Airbnb: Our New Way of Traveling

Oh goodness we love to travel.

Although, back in 1999 when my husband and I started dating, I had barely left our hometown.

Now… you can’t keep me home. Well, I guess that’s a lie. I do love being a home body, but you can always bet that I’m at least planning our next trip – like to New York to see all of the bucket list items, or Boca Grande Florida for vacation.

Within the last year, we’ve found a new way to travel & after a few test-runs, I feel safe recommending it to all of my fellow travel lovers out there.

Airbnb

Our very sleek & modern Airbnb this time was beyond perfect for what we needed…

So what is Airbnb?

Well, their website says it best…

Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone or tablet.

Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions

A castle for a week? I would KILL for a chance to experience that.

But for now… we’ve only stayed in apartments & condos. Houses soon to come I’m sure.

This time around, we stayed in an Airbnb on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. We were just a short Uber ride from the Magnificent Mile & Navy Pier.

We chose a 2 bedroom Airbnb, because we were traveling with others, which helped save on costs too!

Staying in an Airbnb rather than a hotel, we were also able to have a washer/dryer, refrigerator {to store that left over Chicago Style Pizza that we ordered late at night}, and we had a living area to relax in with our friends, after a day of shopping.

The view from the balcony of our apartment was incredible.

In our experience of staying in Airbnb’s, the host has been extremely great to work with, and you get a much more personal level of service than a hotel would provide. The only part I do miss, is the room service. 😉

Quite possibly the funniest moment of the trip, was searching for the wireless router, and seeing the nearby available networks that I could join:

What’s a Girl to do in Chicago?

While her husband is in meetings all day?

Well of course I went to Starbucks, and bought this precious little coffee mug…

Went to Navy Pier with my hubby for a quick bite to eat between work meetings.

Went to China Town & had quite possibly the BEST Chinese food I’ve ever stuffed myself with.

and of course… went to the Kate Spade store, to search for a new dress for a conference that I’m speaking at on Party Styling. 😉

I was a bit excited…

I found my dress…

and about 15 million other special little finds that I had to resist from tossing over my arm.

Life was hard that day. Starbucks, Kate Spade, & lunch cocktails. I don’t even know what kind of flower that is in my cocktail on the right, but it was delightful.

A photo recap of my day in the big city, with my shoppin’ bags. I was on cloud 9.

That night we did a little cocktail hour with business clients, and finished off dinner at Gibson’s Steakhouse. Chicago has a crazy amount of “must-go-to,” restaurants. I wish so badly we had more time to get to them all.