long term vacation house rental suggestions

[Spartana]

I'm looking for suggestions of where to spend a few months this coming late summer and early fall to get out of the SoCal heat. Plan to rent a small vacation house. Someplace cooler and fairly bug free but that is green. Don't want to be in the boonies but close to a small town in OK. Any suggestions of where to start looking?

[bae]

The San Juan Islands :-)

[Zippy]

I don't have ideas as to where physically you might want to consider, but I can tell you that I've rented homes through vrbo.com and homeaway.com for years and had good experiences.

[jennipurrr]

Well, don't come to the South East...we are sweltering down here that time of year I was just chiming in to suggest vrbo.com - it is where we advertise our short term rentals. VRBO (and homeaway - same parent company) does a very good job ensuring that homeowners are legit. Also, you might want to check out craigslist, but you have to be more careful there...there are some scams floating around.

[kally]

we have US citizens coming up to Canada to escape the heat now. Try that.

[Spartana]

The San Juan Islands :-)

I just looked at a place in Eastsound on Orcas Isl next to the Rosario resort (where ever that is). Looked nice in the pictures! They didn't have Sept available (need all of sept and oct) but I probably couldn't live on any island because of the ferry trips with the dogs - don't know how hard that would be. But maybe somewhere like Anacortes, Bellingham, or someplace near the island ferries. What's the weather like in sept & oct? Lots of bugs? Rain? I have a friend who lives in Bremerton and she said that fall is really nice on Puget Sound.

Everyone else - thanks for the suggestions. I also like Homeaway because I can plug in "pets" and it shows only those places that accept pets. Plus it shows the prices without having to look at everyone seperately.

[freein05]

There are a lot of vacation rentals in our area. We get people from the San Diego area. Big Trees Village is the name of subdivision it is next to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The temps are nice in the summer. You do not need A/C. There are lots of out door activities. The nearest town is Arnold. It has a population of 4,000. Sonora is about an hours drive and it even has a Walmart.

The following are a couple of links to real estate companies in our area. Click on www.lakealpine.com to get an idea of our area.

http://www.dorringtonproperties.com/homepage.html

http://www.barrywardrealty.com/index.php

[kally]

Hmmm. Ferry trip with the dogs? We drive up and down here with dogs all the time. Nothing to it. Is there something about your dogs that would make this hard?

[Spartana]

Hmmm. Ferry trip with the dogs? We drive up and down here with dogs all the time. Nothing to it. Is there something about your dogs that would make this hard?

Well I usually ride my bike with the dogs in a bike trailer. I had heard that dogs couldn't go on ferries unless they were down below deck in a vehicle or some kind of a container/kennel. I had read somewhere that you can't just walk them aboard on a leash. But maybe that's just for long ferry rides. Anyone know?

[Spartana]

There are a lot of vacation rentals in our area. We get people from the San Diego area. Big Trees Village is the name of subdivision it is next to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The temps are nice in the summer. You do not need A/C. There are lots of out door activities. The nearest town is Arnold. It has a population of 4,000. Sonora is about an hours drive and it even has a Walmart.

The following are a couple of links to real estate companies in our area. Click on www.lakealpine.com to get an idea of our area.

http://www.dorringtonproperties.com/homepage.html

http://www.barrywardrealty.com/index.php

Thanks for the idea and the links. Can you believe that I have lived in Calif for years and have never been to Calavaras Big Trees? Been near there several times though and it's a beautiful area. Love all the towns on Hwy 49!