We’re considering a trip to Cali – Santa Cruz neck of the woods. We were hoping to rent a self catering house but there just doesn’t seem to be anything online that isn’t horrifically expensive. Are holiday homes not a “thing” in the states?

Any ideas welcome.

there’s a shitload of rental stuff down the coast in the touristy areas – Newport, for example, so I can’t believe there aren’t any. I’ve no idea how to look for them though.

hang on, try something like this

There are quite a few but they won’t be cheap on the coast. We’ve been a few times and always booked places through Vrbo.com or homeaway worth looking at air bnb too.

Also bear in mind Santa Cruz isn’t quite as warm as you might be imagining. It’s always a few degrees colder and foggier than SoCal. SC is a cool surf town though and has a beautiful coastline.

Did you try Airbnb?

California is a rich state in a wealthy country, its not like Europe 😉

Things may have changed with Air B&B but self catering isn’t so popular, more motel plus eating out or full service hotels. “Self catering” US style is an RV

Air bnb is massively popular out there Jamby they are trying very hard to restrict it due to an actual lack of housing for those that live there forcing rents up as air bnb pays so well. Also people everywhere now seem to be aiming for commercial prices with air bnb – same as eBay with the must be a bargain mentality. I found us accommodation a bit tricky on price. You might need to find some more websites to search or bite the bullet on price (just factor in a pound slide too)

http://www.taxrates.com/state-rates/california/
Also don’t foget to factor in “up to” 10% on top of all the prices for the sales tax.

California is a rich state in a wealthy country, its not like Europe

California is a Rich state in a Wealthy country with a serious revenue problem as a large number of it’s residents are undocumented illegal immigrants working and unable to pay tax (they would love to) so Cali has raised it’s taxation levels on what they can collect on which is pushing out big business to places like Utah which has a lot of nice white folks paying taxes so can offer cut price corporate taxes. (short version)

Holiday rentals are definitely a ‘thing’ in the US. What you are forgetting is that most Americans only get 10 days holiday per year, so they spend big when it comes to time off. They also tend to have big family get-togethers so rentals tend to be larger units, but with more people able to pay for it, that pushes prices up. Over summer, but particularly over public holidays, it will be expensive. Prices usually drop off after the first week of September (Labour Day). I think Monterey is cheaper than Santa Cruz and fab for ocean wildlife, short drive to Bug Sur forests.

Have you tried Seascape?

Summer is outrageously expensive here, so i wouldn’t bet on finding a bargain.

It is beautifully warm here today though 🙂

Airbnb worked out fine for us in California.

About in line with what I would have expected to pay based on the cost of motels -less some for the fact it’s not a hotel.

Remember in many places you want to visit property prices are actually astronomical.

Thanks all

I found a place through HomeAway. It was fairly pricey but pretty nice.

I wonder though if Santa Cruz might be a bit of an odd place to go looking for somewhere to stay; maybe it’s me, but there’s not a lot going on there for tourists (unless joining all the commuters on I17 is what you’re wanting).

As above, Monterey would be a much better bet, and there were also some great/cheap looking places for rent further inland around Salinas (though possibly not much to do there once the novelty value of being in a John Steinbeck novel has worn off).