and probably recommend what to order). Some pamper you with breakfast fixings -- freshly squeezed orange juice, rich coffee beans, homemade scones and a jar of organic jam. Some owners may leave a bottle of local wine. A phone card (if they don't already offer free long distance calling). A disposable camera.

Some invest time detailing step-by-step driving routes or walking tours. Check out this blog compiled by Mary Jane Hutchinson of At The Bay's Edge.

The thing is, I'm always surprised -- and, yes, delighted. I guarantee you won't feel that kind of love staying at a hotel (I don't care how efficient the concierge) or even at many fine B&Bs.

Vacation rental owners are a real treat ... most of the time. Like anything in life, there are exceptions. (One owner chewed me out rather rudely when I called to say the woodstove was smoking.)

My advice: just to be sure, plan to have a short chat (by phone) before you rent.    

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By now “Under the Tuscan Sun” is a cliché. But have you read Frances Mayes’ latest book?

It’s called “A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller”—her memoir of her experiences living in rented apartments and villas in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, and Scotland. She and her husband choose to rent, of course, so they can really immerse themselves in the local culture. Even better that completing “A Year…” actually took five.

Mayes and her husband tried to stay in each country for at least a month. Renting made the difference, “because the minute you’re in your own place, you start relating to your surrounding in an entirely different way then if you‘re in a hotel,” said in a Sacramento Bee article last month. (Downer: You have to register to read the entire article.)

I heartily agree with Mayes: “Having your place is a very big opening into a culture.” Which can easily translate to the "culture" of places like a specific San Francisco neighborhood or a cottage in the Sonoma wine country.     

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“It could definitely ruin a vacation if a rental house was terribly unacceptable. How are we supposed to know which ones are which?”

That concerned post on a Yahoo group for vacation home owners followed another renter’s horror story: dirty sheets, bugs, flooding toilets. More often, the problem lies in different expectations. The place is not as upscale as you thought. The “ocean view” is the size of a postage stamp. The odd layout in one home we rented required my parents to walk through the bedroom my husband and I slept in to get downstairs!

You can complain. You can ask for your money back. But—poof!—there goes your vacation experience.

Vacation rentals are growing in number and popularity—and nobody could be happier about it than a vacation rental evangelist like me. But it amazes me there’s no star system, no apples-for-apples comparison, no “best of” guidebooks (ahem, aside from my own Renting Paradise series, that is).

Part of the problem is that the beauty of vacation rentals—that each one is so unique—can be a bear when it comes to establishing quality standards.

 “We get a lot calls from people asking, ‘How do I know I’ll be getting what I’ think I’m getting?’” says Bill May, executive director of Vacation Rental Owners Association.  Thanks to VROA, there’s finally a blip on the horizon: Blue Ribbon Inspections.

VROA’s process will involve an on-site physical inspection (which is so crucial!) and a series of questions as to the home's outfitting, construction, amenities, cleanliness and owner policies.

May says the inspection process will focus on disclosure and accuracy. Inspectors must clearly differentiate between cabins, homes, lodges and villas. Because each one is as unique as a thumbprint, “owners need to have a lot of information in their advertising and on their web sites.” That means detailed descriptions, quality photos, floor plans and even 360-degree panoramas. Even then it can get dicey. “At million-dollar rental homes on the Carolina coast, guests are expected to bring their own linens,” May says. Guests are welcome to provide feedback on homes they feel are undeserving of the designation. Which may, in turn, lead to adjudication between renters and owners.

Something to keep on eye on. But in the meantime, here’s a list of Renting Tips you can use to evaluate vacation rentals.

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