TheShorelineBride: #Wifey Diaries: airbnb on the PCH

I have always loved to travel. I can thank my parents for that! We always traveled a lot growing up, usually because of the various conferences and meetings they had for work. That travel bug has only grown as I've gotten older - in college my roommate and I took a road trip across country....a whirlwind 10 days that was basically the best thing ever. Every must see attraction - we saw it! My junior year of college I studied abroad in Granada, Spain for a semester. That officially solidified my love for travel - I would go back to Europe every year if I could!

Luckily, I married a guy who also loves to travel. While I was in Spain the crazy kid came out and spent a week with me! {We had been dating a whole...5 months maybe?} Our first anniversary we road tripped to Niagara Falls - we celebrated our engagement with 2 weeks in Switzerland and Italy - etc. etc. More often than not our gifts to each other involve travel over "things". The perfect example is this Christmas - I got Ant concert tickets to see Sam Smith in Philly, so we spent 2 nights in the city....and in a couple weeks we'll be headed to Washington D.C. for my Christmas gift from Ant!

Long story short, the Mascias LOVE to travel.

We don't discriminate on big travel vs. small travel - as long as we are seeing and experiencing new things, it's good for me! We are usually planning at least two vacations out. Not FULLY planning, but talking pretty seriously about what we think is up next. In this case, "up next" is Costa Rica 2016!

But first!!! This year our big vacation is a two week West Coast road trip!! 2015 has unofficially become our year of domestic travel. We will fly out to San Francisco - enjoy Napa Valley and visit our friend Ryland in San Fran, then spend 10 days traveling north, through Oregon and Washington, with a quick detour in Vancouver! There are SO many things we want to see and do while we are out there, we are planning on this being one of those vacations that you need a vacation from when you get home! We want to have a good general plan of major things we want to see and do, and then leave some up to chance. I don't want to be too scheduled on a timeline, so that we have the freedom to just stop and enjoy along on our way.

One thing we know for sure, is we will be using airbnb for 10 of our 12 nights! {Thanks Ryland for the futon to crash on!} We used airbnb for our entire EMoon in Italy, and had the best experience! We LOVE how you get such a unique and personal experience. We've always had amazing hosts who give you great recommendations for food and can't miss spots! For this trip especially, the trip is more about the places we see than the places we stay - so we are not trying to drop a lot of money on a bed where we're going to crash for maybe 8 hours! Airbnb is perfect for that - we can get great options for a fraction of the cost....especially in some of the more well known areas {ahem, NAPA}.

We've already started doing some research - but our goal is to buckle down today and get at least 2 or 3 spots chosen and booked! Below are a few of the places that have jumped out to me so far....

This one is NOT where Ant and I will be staying on this trip....but in the future with some friends and less financial constraints? Yes please.

To me, this is the epitome of airbnb uniqueness! Staying in Portland you can stay at a hotel....orrrrr you can stay at an Urban Garden Studio! How cute is that??? Again - when we only have 1 night in Portland we will probably be more worried about a cheap spot to crash than a unique experience...but this is absolutely the coolest.