Now that you’ve figured out where you want to go, you need to figure out when to go, how long to stay and then find your nest. We avoid travelling in the summertime. It’s peak season and everything is more expensive and more crowded. In Europe, many countries simply shut down in August while everyone goes on vacation. We like being home for the holidays, so we generally won’t travel between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is also usually peak season for pricing accommodations. If you can travel during off-peak times, you can usually negotiate a lower rate for your rental flat in a long-term rental. This is because the landlord knows that he or she will have a guaranteed income during the entire slow season and will be happier to work with you. The off-peak travel times vary due to location, but usually they are in early spring and late fall, so that’s when we tend to plan our travel.
However, climate is an important consideration. Check out temperatures and rainy seasons. Some destinations are clearly better in the spring or in the fall. When we go to Poland this fall, we will be breaking a few of our own rules because Polish winters can be brutal. Therefore, we’re going mid August, to get us home by mid November. If you want to add on a hike or a trip to another city on your way there or back, that could be a factor in choosing your times, too. We hiked Hadrian’s Wall in England before we went to York, and late summer/early fall seemed the best time for hiking, so that set our time in York for after the hike. We are planning to go to Barcelona, Spain in spring, 2018 and want to take a month to hike parts of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in northern Spain, so we’ll go to Barcelona in mid-March and stay there two months so that we have mid-May to mid-June to hike. Maybe you’re a bird-watcher or want to time your trip for a specific festival, or maybe there’s a special event you don’t want to miss at your home base. All these are factors. It’s also helpful to be somewhat flexible in your dates when booking a flat, so keep that in mind.
The longest you can live in most countries with a U.S. tourist visa is three months, although there are a few places (like Panama) where you can stay longer. You can often leave the country for a few days and then return to the same place if you really want to, but we’ve decided that for us, three months is a good length of time. It’s long enough to meet people in the community and to get a real flavor of the place, which is the entire idea. If you want to add a stop before your nest or afterwards, you need to factor that time into your three months, of course. If we’re going to do an extra stop, (such as our week in Rome before we went to Florence) we like tacking it on in the beginning or the end so that we’re not paying for the nesting flat while we’re in another spot.
Each location is different, but for us, we’ve found that we like to live within a city. Our home in Charlottesville is a more country setting, so city life is a nice change for us. It’s also nice not to have to drive everywhere in unfamiliar areas and we enjoy walking to the sights. Many places we’re considering have good train connections so if we are in a city near to the train station, it’s easy to tour other towns by train. We’ve always been able to get by without a car, only renting one for day trips when we want to go places not served by trains or public transportation. The downside of city living is that it is usually more expensive, it can be noisy, and there is often no parking if you do have a car.
Once you’ve chosen your location and the time and length you’ll be there, you then need to figure out in which part of the city you want to stay. At this point, I’d recommend investing in several guide books for your target location. Lonely Planet is a great one for this stage, although more important than the series is the date when it was written. A guide book that was written five years ago is often hopelessly out of date! Get several. It’s good to have more than one opinion, and in the grand scheme of things, guidebooks are cheap. I also start researching on line. Find out where the sights are where you’d like to spend time. Will you need a car? How is public transportation? Is it reliable and what residential areas are served? What areas might have problems with crime? Where are grocery stores? Where is the train station? What areas do your sources say are the “real” parts of the city?
We’ve generally avoided the very centers of the tourist areas for several reasons. First off, they are usually the most expensive accommodations you can find for a short term rental. Secondly, because it’s often the area with entertainment, nightclubs and bars, it can be noisy at night, making it difficult to sleep. Thirdly, as our goal is to learn what it is like to actually live in each location, we believe we can best do that by living in a more residential area. Therefore, we look for a safe residential area that is walkable to the city center or is conveniently served by public transportation. We feel safer in a better residential area, and after the city center, that is also where the most short term rentals will be available.
We’ve used HomeAway and AirBnB to begin our search for long term rentals. HomeAway is generally
better for Europe and AirBnB is better for the Americas. Another, newer site that is doing the same thing is Roomarama, which is sometimes cheaper than AirBnb and HomeAway. They are good places to get an idea of the cost, the locations that are generally available, and the services and fees that are usual for the area, as these change from place to place. For example, in York, England, there were no fees at all above the stated rate, and weekly cleaning was included. In Florence, Italy, there is often a nightly fee per person added above the quoted rate, and most places also charge utilities. Be very careful about the fees. Many places add per person charges, taxes, cleaning fees, large deposits and charge for all your utilities, especially if their advertised price is too good to be true. Also be careful about the room descriptions. Sometimes a living room with a bed or pull out sofa will be counted as a bedroom. You can often tell if this is the case from the photos. If you find places that look as though they will work for you, MESSAGE more than one of them. I’ve heard people say they message up to thirty possibilities – I’ve usually contacted four or five. Make sure that you message them; do NOT hit the button requesting to book! Tell them your approximate dates, describe yourself briefly, and ask for the best possible all-inclusive price for the time period that you will be there. This is the paragraph we use for inquiries:
Hello! We are an American couple in our late fifties, non-smoking, who would be very respectful of your apartment. We are landlords ourselves. We are researching apartments to stay in (city) for three months in the spring (fall).
Could you tell us the full price that we would pay for three months, including all fees and taxes? We could be a little flexible on dates. Also, because we would be there for 3 months, is there any possible discount for a long term stay? Thank you!
Some people will not be willing to negotiate, but we have gotten as much as a 25% discount by asking. If you find more than one flat that would meet your needs, you have the ability to accept the best offer. If they offer parking and you will not need it, you can let them know and ask if that could affect the price. You could offer to clean the apartment yourself if cleaning is included. Let them know that you regularly write detailed positive reviews, especially if their apartment isn’t heavily reviewed – reviews are very valuable for the owners. Don’t be shy negotiating – this is the part of the process where you can save the most money. If they won’t negotiate, move on. There are plenty who will work with you, especially if you are interested in off-peak times to rent. Note though, that while negotiating is very effective for a long term stay, it rarely works for a stay a week long or under, unless it’s very last minute.
There are other sites that are useful, too. One of the best is Tripping, which is like a clearinghouse for apartments for rent short term in any given city. It takes information from multiple sites and puts them all in one place so that you don’t have to go searching through lots of different sites. Sometimes the same apartment will be listed for different prices on different sites, so you can also see which site is best to book through.
Because you have an empty home while you nest, you may consider house swapping. Facebook has a page especially for digital nomad types with a home who want to swap locations. You may just find a wonderful home there!
However, the best way to find a flat is through personal connections. Our apartment in Bocas del Toro was through connections we had made when we visited ten years previously. I f you know someone who lives in or near your destination, ask them if they can recommend a local company that handles rentals or if they know of a place that you could stay. Local companies will almost always be less expensive than HomeAway or AirB&B. You may be able to make a connection with someone on Expatexchange.com who could help you. As we’ve traveled, we’ve also met people with vacation homes or connections in other places we’d like to visit, and we expect that we will be able to use these connections eventually. Just don’t be shy asking and let people know that you are open to travel and working around their schedule.