2022, Family, Travel, Uncategorized

Airbnb

28 Comments

Husband and I spent four days last week in Fargo with our son and his family, joined for two days by our daughter. She was on a week long visit from Tacoma to friends in various parts of Minnesota. We picked her up in Alexandria on Friday. She hitched a ride back to the Minneapolis Airport on Sunday morning with her best friend who lives in Hopkins but who was in Moorhead visiting her sister. Her trip took a lot of planning!

Son booked an Airbnb with five bedrooms in the historic section of Fargo on 8th St. It is only the second time we stayed in such accommodations, our children far more accustomed to booking these lodgings. It really worked out well, especially since our 4 year old grandson was pretty happy not having to eat in restaurants and could run around and play and make more noise than he could in a hotel. We ordered out from our favorite Thai and East Indian restaurants, and son grilled lovely lamb kebobs on Saturday night. My only complaint was that our mattress was far too soft and gave me a backache.

Fargo was surprising, even after all these years of living in this State. We went to the downtown farmers market on Saturday. It was wonderful, and we scored some fresh, local sweetcorn. There are very few places in North Dakota where you would see many gay couples walking around in public holding hands, but there they were, happy as they could be among the produce stalls. It was also far more ethnically diverse than I remember it being in years past. It was so nice to see.

I imagine there are Airbnb nightmares, but ours worked out swell. We will more than likely do it again, but will have our children help us figure out how to choose them.

What are your Airbnb experiences? What cities have pleasantly surprised you? Where are your favorite places to visit?

28 thoughts on “Airbnb”

  1. i did air bnb as a business venture until covid killed followed by george floyd riots and unrest that made the twin cities a no on many destination lists

    i have stayed in air bnb in many locations in the us and europe
    i used to stay in bnb as a matter of choice to get a bit of a feel for the local color in carolina georgia colorado and such
    chicago provides a better price and location option than hyatt or marriott
    interesting folks are everywhere but air bnb seems to be a magnet
    i have thought about doing it on a larger scale once again but that’s not unusual for me
    it can be really fun

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  2. Never tried AirBnB. First time we visited many years ago, Santa Fe, NM was a very pleasant surprise. Others that come to mind are Dubuque IA (historical charm), Traverse City MI (didn’t know they had so many vineyards in the area), Sedona AZ (natural beauty), Sioux Falls (more culture and dining than I expected), Boise ID.

    Favorite places to visit: Grand Marais, Ely, Banff AB, almost anywhere in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia, Bandon Dunes golf resort in OR, Madison WI (used to go there for a writers’ conference), Bayfield WI, almost any wine region in the world 🙂 , most of the western US national parks, mainly Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, Cascades, and of course the BWCAW.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I was powerless until a few minutes ago when suddenly the power lurched back on and the appliances started beeping. The storm last night blew a branch onto a wire 3 blocks away and the neighborhood lost all power. Glad to be back online.

    I have used this service a lot for travel prior to COVID and all that brought us. I use VRBO much more than AirBnB—it has been around longer and I like the service better. Here is my list of cities:

    Fountain Hills, AZ
    Oceanside CA
    Savannah,Ga—several times, Favorite city
    Philadelphia, PA
    Bayfield, WI
    Oslo, Norway—worst experience
    Amsterdam, Netherlands—wonderful experience
    Edinborough, Scotland—cannot wait to return.

    I think there are some I forgot, but I am a fan! Must get off to work.

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  4. I’ve never done AirBnB. I stayed in a regular B&B once when some friends and I went to GenCon (a huge gaming convention) back when it was being held in Milwaukee. It was very nice, but the proprietress got anxious about what to serve a vegetarian, as I was then. She calmed down when I told her vegetarians ate eggs, and ended up serving me a nice vegetable fritatta sans sausage. My favorite memory of that trip was eating pizza with a group of Klingons in full battle armor.

    I travel very, very little, so my favorite place would be Madison WI (although it’s not the same without Ella’s Deli).

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  5. The one air.bnb I’ve stayed in was Paris, and it was delightful, perfect for our needs and location. I watched Charade with Audrey Hepburn last week, and when they showed that lift in a Paris apartment, I said “That could’ve been filmed in our air.bnb!”

    Pleasant surprises: Minneapolis when I first got here in 1977. I’d visited here, but had no idea what all this city had to offer.

    Other favorite cities would be Santa Fe, Asheville NC, and NYC. I would like to get to Montreal, and Three Pines.

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    1. The first time I visited Minneapolis was on a Saturday during my first semester in Northfield. Bunch of us took the bus up… shopped and hung around downtown. It felt magical to me and I said to folks on the way back to campus that this was where I would live in the future. Never looked back!

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  7. Renee – very dangerous to ask me about my travels… you all know I can go on and on.

    Almost every place I go I imagine living there at some point. Even in safari camp in South Africa, I spent an afternoon thinking about what kind of job I could do in a safari camp (program management, of course) and the logistics of the closest school for YA. But the location that still lingers in my mind is Belgium. There are some amazingly beautiful small towns (Dinant, Ghent, La Louviere, Bruges) and I can still envision myself living on a cobblestone street w/ window boxes to keep watered and nurtured, walking to the market. Close enough to the big city if I needed to go there.

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  9. I think the only B&B we’ve stayed at was in Charlston SC for nieces wedding. My whole family rented a house and all the siblings stayed there. It was really nice. And Charleston itself is a favorite destination. Been there a couple times and looking forward to going back.

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  12. all over ireland scotland wales and england we had wonderful insights and experiences z
    i always laugh at the cranky old lady in the cotswold outside stonehenge a bit
    they are a historic area with houses that all still have the giant fireplace used as the heat source from when they were built in 1600
    small rooms short ceilings
    lady said everyone was smaller and you didn’t need big but she sure got tired of living in this quaint house and it’s tiny rooms needing to be cleaned every day

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  17. Never been to an Airbnb. I have stayed a a few traditional B&B’s, though. I remember staying in Lansing, Iowa around thirty years ago or so. I think it was Thornton House, though when I look at their web site, nothing looks very familiar. They have probably done some remodeling in the past several decades. The thing I remember most about Lansing was the variety store, Horsefall’s, right in the downtown. When I visited, it had been there for probably almost a century, and had a fascinating selection of old and new merchandise. They did not have a strong commitment to modernizing, and displayed a lot of things that the owners had probably been displaying for a long time, with the conviction that everything old becomes new again.

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  20. We’ve stayed in both Airbnb’s and B&B’s, and have enjoyed them immensely. Also, we’ve put friends visiting from out of town up in a couple of local Airbnb’s, and they have been wonderful. One is right in our neighborhood, and it’s a beautifully restored old mansion. Another one, also in St. Paul, but in a different neighborhood, is owned by a Japanese photographer who travels a lot. His house is drop dead gorgeous. A serene and stunningly beautiful house with a Japanese garden. I love that place.

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