HomeAway Santa Cruz Beach House Vacation Rental Review

Warm ocean breezes, tranquil sounds of waves crashing, sun-filled days, peaceful California beach neighborhood with a gated private beach, gorgeous, large, luxury beach house with every convenience... who could ask for more?

Renting a beautiful furnished home is one of the best ways to do family vacations and are more affordable than hotels for families (especially for a week), roomier and with a large kitchen that allow one to save on meal costs.

HomeAway.com is the premier vacation home rental company in the United States, (plus world wide with 540,000 HomeAway vacation rentals in 120 countries ) and where we found this stunning Santa Cruz beach house vacation rental.

I talked about family travel in Santa Cruz, California recently and the many modes of travel and lodging that we use as we travel the world as a family. This 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2 year old, 2600 square foot custom-built beach house has a reverse floor plan with ocean views, spectacular large kitchen with viking appliances,and more, so it was a very luxurious and comfortable option that reminded us of the home we sold in Santa Cruz in 2005 before we left on our open ended world tour.

There was everything here that a family could want and much more space than what we needed. Having spent so much time out of the country, we'd forgotten just how BIG everything in America is. After being use to the tiny washing machines in Europe, we were even in awe of the gigantic washer and dryer here that towered over our 10 year old!

This is a perfect vacation home to share with friends and extended family. The comfortable big bedrooms and large, marble bathrooms ( 3 showers and 3 tubs) and expansive indoor and outdoor areas gives everyone privacy, room to connect and also have individual space.

This is our home territory so we know this beach community well and the easy walk down to Capitola, the enchanting oldest beach town in California. One instantly feels like a local in this vacation home and quiet neighborhood. We invited DaVinci's sister and brother-in-law to join us from Fresno for part of the week and they enjoyed the house as much as we did. We also spent time with my family and friends just kicking back, California style and the house, location and gorgeous weather delighted us all. The house sleeps 9 to 11 people so there was plenty of room.

The gated private beach made early morning and sunset walks sublime. Mozart had her best friend over for a sleep over and the reverse family plan allowed them to watch the DVD movies downstairs while the adults enjoyed conversation upstairs. There was excellent internet connection all through the house, so that allowed us to catch up with a little bit of work as well. After a very minor problem dealing with the top of the line door lock ( we didn't know how to work it, but the manager was quick to help) we instantly felt very much at home. There were even books and toys for Mozart and she used their scooter to play on the almost-no-traffic street.

The best part was being able to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures with family and old friends in this warm, inviting home which had everything one could possibly need. Cooking together, eating together, playing games like monopoly, sitting out by the fire in the back, walking on the beaches, enjoying the fireplaces at night, dining al fresco, going to restaurants together, hugging and laughing together...the very best of a relaxing, rewarding vacation

There are many reasons to choose to rent a vacation home rental and I highly recommend the experience as a family and perhaps even better with extended family and friends. We chose to do this in Santa Cruz on our world tour because my mom lives nearby and my step father had stage IV cancer and we wanted to be close, but give them space so as not to burden them in their small house during this crisis. We had not seen them in two years and were so grateful for the quality time together.

Our stay was sponsored by HomeAway and we want to thank them for this truly wonderful experience. The timing and place could not have been more perfect. Little did we know, that both our brother-in-law ( in these pictures) and my step father would soon be taking an ambulance to two different hospitals the following week and my step father would pass away soon after we left ( while we were in Bora Bora).

Lesson learned? Enjoy the time together while you can and a vacation rental can be a fantastic place to do that with the whole family. I will be writing more about our exciting week. Where would you like to go with your family? Have you done a vacation rental?