Home (Away) for the Holidays: Five things to do from our front door

December 31, 2010 By

Taking in the view from our backyard

As you know, we loved our HomeAway vacation rental in South Tahoe. Not only is this house idyllic, comfortable, and convenient, but it sits right in the midst of Eldorado National Forest, providing acres of wilderness to explore right from the front door.

It’s not in a neighborhood of multi-million dollar mansions lining Lake Tahoe, for which we couldn’t have been happier. Instead, it’s located just minutes from Echo Summit, fifteen mountain road miles from the city. Most of the neighboring homes consist of summer cabins closed up for the season, the snowy roads free of traffic and completely peaceful. In all directions, we could find pristine snow and beautiful pine woods. We certainly weren’t lacking for entertainment, however!

Five things to do five minutes or less from our vacation home’s front door:

1. Build a snow fort! Kids become quite industrious when faced with 3-4 feet of Sierra powder to play in! This one took over an hour to build, but not once did anyone complain of boredom, cold, hunger, or any of the other usual maladies parents dread. Best of all, it stayed up for days!

Toby sets out from our back door!

2. Go snowshoeing! When you stay in a house abutting the wilderness, there’s no long drive, no hassle, and no extra planning: we literally put on our snowshoes at the bottom of our porch and set off into the backyard. Right down the road, we found a mountain meadow of pristine snow, which the kids immediately filled with snow angels. Visitors can rent snowshoes from a local outfitter, or from nearby Sierra-at-Tahoe (for use on their three miles of groomed snowshoe trails).

3. Ski for the day! We timed it: Sierra at Tahoe ski resort is four minutes away by car (probably one minute as the crow flies!). We have so much to say about this truly family-friendly ski resort that it deserves its own article; with the perfect combination of easy to difficult terrain, the affordable prices, and the added touches for kids, this is the perfect ski resort to have in your ‘backyard’.

4. Sled or tube! Sierra at Tahoe features a great tubing hill for young children (and it’s located on the other side of the resort from the busy ski center), and three miles from our vacation home is Adventure Mountain, a groomed sledding and snow playground right on Hwy 50. We also grabbed our sleds and played just feet from the house on the powdery slopes above the meadow!

5. Warm up by the fireside! Grab some hot cocoa, curl up by the beautiful fireplace, and play a board game together as a family (bring your own or borrow one from the selection already here). Or let everyone relax by watching a movie. With TVs and high speed internet (I was glad to be able to work seamlessly while on vacation), ‘down time’ is easy. If you want a treat, try what we call a ‘Mountain Snow Cone’: grab a cup of fresh snow, add maple syrup and a dash of milk, stir, and enjoy!

A note on dining: One of our favorite things about renting a vacation home from HomeAway is the ability to cook and dine at home instead of eat out. We just find it more restful (and affordable) with three kids who are always tired out by the day’s activities. During our stay, we only visited one restaurant (besides the dining venues at Sierra at Tahoe ski resort), and it was excellent. It’s called Freshies, and it’s a local Hawaiian fusion favorite. Don’t let the tucked away strip mall location deter you! (3330 Lake Tahoe Blvd.) If you do decide to eat out regularly, South Tahoe has just about any cuisine you could ask for (approximately 15-20 minutes from the house).

For summer vacationers, note that the trailhead for the Desolation Wilderness area is steps from our vacation home’s door, as well!

If you’re interested in the experience we had, the home we rented can be found here at HomeAway. As stated previously, HomeAway generously hosted us during this portion of our Tahoe Holiday. This compensation came with no expectation of a positive review. Read all our articles in our Home (Away) for the Holidays series!

Related articles

Home (Away) for the Holidays: Introducing an Alternative to Hotels

November 4, 2010 By

Halloween is over, and for me and my family, that means one thing: the holiday travel season is upon us! Instead of staying home for the holidays, the Pit Stops family is excited to be reviewing >this beautiful HomeAway property near Lake Tahoe, CA during the week of Christmas, and can’t wait to share the experience with Pit Stops for Kids readers!

Does your family travel for the holidays? If so, where do you stay? With extended family, sharing a guest room or the living room couch? In a hotel room, cramped for space? I’ve done both, and needless-to-say, I’m looking forward to trying something different in vacation rental site HomeAway. I recommend checking it out if you, too, plan to travel this holiday season (or any time at all!).

Why rent a home for holiday travel?

It can be cheaper. Whether you find yourself on the road to visit family this holiday season or to get away from it all, you’ll probably want to stay in one location more than a day or so. Vacation homes are ideal for multi-night and weekly stays. I always look for one because my family of five usually requires two hotel rooms per night. Two rooms x seven nights = a hefty hotel charge on our hands! In contrast, most HomeAway rental properties rent weekly for less. And don’t forget about the cost of eating meals out: the price of your weekly rental property includes the built-in money-saver of your own kitchen!

It’s more relaxing. Cramped hotel rooms mean more noise, more kids underfoot (ok, the kids don’t multiply, but it sure feels like it!), and less sleep for everyone at night. In a rental property, we can spread out, cook our own food (or at least pour our own cereal…a savings in itself), do our own laundry, sleep in separate bedrooms…you get the idea. It’s more like home. And there’s a lot less of ‘get off of that!’, ‘stop that right this minute!’ and ‘So-in-so’s hogging the bathroom!’.

You’re given personalized attention. Forget a concierge. HomeAway rental properties offer something better: independent owners who know their properties (and locations) inside and out (quite literally). In the process of reserving my HomeAway property, I was put in immediate contact with the property owner, who was (and continues to be) an invaluable resource for me as I plan our vacation. She knows the community, the best local restaurants, and the most popular activities for kids. She’s been able to explain not only the trash pick-up schedule and how to work the thermostat, but where we should plan to ski and which local holiday celebrations are not to be missed.

You’re in good hands. HomeAway is the world leader of vacation home rentals, and with more than 425,000 rentals offered in 120 countries, travelers are bound to find an ideal property almost anywhere. In addition, by renting through HomeAway, you have the option of signing up for their first-of-its-kind Carefree Rental Guarantee, which provides up to $10,000 of payment protection.

Find Vacation Rental Deals!

Stay tuned for our next Home (Away) for the Holidays segment and details on our HomeAway vacation rental experience this holiday season!

Packing for a Family: Tips and Tricks to Ease the Load

September 9, 2010 By

Packing for family vacation is not for amateurs!

Packing for an entire family can be daunting (not to mention time consuming). First there’s the pre-trip laundry, sorting, and folding. Then there’s the piling of bags in the car or airport security drop-off. And even after that, there’s all the time wasted digging through suitcases trying to find that toothbrush or pair of shoes or jacket you just know is in there…somewhere.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve probably lost years of my life in this manner while packing for a family of five. I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two in the process, however. The following are my favorite tricks and tips I’ve discovered the hard way:

Pack an extra bag. It seems counter-productive to pack an extra duffel or pack when you can barely fit everything in as it is, but every natural law of travel dictates that what goes in will not fit back in at the end of your trip. Why? We organize less, fold less, and buy more as our vacation proceeds. Folding an extra tote or duffel in your luggage ensures you have a little more wiggle room (although admittedly more to carry, too) on your return trip. I’ve noticed that CSN Stores has many packable bag options on their site (with stores selling everything from modern bedding to outdoor furniture), one of which I’ll be reviewing here next week.

Keep important stuff accessible. When we road trip, one of our mesh laundry bags does double-duty as a stuff sack for everyone’s jackets and shoes. When they peel and kick them off upon entering the car for a long stretch of road, in the bag they go, stored on the top of the suitcases so as to be easily retrieved when we make a pit stop. Likewise, when we’re flying, those pesky quart-sized baggies stay at the very top of our carry-ons until we’re through security.

Organize clothes by outfit. To make getting out of your hotel room every morning a breeze, consider packing by outfit, grouping each kid’s shirt, pants, underclothes, and socks for each day and placing them in large zip-lock plastic bags or recycled clothing store bags. (This works best for very small children, whose clothes still easily fit in a gallon-sized zip-lock bag.) In the mornings, skip digging around in everyone’s suitcase for a complete outfit and just toss each child the bag labeled with that day’s date. Not only will you save room, but clothes stay cleaner. Plus, you can always find a use for the used plastic bags while traveling.

Pack designated laundry bags and use them. Large mesh laundry bags are less than $5 at most stores and worth their weight in gold. Not only do we use ours for storing bulky items like jackets or towels, but we hang one on the bathroom door handle of every hotel room as a portable hamper. Once you have more dirty clothes than clean, simply designate one suitcase for laundry storage and transfer clean clothes to another suitcase. The best part of this plan: the ease of unpacking when you can toss full suitcases of clothes straight into the washing machine once you’re home.

Think outside the box (or toiletry kit). If you plan to stay in one place for a week or more (think home rentals or Disney especially), skip the individual toiletry kits and bring a portable shoe organizer. Yes, you read that right! (The type that hangs from the back of a closet door.) Place bathroom essentials and beauty accessories in the plastic or mesh pockets, and hang the whole unit on the bathroom door. You save valuable counter space, and everyone can find their toothbrushes, medications, and shaving cream easily. (This tip is a must if you have little girls with tons of hair accessories!)

Do you have a tried and true packing tip? Share it with Pit Stops for Kids readers in the comment section below!