Vacation Beach House Rentals- Any Tips or What Not to Do's?

[Max Fischer]

For some reason I think it would be fun to get my family together and rent a beach house in San Diego for vacation this August. I have never done this before, and I was looking to my veteran vacation/travel experts here at MC.

Most of us will be driving in from Phoenix, and I think we will stay for three days, just to see what it's like, rather then commit to a week, and then have everyone be cranky.

Any suggestions, tips, etc. on how do do a vacation like this correctly?

[MAXandBELLESmom]

i think you need to book early, most short term rentals get filled pretty quick. i live in san diego and we did a week rental at the beach when i was a kid, it was a whole lot of fun! but i do remember hearing my mom say she booked really far ahead of time. signonsandiego.com (the local paper) has classifieds for rentals if you need it, enjoy!
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[Max Fischer]

Thanks, I appreciate the info. Last time I was in San Diego I saw some beautiful homes for rent but I forgot to write down the name of the site.

[aimster]

Don't glue the furniture to the ceiling.

[mistyisjafo]

There is a great website that I used called www.beachhouse.com. You'll need to schedule EARLY, these things go fast especially during summer and can get quite pricy.

I also suggest staying down on Pebble Beach. Very nice area.

[Olympicnut]

My family rents an on the beach condo at Carpinteria every year in August and has since the mid 1960's. We have to re-new when we check out the previous year so it might be kinda difficult to find something this late in the year. BUT you might be able to put your name on a waitlist at some places. They might ask for a deposit however.

I think you can check out local real estate offices for the city where you want to rent at too. Might be some info on the web if you type in the citys name and real estate offices, or "beach rentals" or something like that.

In our condo its my mom and I that share a room (since I'm the single gay child - lol) and my sister and her husband in the other and we split the rental costs 3 ways. My sister makes a big Costco run for essentials (snacks, booze, sodas, t.p., etc) and we split those costs. Pretty much we split the costs of everything.

There's usually around 4 other condos rented to other family members so lately we have been having one condo make a dinner one night of the week and then eat out the rest. Like one condo will make tacos one night, another spaghetti another night, etc.

Anyway, thats how we do it.