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:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RUAM RUDEE RESIDENCE ON HOMEAWAY

Use the code HomeAwayHanie on your next booking to receive discounts

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