West Coast Villa

When John and Wendy decided to take a trip to San Francisco this year with their extended family, they needed to find accommodations for 15 people. They started looking at hotels in San Francisco and a typical hotel was between $150-$300 per night plus the cost of parking! They needed to rent five hotel rooms at an average price of close to $1000 per night and up to $1500 per night. They thought, “who takes vacations like this in a down economy?”

So they looked at San Francisco condos, and San Francisco houses and realized that they could still have their vacation by renting a vacation house. Vacations rentals by owners was a new world to them, but they did their research and this is what they found.

They dropped the idea of a beach property because they learned that the beaches in San Francisco are not safe for children. Then the condos in the City were too small to rent. They looked at bed and breakfast homes, but quickly realized that these properties catered to couples, not to families.

More determined than ever, they checked vacation rental houses, holiday rentals, homes for rent, houses for rent and vacation homes. Well, they asked good questions, like is there any parking? In San Francisco? Are you kidding? One homeowner said, yes there’s parking, only after 6 p.m. and only if you get it before all the neighbors. Otherwise, most people park two or three blocks away and walk to the home…at night…up the steep streets of San Francisco. Okay, that’s not going to work for Grandpa and Grandma, is it?

There were lots of vacation rental homes in San Francisco, but they couldn’t find a big enough house for all the family and they learned that many of the vacation rental homes were actually part of an old Victorian house on the top floor, up three flights of stairs. John and Wendy wanted a vacation, not an exercise routine!

Good friends, Mark and Sue, told them about West Coast Villa, the largest San Francisco Bay Area Vacation Rental home. They told John and Wendy that West Coast Villa I has accommodations for up to 17 guests and if they really wanted to splurge, they could rent the whole property and sleep up to 23. I think Mark and Sue were hinting that they wanted to join them for their family reunion.

So John sat down with Wendy and started comparing what West Coast Villa has to offer compared to every other rental property. Parking? Free! But only enough for 25 cars! Oh that will do.

What about easy freeway access? The I-580 is just three blocks away.

What about groceries? That’s even closer – just two blocks away is PW Market (a local grocery chain). And Safeway and Lucky and Trader Joes are all close by.

What about Starbucks? Silly question. Doesn’t Starbucks have stores within their own stores? Oh not yet? Yes, of course we have several.

How safe is the neighborhood? Well, let’s just say neighbors still walk their dogs at night, all the neighbors know each other and look out for one another.

Is it a residential neighborhood? Yes, unlike many San Francisco properties that are located above stores, or crowded into row houses, West Coast Villa is a stand alone home that sits on a one third acre lot in an upscale residential community.

What about the home itself? Well they learned that West Coast Villa is a modern home with all the amenities one could desire.

What about sleeping arrangements? West Coast Villa I features 5 massive bedrooms with sleeping for up to 17.

But John and Wendy had read that many vacation rental homes say they sleep a lot of people, but what they really mean is that they have futons, hide-a-beds, and camping mattresses. Mark and Sue assured them that they found none of those things at West Coast Villa. In fact, they liked the beds so much they wanted to take them home, but the owners wouldn’t let them. West Coast Villa uses only the finest bedding so our guests are refreshed and relaxed.

John asked Wendy, how big is this vacation rental house? Will it really accommodate all of us for the family reunion? Wendy looked again at the www.westcoastvilla.com and told John, it’s 5000 square feet. That’s twice the size of our house! Well that’s a lot better than staying at a hotel in five separate rooms. The hotel rooms are about 300 square feet each.

So what does it cost for this villa rental? Wendy replied, it’s $699 per night. John, do you realize that is cheaper than a hotel? And we weren’t looking at luxury hotels, but this is a luxury villa. So, we get 3500 square feet more living space, a full kitchen and eating area, loads of open living areas and private retreats in a gorgeous vacation villa for less than a hotel stay? Like, why didn’t we think of this sooner? And look, she said, they offer an even greater discount if we stay a week!

Okay, but where is the vacation rental villa? So out came computer and a Google search was made for the location. Castro Valley. Who has ever heard of Castro Valley? A quick road trip was sketched out and Wendy exclaimed, Can you believe this? Castro Valley is centrally located in the San Francisco East Bay. It’s almost dead center to all the places we want to go.

John asked Mark and Sue about the location. They just chuckled. Mark told John that the reason they chose West Coast Villa was because of its convenient location to all the things they wanted to see.

Wendy asked Sue, How far is it to San Francisco? Sue said it’s about 20 miles SE of the city. The freeway is just a few blocks away and takes you directly to San Francisco. Mark asked John and Wendy, what do you guys want to see?

So they mapped out a plan….

Day 1 – Pier 39, a tour of Alcatraz, a visit to Fisherman’s wharf, Coit Tower, a trip down Lombard Street, over the Golden Gate Bridge and a good fish restaurant. No problem!

Day 2 – the Exploratorium, the de Young museum, the Aquarium of the Bay, a ride on the cable cars and a fine dinner out. Done!

Wendy asked, what about Napa Valley Wine Tours? Or Sonoma Valley? Or Livermore Valley?

Sue chimed in about the fun they had in Napa last summer. They went to several wineries including the Castle Winery where they had a tour of the enormous castle built near Napa and Saint Helena. Is it far from West Coast Villa? No said Mark. We just made a relaxed day of sightseeing. We got up really early and decided to catch a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley. That was a blast. Then, by noon we took in a Spa treatment together, had a mud bath and a Swedish massage. Man, we were so relaxed. We hit a couple of wineries and ended the day at the Castle – Castello di Amorosa. After that we went out for dinner. There are so many good restaurants in Napa Valley. The drive is about one and a half hours each way, and the California scenery is beautiful.

So what did you do after that? Sue told about the trip they took the next day across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands where they had spectacular views of the city of San Francisco, Oakland and the whole Bay Area. They took a picnic lunch with them and enjoyed the meal on the waterfront at Sausalito. They took the whole family to Muir Woods to enjoy the majestic Redwoods. California is such a cool place to be. Then they drove to Stinson Beach and splashed in the surf for a while. Then they drove back across the Richmond San Rafael bridge and headed back to West Coast Villa to enjoy a relaxing evening in the hot tub, playing games, and just being together as a family.

This is so great said Wendy, these are all the things we wanted to do, too. What are some of the other things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area?

We always enjoy a trip over to Half Moon Bay, take a casual drive down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea. We leave ourselves enough time to drive back through Gilroy and hit all the Outlet Stores there. We pick up an In-N-Out Burger ‘cause you just have to have one when you travel to California.

Your children will love a day at some of the theme parks nearby. Six Flags has Discovery Kingdom, there’s also Waterworld, and Great America. Are you sure your vacation in San Francisco has to be just one week? You might want to plan for 10 days or two weeks. There’s still Yosemite National Park, the Winchester Mystery House, the beach at Alameda, and even a little fishing at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley. We used to go up to the Lake every other day and run around portions of the Lake. We even took the kids out on Lake Chabot in an electric motorboat.

John asked Mark, why did you guys decide to stay at West Coast Villa? Mark replied, my brother was getting married so all of my side of the family stayed together at West Coast Villa. We rented the whole property and we had 23 staying together. The owners, Don and Krista Robertson, even let us host the rehearsal dinner there. They have caterers and wedding photographers and made arrangements for limousines and florists and everything. So when the wedding was over the family stayed for a week. It is such an awesome place. It’s kind of like a Tuscany villa or a Spanish revival. I think they call it a Spanish Mission style home, but it is really up to date with everything from flat screen TV’s to a whole house sound system, wireless internet and all the things you would expect from a luxury villa.

Yet, think of the money you save over hotels. With a full kitchen, you can eat right at the vacation home and even prepare lunches to go. That saves a lot of money because you’re not eating out at restaurants for every meal.

We loved it and would return in a heartbeat.

So we welcome John and Wendy to the ever-growing family of satisfied vacation rental guests at West Coast Villa.