Don’t think you like rental vacation villas? – Think again.

For a long time I envisioned that a great vacation was in a luxury hotel with lots of people taking care of any need I might have. That is how I spent my vacations (not always luxury hotels, but in hotels) and I really enjoyed it. Renting a house somewhere was unthinkable and felt like I was leaving from one set of chores to another.

You might think I was right, but I was not. Yes, I had to cook myself, clean after myself and load the dishwasher but to be honest: that was part of the charm. Cooking on vacation is a lot different from cooking at home. Lots of time to create that special dish and shopping for food in an unknown country is an exciting adventure. Loading the dishwasher and cleaning up was not hard.

If you chose your villa carefully, do your research or use an agent who knows the amenities in the villas they rent and you will have a great time. The biggest benefit for me was that I had no outside people running around, knocking on doors and trying to do their job. It was absolute bliss being on our own! Moments like this you realize it is a luxury to have a snack or a cold beer from the fridge without calling anybody.

We spent our vacation in Puglia at Trulli Angelo which is a well outfitted house with all facilities you can think of  including your own pizza oven, with access from both the kitchen and the patio. A trulli is a classical shepherds house in Puglia and this house consists of original trullis and newly built and joined together in a very thoughtful way. The house sleeps 8 people (4 couples) comfortably so we invited friends who flew in for a weekend in the sun. The interior design and facilities are perfect and would match the standards of any luxury hotel.

Please do not interpret this post as I am going to stop staying at hotels, because I will not. I love hotels and will continue frequenting them (as long as they let me). This experience opened my eyes for the charm and comfort of staying in a nice house and minding my own business and I will definitely do it again.

Trulli Angelo, Puglia and other nice houses in Italy can be seen and booked on casainitalia.com. There are no links between me and Casa In Italia except that I am a satisfied customer.

Do you have more tips on why a rental house is better than a hotel? Please let me know on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below.