I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but it seems I’ve started a pattern for my blogs: alternating travel and photography. That means, today is a travel blog! I’m excited for this one because I have never stayed in an Airbnb before our trip this summer, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to think about it. We stayed in 3 Airbnb’s while traveling, and 3 hotels. I’m happy to report my positive findings on the matter of Airbnb 🙂

1. Space. It goes without saying that hotels are small. Hotels in Europe, even smaller. Staying in an Airbnb gives you much more room to spread out. Especially when you have a little one. It was very nice for Ainsley to have living spaces to run around in. In some of our homes we even had little gardens for her to play in. It was great to be able to put her to bed in the room and have us adults relax in the living room with a glass of wine. Even though traveling is tiring, I was never ready for Ainsley’s bedtime at 7:30 😉
   
2. Ability to cook your meals. It’s nice to have a place to cook when you’re traveling. Besides the obvious–it’s cheaper, it can be fun to shop at the local markets and make a meal together.
3. Great views. You can find homes or apartments that have take-your-breath-away views. You don’t always get to choose what your view will be in a hotel, or you pay loads more for an “ocean view.” Example, one time when I was in London for work, I stayed in a VERY ritzy hotel, but our view was the brick wall of the building next to us. Quite a bummer. Now take a look at our view from our cottage on the Isle of Skye!
   
4. Washing machine. When you have a washing machine, it means you don’t have to pack as much since you can wash periodically during your trip. It’s a big space saver 🙂
5. Feeling like a local. Okay so this might be a little surfacy, but sometimes it’s nice to feel like a local. Having an apartment right in the city center gave us the feeling we were really a part of said city. It was fun to walk up our steps of our apartment in the evenings after a day on the town.

The only downside I could think of was not having a concierge, but the way around that is to ask your host all of your questions. And if you’re lucky, normally a host will have loads of resources for you of local activities or good food recommendations. One of our places even had a bottle of local wine on our table when we arrived 🙂

Have you stayed in an Airbnb before? What are your thoughts? Leave any questions you may have below, and I’d be happy to answer them 🙂