How many times have you booked hotels while travelling and found the rates too high and every hotel almost the same? After staying in countless hotels, I was intrigued when my sister suggested AirBnB while we were planning a family trip to New York. All the hotels we had looked at were either too expensive or too far away or too shady to stay in. Taking the decision to stay at someone's home was not an easy one especially because we are foreigners in this country. But on my sister's insistence, we went on to the AirBnB website and started to check out this whole new phenomena of staying in people's homes. Finally after a lot of researching, we narrowed down a few choices and sent out queries to all of them, waiting eagerly for someone to accept our request. Pretty soon, we got an invitation to stay at a townhouse in Queens, New York.
And that's how my tryst with AirBnB started.
New York (Queens)
Our first AirBnB experience was at the home of Rayna in Queens, New York. It was a charming townhouse which the hostess told us was almost 90 years old! Although it took us some time to find the apartment, as soon as we stepped inside, we fell in love with the living spaces. Our rooms were on the first floor while Rayna and her family stayed on the ground floor. What we loved most about her home was that it had an unique character. The neighborhood was quiet with lot of greenery, it was a short walk from the subway station and just twenty minutes away from happening Times Square. She had an eclectic and fun mix of furniture and everything was just as promised. We spent three days in New York and we absolutely loved coming back to Rayna's home after a tiring day of sightseeing. We even got to meet our hostess during our trip and she was really lovely to talk to. All in all, our first experience with AirBnB was great and I couldn't wait to try it again!
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| Outside of the townhouse |
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| Inside of the house... |
Smoky Mountains
The next time we used AirBnB was when we were planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains. We wanted to stay right in the heart of the Smokys and we especially wanted to stay in a log cabin. Some research later, we chanced across a beautiful log cabin in Gatlinburg. It even had a magical name 'Moonshine Ridge' and even on the website, it looked beautiful! We reached the Smoky mountains and after a day of roaming around, started towards the cabin. It was a dark, winding road towards Danny's cabin but we finally found it. Though we couldn't explore the outside of the cabin because it was completely dark, the inside of the place simply blew us away! It was a two-floored cabin with beautiful furniture, an electric fireplace and even a pool table which made the boys very happy. The next morning, we started to explore the outsde of our cabin and it was breathtaking. Beautiful trees with gorgeous fall colors enveloped the cabin and the ground was a thick carpet of read, orange and gold. I think staying at that cabin added an extra something to our trip. We had a fun time during the evenings hanging out in the cabin, playing cards and whiling the night away.
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| Pretty... isn't it? |
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| Our beautiful cabin... |
New York (West New York)
When it was time for another family trip to New York, we turned to AirBnB once more. This time we found a place in West New York across the Hudson river. What really sold us was the view that we would be seeing every day... the Manhattan skyline across the river. It was an absolutely gorgeous view and we actually forward to the short bus ride to the city each day because of the view. Though we felt that the apartment could be better, it was adequate for our short stay and we enjoyed hanging out in the cozy living room. Of course every stay comes with different experinces and it is always a treat to stay in someone's home and feel part of their world.
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| All the posing outside our apartment |
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| Manhattan skyline... view from the bus |
Niagara Falls
Our most recent experience with AirBnB was during our trip to the Niagara falls. As I said, every stay has been unique for us. This time, it was just my husband and I so we decided to stay in a shared apartment instead of booking a complete apartment. We were a little worried about who we would be staying with but decided to go for it! We reached our apartment which had the shared areas (like kitchen and living room) on the ground floor and individual bedrooms on the first floor. The bedrooms were themed and had cute names like 'The Blue Room', 'The Yellow Room' etc. The apartment was neat enough and it was an unique experience because we got to meet and chat with other travelers from different countries. There was a lady from Singapore who was traveling across the United States... she told us stories about her travels and how she was enjoying the different cities. There was a Middle Eastern couple who offered us some delicious tea. Even though it was just a two-day trip, we enjoyed interacting with strangers because often when we travel, we get wrapped up in ourselves when one of the great joys of traveling is meeting new people.
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| A collage of our apartment! |
So that wraps up our experience with AirBnB so far and I definitely look forward to the next time we can stay in a stranger's home. It is a lot more fun than staying in cookie-cutter hotels, getting a feel of the local flavor, making breakfast in different kitchens and most importantly... being more than just tourists! The next time you are planning a trip, be sure to check out AirBnB... you will not be disappointed!
