I've always thought of using Air Bnb cause it's a much better alternative to staying in costly hotels, especially if you're in a big group! If you think about it, an average room cost about $300 per night for 2 people so if there's 6 of you (as in the case of my family) it's $900 per night. That's just insanely costly if you're travelling as a family cause your parents will be the ones paying it all. And so we opted for Air Bnb instead as it seemed like the best option.
What's the best part of using Air Bnb is that you get to experience the country/state you're living at as a local. As Australia was our destination, we really wanted to have a fully equipped kitchen so as to cook dinners and make breakfasts. Aussie is the land of dairy and so most of their groceries are cheaper which makes grocery shopping really fun as well! So to be able to cook our own meals provide us with the opportunity to do quite a bit of grocery shopping, living the Aussie way of life!
I've decided to start an Air Bnb series for my Aussie trip to share with you guys all the benefits and troubles we faced using Air Bnb. Not a lot of troubles per say but we did have hiccups here and there. Oh and mostly, to share with you guys photos of all the houses we stayed at and how we spent our night! Especially since shops close at around 5.30pm, night life was well, pretty dull but we made it work nonetheless!
So to start this series off, here's a review on our Gold Coast Villa.
Upon arriving, we were greeted by our host, Kerri-Lea who happens to stay right next to us. Our houses are basically side by side which made things a lot easier. Especially since this was our first experience with an Air Bnb house and we didn't really know what to expect. She greeted us with her adorable daughter Jenny.
And here's the stunning view that we enjoyed for the 2 nights we spent there.
A private pool facing over 10 acres of land. Whaaaaaat? Someone please never wake me up from this dream.
And here are a few more photos of what's outside our house.
We could see the horses that Kerri-Lea owned as well and we couldn't resist but take a dip in the pool even though it was 20 degrees that day. Nothing is going to stop us from swimming with such a splendid view!
Presenting to you, Jirra! Jirra is the friendliest dog you'll ever meet. She actually ran outside to us when our car arrived and decided to just roll over, hinting to us for a belly rub. Belly rubs eventually became a thing cause she did it everytime she saw us haha! A really adorable dog that I'm sure you'll fall in love with, just like me, if you see her in real life.
We had sarongs and towels to wrap ourselves in as well.
Because the weather was quite cold, we swam for around 20 minutes and decided to run over to the hot tub. Yes you read it correctly, we had a hot tub all to ourselves. *inserts some muahaha evil laughter*
The hot tub eventually became our best friend and we jumped into it at every opportunity we had. Hey it's not everyday that you get to use a hot tub and just drink beer and live life like you have a million bucks. Rifdi will definitely say yes to a hot tub and beer whatever the time of the day (he used it at night as well and so did we).
And just as I have mentioned at the start of this post, cooking is definitely on the list of 'to-do-things' in our apartment. We had a patio with a counter, grill, sofas, wine glasses etc. That made outdoor dining a lot of fun, especially since there's pretty much nothing to do at night! Easily spent an hour playing cards while our dad grilled some food for us.
Nights pretty much looked like this.
I just have to mention this as well but their TV at the patio can be connected to your electronic gadgets such as Ipad, Macbook etc. That means that you can watch your downloaded movies on the TV which is great for family nights!
Oh and don't worry about feeling chilly cause you also have a outdoor fireplace which you can use to roast marshmallows (are you kidding me). Kerri-Lea kindly helped start a fire for us on our second night cause she knows that we don't have such things in Singapore and wanted us to feel all warm and cuddly during our stay.
Lying on the cushions with Jirra was the bomb. Kept me all warm and definitely an 'awww I don't ever want to leave here' kind of moment.
Okay, enough about the exterior of the house. Time to talk about the house itself.
Our house had 2 levels and the top pretty much is an attic with 6 beds which accommodates up to 10 people. Initially we were a little worried about all of us staying in a room together cause you know, boundaries, but it was perfectly fine due to the layout of the beds! We actually couldn't see each other when we sleep cause there were dividers and some of the beds were tucked in the corner.
On the first level, we had a washroom, kitchen, living area. Oh! And a foosball table.
Nothing super wow about the interior but it definitely felt homely and cosy.
And on our last day, we discovered their backyard.
And their pretty flowers.
And their ranch.
And Miss Bo Jangles, Ah Dudley and Dixie Butterfly.
These photos made the game of spot-the-horse-poop-and-jump-over-it all worth it.
Being able to come up close to these horses made me super, duper happy. I've always loved animals and I kept telling my mum that we needed to visit a farm/zoo/anything with animals when we were in Aussie. Little did I know that right at our backyard, we'd be able to play with these horses without having to squeeze with the crowd. We literally had all these horses and the 10 acres of land all to ourselves for free. Well I mean we paid for the house but we had unlimited access to the horsies so all's good.
We also had a huge ass trampoline which I didn't take a photo of cause I was too happy jumping on it. It's my first time on a trampoline and you have no idea how tiring it is to jump around. Like you think running is bad, wait till you jump on a trampoline and can't stop cause it's so bouncy. Ended up playing games with my siblings on the trampoline cause it was so big, it could fit all of us.
Overall, a wonderful experience with Air Bnb and this is actually my favourite house out of all the houses we stayed. The only little problem we had was that there was only 1 washroom which made getting ready a lot longer but it's just a tiny hiccup and works out fine if you tell your family what time you're waking up to use the toiler. That way, there's no waiting around and the horrible feeling of 'omg, I should have set a later alarm cause someone is still in the toilet'.
So that's it for my Gold Coast Air Bnb experience and lmk if you have any questions about using Air Bnb!
"Once people come to Australia, they join the team."
Tony Abbott
No comments:
Post a Comment