Why You Should Always Book Your Travel Stays with Airbnb

My stay during my last trip around Europe was booked exclusively with Airbnb. I had a month-long booking in Munich, a week long booking in Chamonix, and two shorter, a few days long stays in Milan and in a small village of Ossuccio on Lake Como. I absolutely loved all of these places and I think that Airbnb rocks. With Airbnb, you can book a stay at a place that is characteristic of the region you are visiting and you really get to experience living like a local: you’ll visit the nearby grocery stores, cook your own meals with available produce, and interact with your neighbours. Here are some of my favourite things about each of the apartments I stayed in this summer.

Munich
Our apartment in Munich was a studio with a small kitchen and a spacious room that served both as a dining space, living room, and a bedroom. The best part about the apartment was that all of the windows and a balcony door opened up onto a private garden with lush greenery and flowers. We had a rose bush and a whole bunch of wild strawberries. The lounge chairs and table is where we had our lunches and dinners most of the time. We also dried our laundry and hosted neighbours’ cats, a couple of ducks, and once, even a hedgehog out in our garden.

Ossuccio, Lake Como
Our apartment in Ossuccio, Lake Como was an old fisherman’s house from 1800s. The house opened up onto a small stone courtyard that drowned the sounds of the nearby street and where you could here the echo of the footsteps of your neighbours. The kitchen was downstairs and you had to exit the rest of the house to get there. The bedroom opened up onto a balcony with lovely views of the lake. The house nearby was covered in blooming jasmine, which smelled remarkably at night. Ossuccio is ideal because it is small enough not to attract a large amount of tourists, so it is quiet and quaint; and yet, a stone’s throw away is the town of Lenno, where you can go for nightlife, boat rental and ferries, and a visit to villa del Balbinello. My favourite part was exploring the narrow cobblestone-lined streets of the village, cool even when the sun was the highest, and where you were always loudly greeted by the locals. 

Milan
We stayed in an apartment in a traditional Milanese courtyard in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Milan–Navigli. Navigli is the old system of canals that dates as far back as the 12th century, which has been recently revitalized and is now one of the most bustling areas of the city. The neighbourhood has great restaurants and bars (which I found to be more affordable than in other areas of the city), many bookstores, art galleries, and vintage shops. You can always find joggers running along the canals and we even caught a stand up paddle race on the canals on the day of our arrival. We lived inside an old bright orange building, where grape vines grew outside of our apartment door, and our neighbours parked their scooters in the courtyard. 

Chamonix
We stayed in a tiny, two-floor apartment in the old town of Chamonix. Although not the most comfortable stay we have received with Airbnb, the apartment’s location as well as the way its windows opened up onto the views of the town square and the mountains have completely won me over. I cannot locate the listing at the moment, but the area features many similar apartments with cozy interiors and lovely views.

I loved the freedom of being able to prepare our own food. We also got to explore the local grocery stores and try out many different varieties of beer and wine, as well as local desserts at the fraction of the cost compared to what we would have paid at a restaurant or a bar. It was fun to worry about losing our own key in a foreign country and to look forward to coming “home” after a day of exploring or hiking in the mountains. It was fun to feel at home at four different places in four different cities (and three different countries) over the past six weeks.