Ever since I started traveling on my own, I’ve always loved to
experience localized things. From walking in alleys of a foreign city in the
hunt for food, shopping at a local grocers down to our stay – we hardly stay in
hotels anymore unless needed. There’s just something about living in a home
that makes me feel like I’m truly experiencing the local lifestyle. Plus, it’s
always a great idea to stay in a local home especially if you’re traveling in a
group. I’ve recently traveled to Bangkok where I tried HomeAway to look for listings of
local homes. As I was traveling in a group, it was easy to find beautiful,
clean (and instagrammable) houses for my friends and I to stay in for a week.
The holiday home concept isn’t entirely new, but the trend of
staying in a holiday home instead of a hotel has definitely been growing
rapidly in the recent years, especially with the rise of Instagram. Most people
look for holiday homes, that are not only cosy, but also beautiful to photograph.
Holiday homes started with just cabins and cottages but now it has expanded to
swanky modern apartments, custom-built houses and available in cities as well
as rural areas. Homeaway offers
holiday home options where you can choose according to your destination,
duration, number of occupants and budget. This also allows you to have privacy
in the comfort of a home-like space unlike being in a hotel with so many
strangers.
Ruam Rudee Residence,
located at the heart of Phloen Chit, Bangkok is one of the most beautiful
landed properties we’ve come across that is available for any registered
members of HomeAway to stay in.
Spanning up to three floors, there are enough rooms for a party of six to sleep
in comfortably, not to mention the large living spaces available for us to
spend our time in if we decide to stay indoors. Best part? We had a bathroom in
each room so we don’t even have to fight for our bath times (which does happen!
especially when you’re staying with a bunch of girls). The beds are super
comfortable and I found myself dozing off easily each time, only to wake up to
a full 8 hours of needed sleep after all that walking and eating around
Bangkok.
It’s easy to cook any meal with a fully equipped kitchen such as the
one in Ruam Rudee Residence. I
could also make a full-blown breakfast spread here with the food that the
listing manager supplied us with or just take a walk down the road and in less
than 5 minutes - I’d be shopping at the cold cut aisle in the neighbourhood’s
7-11 convenience store. There are even local street food stalls that would be
open in the mornings where I could get my hands on Thai fried chicken with sticky rice. It
couldn’t have been more perfect to start a day in beautiful Thailand with. Did
I mention that there’s two massage parlors just a few doors down and a row of
restaurants, cafés and bars within walking distance? The clear winning factor
for this listing would also be the fact that it’s less than 10 minutes away
from the Phloen Chit BTS station, which made our trip even better as we skipped
the traffic and hopped onto the train whenever we needed to.
I’ve always been a firm believer that people bond well together over
food as well as cooking and eating together. Even for my husband and I, we look
forward to grocery store visits whenever we’re traveling – you don’t just learn
more about the local products and eating habits, you also get to sample that
lifestyle when you get to invite new friends over or be invited to their homes
for a nice local home-cooked meal. With HomeAway, it’s possible to
experience this!
The house has so many areas for us to spend our time in, from having
our meals in the dining room to having a coffee break at the outdoor parcel. We
spent our nights recapping our days and chat about everything as a group, which
was a nice thing to do especially when we spent our day separately. Here we
shared our journey, stories and experiences with each other until bedtime. It
was a perfect bonding spot for us as a group of friends.
One of the best parts about this listing is the games room – this is
where people traveling with families can spend their time in after touring the
city, catching up over some snacks, drinks and games. There’s a foosball table,
some board and card games and even yoga mats were provided for me to be able to
do some basic yoga practices before leaving the house and start my day.
There were even snacks and drinks provided by the homeowner for us,
in case if we decide to stay in and enjoy the facilities indoors. How
thoughtful! We did not manage to have some drinks but the snacks were my best
friends on one of the nights where we spent indoors due to the infamous Bangkok
rain and the streets were flooding.
Having an entire space to our own while traveling is pretty
important to me, it doesn’t just allow me
some freedom to spend time however I want at my own pace, it’s also great for
group travels as we can spend our times separately throughout the day and meet
at the end of the day over snacks or drinks to share our stories and
experiences as we were not separated in hotel rooms and let’s admit it, sitting
at the lobby to chat is kinda weird.
This is where HomeAway comes in, providing a beautiful and
comfortable abode while you’re away from your home anywhere around the world,
for every occasion and reason. Check out their listings by clicking on the
links below:
Use
the code HomeAwayHanie on your next
booking to receive discounts
