A great place to cook!…Preferred features in vacation/holiday homes…

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This kitchen is much larger than it looks in this photo. We enjoy preparing meals here.

Nothing is more important to me while living in a holiday home than a good kitchen, fully stocked with ample space for prepping ingredients, cooking meals, and cleaning up. Most often, about 30% of the properties we rent don’t have what we’d consider a “good working kitchen,” while the others range from adequate to exceptional.

The kitchen at the condo here in Lake Las Vegas is, without a doubt, exceptional. Its two working areas, including the space near the stove and refrigerator, provide a good working area, and the center island where the sink and dishwasher are located, with the comfortable space between them, couldn’t be more perfect.

I spend most of my prep time using the heavy wooden cutting board on the island, close to the sink, and less time at the stove, actually cooking. Most meals we make are cooked in the oven or on the top of the stove using the amazing skillet I purchased from Amazon last year. That skillet will be joining my luggage, even at the cost of dumping clothing to remain in the allowed baggage weight.

I told Tom I’d give up clothes for that pan and my big sharp knife (and its sharpener), which means more to me than anything I might wear.

Over the years of world travel, we’ve learned what means the most to us is when we rent a holiday home. Here is the list of features that we and most travelers seek. When travelers look for vacation homes, their needs and preferences often vary depending on the purpose of their trip, the group they’re traveling with, and their style. However, there are several standard features that most travelers value:

1. Location, Location, Location

  • Proximity to Attractions: Near beaches, city centers, mountains, or other major attractions.
  • Safe and Walkable Areas: Walking safely to local cafes, shops, or markets is essential.
  • Scenic Views: Homes with stunning views of nature or cityscapes are always a draw.

2. Comfortable Living Spaces

  • Spacious Layouts: Space for everyone to spread out is key for families or groups.
  • Cleanliness and Hygiene: A spotless home is non-negotiable.
  • Quality Furnishings: Comfortable beds, cozy sofas, and appealing decor enhance the stay.

3. Well-Equipped Kitchens

  • Travelers often prefer to cook meals to save money or accommodate dietary preferences. A kitchen stocked with essentials is a big plus.

4. Reliable Wi-Fi and Connectivity

  • High-speed internet is crucial for remote workers, digital nomads, or families with tech-savvy kids.

5. Entertainment Options

  • Streaming services, smart TVs, board games, books, or even gaming consoles for indoor fun.

6. Outdoor Spaces

  • Balcony, Patio, or Garden: Ideal for morning coffee, evening relaxation, or outdoor dining.
  • Pool or Hot Tub: A luxurious touch many travelers seek.

7. Laundry Facilities

  • Long-term travelers or families especially appreciate a washer and dryer.

8. Family-Friendly Features

  • Amenities like cribs, high chairs, toys, or safety gates are highly valued for families with kids.

9. Pet-Friendly Options

  • Increasingly, travelers are bringing their pets along, so homes that allow pets and have fenced yards are in demand.

10. Transportation Convenience

  • Access to parking or proximity to public transportation.

11. Sustainability Features

  • Eco-conscious travelers may look for homes with solar panels, recycling facilities, or energy-efficient appliances.

12. Local Recommendations

  • Hosts providing a guidebook with tips on local attractions, dining, and activities add a personal touch.

13. Safety and Security

  • Features like secure locks, alarms, or a safe for valuables give peace of mind.

14. Unique Experiences

  • Unique architecture, historic charm, or a quirky theme can make the stay memorable.

Travelers want a home-away-from-home that enhances their experience, offering comfort, convenience, and a touch of luxury or local charm. The order of preference may change for us depending on the uniqueness of any given property, allowing us to forego some requirements.

Be well

Photo from ten years ago today, January 2, 2015:

A picnic area in Lava Tree Park on the Big Island wasn’t busy. For more photos, please click here.

We made it to Lake Las Vegas…Total expenses for almost five days on the road…

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Snow-capped mountains as we entered Nevada.
No words can express how thrilled we are to be in Lake Las Vegas while being unpacked with groceries ordered, coming tomorrow, and finding everything in the fabulous condo precisely as we remembered it a year ago. We couldn’t be more content.

The four-and-a-half-day road trip was a breeze. Tom moved along at a good clip, pushing the limits of the posted speed limits and making good time each day. The latest we ever arrived at the hotel for the night was 4:00 pm, giving us plenty of time to get settled for the evening with various plans for dinner.

The lobby at Little America Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.

We arrived in Las Vegas earlier than planned, at 11:30 am. The condo was being cleaned after the last guests moved out yesterday morning. With the cleaner coming and the owner needing to change the code on the door, we couldn’t check in until 2:00 pm.

We took advantage of the three hours we had to kill and headed to our mailing service to collect our mail after Tom got an excellent haircut at Great Clips. We stopped at a liquor store for wine for me and beer and brandy for Tom. We grocery-shopped for a few items to get us through two nights of breakfast and dinner until our Albertson’s delivery arrives tomorrow morning between 9:00 and 11:00 am. The extra time worked out well.

The beautiful hotel room’s bathrooms had two separate sink areas.

It’s comforting that we are entirely unpacked, and everything is in order, with the luggage tucked away in closets and no clutter except for various electrical cords for our devices in a few easily accessible areas.

This morning, we headed to Dollar Tree for a few household items and made a quick trip to the bank. Once back at the condo, I got back to work on this post and compiled our expenses from the road trip, which I will share with you today at the end of this post.

We dined at the Silver Pine Restaurant at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff.

We thought sharing what we spent during the almost five-day road trip would be fun for our readers, considering that we may have used reward points in some cases. As we list our expenses, we will include the costs after credits from the reward points.

Tom has Chicken Alfredo, which is reminiscent of the dinners he ate for ten months while we were in lockdown in India in a hotel room during the pandemic.

Fuel: $192.77

Hotels: $205.69 + various rewards points for hotels. (One hotel was $7.17 with tax after using points; others were $0 using points)

Food: $266.66 (We used rewards points for the last meal in Flagstaff, also covering the room charge at a charming resort).

Rental car for seven days: $803.31

Total Trips Cost (out of pocket): $1468.43 (includes two extra days for the rental car after we arrived)

Average cost per day: $293.69 

My salmon dinner is reminiscent of the dinners I ate for ten months while we were in lockdown in India in a hotel room during the pandemic. We laughed over the irony.

Tomorrow, my much-needed pedicure downstairs at a salon in the Village is at 11:00 am, and Tom will return the rental car at noon.

We won’t have a car for the next 73 days, but we’re sure we’ll be fine using Uber or Lyft as needed to join son Richard for dinners or go out for any other reason.

The salad was served with my salmon instead of potatoes or rice.

Stay tuned for more folks. Thanks for all of the thoughtful wishes we received along the way.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, December 19, 2014:

With lave flowing in Pahoa, Big Island, toward the shopping center where this salon was located, the boys decided to get haircuts before it closed. Tom is on the far left. TJ is in the middle, and Jayden is on the far right after they decide they also need haircuts. Three generations of Lymans were having their haircuts simultaneously. Too cute! For more photos, please click here.

Another great day in Nevada…

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Sunset in Kauai Hawaii, across the street from our condo in 2015.

It’s another busy morning. We cleaned the condo yesterday, but I still had a few more tasks to do, including cleaning the bottom of the oven. I sprayed it with oven cleaner last night. However, this morning, I still couldn’t scrape everything off it from a prior spill. I’ll keep working on it until it’s sparkling.

I’ve already started walking for the day with lots more to reach my daily three miles. As of a few days ago, I head out the door every 15 minutes to do a complete walk of the long corridor, up and back. But it’s only about 800 steps each time, requiring me to go out to the corridor many times each hour.

One of our readers reminded me of the five miles (8 km) I walked daily while we were in the hotel in lockdown for ten months in Mumbai, India, during the pandemic. Now, my legs aren’t strong enough to do more than my three miles daily. It’s enough. At least here, I have other things to do as opposed to trying to kill time in Mumbai.

Right now, I’m not wishing time to fly by quickly since we’re enjoying each day in Lake Las Vegas. Soon, we’ll head down the one flight of steps to head to Season’s Market for a few things and to stop at the salon to see if Tom can get a haircut, either today or another day. I left a few messages for the hair salon but haven’t heard back after two days. Stopping in is the next step to get him an appointment.

As we do each day, we’re currently listening to the Garage Logic podcast while I prepare the post and head back and forth to the corridor. Tom stops the podcast while I am walking and turns it back on when I return. It’s always interesting to hear what’s going on in Minnesota, especially for Tom, who lived there all of his life until we began traveling. I lived there from 1969, and it also became home for me.

People often ask if we’d ever live in Minnesota again, and we don’t plan to do so. Most seniors go South in the wintertime. We have no interest in dealing with the frigid winter months and short summers. The amount of snow and ice is dangerous for seniors, often resulting in broken hips and other serious injuries. As clumsy as I am, walking on ice isn’t a good idea.

It’s easy to recall how difficult it was pushing a grocery cart out to the car in the icy parking lot. It was expected to see shoppers slip on the ice. Most days, even going to the health club and work was hazardous with glare ice. Then, in the spring, although less dangerous, walking in slush as the ice and snow melted was annoying and uncomfortable.

The summers in Minnesota resulted in hot, humid weather, and nasty mosquitos often prevented us from spending time outdoors at dawn or dusk and evening when, after the long winter, being outdoors, cooking on the grill was much desired. That’s a life we don’t care to experience again.

It’s hot and humid, with many mosquitos in South Africa in summer. But, while there, we live an entirely different lifestyle, spending most of our time outdoors on the veranda, totally distracted by the visiting wildlife.

The timer on my phone just went off. It’s time to walk again. I’ll wrap this up when I return, and we look forward to ‘seeing” all of you again.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, February 17, 2014:

Louise and Danie hosted a fantastic dinner in the bush, in Kruger National Park, at night, surrounded by wildlife. This was my plate of delectable morsels of food I could eat. For more photos, please click here.

We flew through the air and landed in Paradise…Pinch me…Kauai is heavenly…

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This type of scene we noticed along Highway 56 in Kauai could be found in many places on the mainland.

Without a doubt, Kauai may prove to be our favorite of the four islands we’ve visited in Hawaii. The four months, we’d anticipated that may be too long, will fly by too quickly. 

We arrive in Kauai on a gorgeous day. Excuse the date stamps on some of these photos. I’d failed to remove it after taking photos of the existing damage on the rental car when we picked it up.

Upon arriving at the Lihue, Kauai airport, we hauled all of our bags to the shuttle bus stop for a ride to the Dollar car rental. We lucked out. They agreed to rent us the vehicle for the entire four months, preventing us from the necessity of going back once a month to renew.

There are many shops along the highway, an attraction for the tourists as shown here today in the village of Wailua.

Most likely they gave us the oldest and cheapest car on the lot with over 31,000 miles and no automatic door locks.  When did automatic door locks become popular? Thirty years ago? At only $685 a month, we hardly complain.  

There appears to be several Mexican restaurants in Kauai.

After all, this is Hawaii and rental cars are notoriously high here. Having booked online enabled us to get this great price. We took no less than a dozen photos of all of the dings and scratches on the car saving them in our Kauai file for future reference and we were on our way. 

A pineapple and coconut stand.

We had to ditch our intent of shopping at Costco. There wasn’t room in that tiny vehicle for a single item sold at Costco when everything is the jumbo size and the car was packed with our stuff. Instead today, we’ll return to Lihui for a much-needed trip to Costco. 

The ever-popular Bubba’s, known for their burgers.

Finding the condo was a little tricky although driving through upscale Princeville was delightful. We’ve landed in the most exquisite area we’ve seen in the islands or perhaps on any island we’ve visited thus far in our travels.

Traveling along a two-lane highway makes photo-taking difficult while driving.

Our condo is located in a well maintained four-unit building. We’ve already met everyone in each unit including permanent residents photographer Ted and vacation home manager Gloria and, vacationing neighbors from Toronto, lovely couple Sarah, Mario, and baby Kayden, staying only a few days. We have a sense that making friends in Kauai will be easy.

We stopped at a scenic overlook on the way to Princeville.

The condo, although smaller than we’d anticipated, is perfect for us. Newly remodeled, it appears new with lush finishes, quality workmanship, and pleasing design.

A proud rooster meandering with his family in the parking lot of the scenic overlook.

While moving in with the doors open a zillion mosquitoes entered the condo requiring we leave the AC on overnight. Mosquitoes hide in cool air.  Today, the doors and windows will be wide open after we return from shopping.

Two hens were hanging out with the above rooster.

In a way, the condo is comparable to a two-bedroom hotel suite with a kitchen. The comfy memory foam bed, soft pillows, and covers created the best night’s sleep we’ve had in ages. The shower was ideal, an aspect we’ve really come to appreciate.

Views of the ocean are always appealing.

More than anything, the scenic views from our lanai and the front of the building are breathtaking as shown in these photos. A white sand beach is across the road where we can take beach chairs for whale watching.

Another scenic overlook.

Last night, we dined at a restaurant tucked away in a condo complex also across the road, the Hideaway, when neither of us felt like shopping and cooking. The food was mediocre, the ambiance was noisy and our table was wobbly. I doubt we’ll return with many other options in the area.

We stopped when we spotted this beach.

We’d mailed a package to ourselves with all of our leftover foodstuffs. To my error, I failed to ask the owner if we could do so and we simply used the address for the condo when we mailed it at the post office in Pahoa.  Later, the owner informed us that only UPS will deliver to the condo.

A beautiful beach scene. The contrast between greenery and sand is particularly appealing.

As a result, this morning, we’ll head to the post office to see if the package has arrived. If it hasn’t, we may decide to wait to go to Costco to avoid duplicating some of the items in the packed box. Then again, with four months here in Princeville, duplication may not be an issue.

Since our arrival, we’ve taken many photos to share. From what we’ve seen so far, we’ll never run out of photos to share on this island. Known as the “garden island” the abundance of birds and vegetation is unlike anything we’ve seen since Tuscany in the summer of 2013. 

A bar and restaurant along the highway.

This morning shortly after awakening we heard the pleasing crow of a rooster. More later on why Kauai is known for its many wild chickens freely roaming about. Yesterday, there were several in the rental car parking lot.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with photos of the condo and much more. Stay tuned, dear readers. The exploration of the garden island has just begun.

                                            Photo from one year ago today, January 16, 2014:

On our way to the Blyde River Canyon for a three-day mini holiday, we drove through Kruger National Park. We stopped at a distance to watch this elephant. She was obviously annoyed with our visit, moving to the road to come toward us. Luckily, we were back far enough and Tom quickly backed out to get out of her way. Finally, she backed off, content that we weren’t a threat. For details and more photos of our ride through Kruger, please click here.