We are so grateful to Ryan Lum and Anji Bee, of the band LoveSpirals, who did a wonderful review of their stay at our home on their recent podcast show. This show features their Earth Day tips on being green, their experiences with San Francisco vegetarian and vegan restaurants (forward to 16:50), and glowing review of our home (forward to 19:00). They are such a cute couple and we hope they come back again soon!

Chillin' With LoveSpirals Podcast #64: San Francisco

We also really love their music. When you stay at our place you'll notice they left a few of their CDs behind for you to enjoy at the house. It's the perfect soundtrack to chill out and settle into your vacation. They are so generous! Be sure to check out their site and support a couple amazing indie artists.

Thank you Ryan and Anji!!

LoveSpirals official website
Dreamy indie electro-acoustic band of vocalist Anji Bee & musician Ryan Lum.

Chillcast with Anji Bee
The Chillcast presents the best new podsafe music, hosted by "the sexiest voice in podcasting," Anji Bee of Lovespirals. Chill out to a smooth mix of electronica, jazz, soul, and world music each week - plus special interview features, video editions, extended DJ mixes, and CD contests. Every week Anji picks a Featured Artist free mp3 download too!

When the sun is shining in San Francisco, get thee to an ice cream store! Today's guide on ice cream will take you to 3 ice cream shops — where the locals go. While there are many tasty ice cream shops across the city we'd like to give props to ones that visiting tourists may not commonly come across. Each of these shops have an interesting history so be sure to visit the websites to read more.

1) Mitchells Ice Cream (map)
"Mitchell's Ice Cream has been a San Francisco favorite for over 50 years.  Generations of families have enjoyed our rich and creamy homemade ice cream, made right in our store.  Stop by and see us. You're sure to leave with a smile!"

On a warm evening, there will be a long line going down the street. It's worth the wait.. just take a number and hang out with everyone. Kids, dogs, couples, cops, old hippies, yuppies, everyone. This place is classic and an SF institution. Their menu is organized by Regular, Tropical, Sorbet, and Seasonal flavors. The Mitchell's website has some great info on their history and their ice cream making process. Pumpkin Pie ice cream rocks.

photo credit: akarmy

2) Bi-Rite Creamery (map)
"Bi-Rite Creamery products are lovingly handcrafted in small batches. We strive to use local, organic ingredients when available, and are committed to operating in a sustainable manner. Our ice cream is made from Straus Family organic dairy products. The fruit and flavorings we use are organic whenever possible and our packaging is made from biodegradable materials."

Bi-Rite is perfectly located across from Dolores Park and on a warm day the line will stretch around the block. This is not your traditional ice cream. This is a whole new level of ice cream. My favorite is Honey Lavender!

The Bi-Rite website has some great info on their commitment to creating ice cream in a responsible and sustainable manner.

photo credit: The Kozy Shack

3) La Copa Loca (map)
"La Copa Loca! Is literally translated as The Crazy Cup! Why crazy? Ah, the freedom to savor scrumptious tropical fruits or other old country flavors mixed in sundaes using unconventional combinations. Gelato and sorbet are our specialty- freshly hand made served and packed in the Mission District in San Francisco! We honor the traditional process of making gelato with only the freshest ingredients and seasonal fruits undoctored with chemicals, artificial powders or coloring. THE ESSENCE OF AUTHENTIC GELATO IS FRESHNESS!"

This shop is located in the Mission and is the freshest, yummiest sorbet ever. I especially love 2 scoops of Banana and Hazelnut in a waffle cone. Then we like to walk around the mission with our cones.

Read more about Mario and how he got his shop started on the La Copa Loca website.

There is also a really great review of La Copa Loca by Vegansaurus. Sounds like La Copa Loca is vegan approved!

photo credit: carlos

We're working on a couple new San Francisco travel guides, from a "local's" perspective. Coming up... Ice Cream! Open Studios! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out this blog post Travel Can Make You Happier Than Buying Stuff. We agree!

Learning about renting out our furnished San Francisco rental home has opened our eyes to a whole new world of travel options. I don’t think we’ll ever stay in a hotel again, seriously. There is an abundance of vacation homes everywhere you look and it seems possible to find something that fits most anyone’s needs.

It's become possible to find great resources to rent couch or room from a local, to renting an entire house and having that to yourself. The combination of high hotel costs and poor service can really sour a vacation fast. We’ve all had our experiences checking into hotel to find a dingy room, loud street noise, no sign of the promised mini fridge and hidden charges to use anything. It can take a lot of energy to demand good service these days. Here in San Francisco, hotel costs can quickly add up – especially for the popular hotels and B-n-B’s with top amenities. If your stay includes more than 2-3 nights you may want to consider the option of renting a vacation home. Not only do you get more for your money but you also reap a considerable savings. Plus, you get the opportunity to live like a local and see San Francisco from a whole new perspective.

We've gathered 6 reasons why you're better off renting a vacation rental vs. a hotel:

1) Cost Savings
Trip Advisor has a calculator that shows your estimated cost to rent a hotel vs. a vacation home. We ran simple numbers for 2 guests who would eat some meals out and and cook some meals in. Their calculator shows an estimated savings of $410, but for our rental savings would actually be $660. That savings skyrockets when you have 4 people at our standard $200/night rate. Try it out yourself.

2) Fully Equipped Kitchen
Cook if you want to, keep snacks and take home your restaurant leftovers, go at your own pace. Shop at our local Farmers Market. Not only is our kitchen fully equipped, it’s has beautiful granite counters, stainless appliances, recessed lighting, and a garden view. We also provide welcome treats like coffee/cream, muffins and snacks to get you started (before you’ve had the chance to stop by the market). No minibar charges here!

3) Laundry Room
Do your laundry and ironing for free, whenever you want to. It’s out of your way in a separate laundry room. You can close the door. You don’t have to dance around the ironing board.

4) More space AND more privacy
Have the benefit of sharing social spaces like kitchen, living room, dining and deck with space to relax with your travel companions, but have your own private bedroom. Both of our rooms include queen beds and bedside tables with reading lamps.

5) Concierge
While we don’t have an on-site concierge service to book reservations or tours, we can still give you guidance and steer you in the right direction. We lived in SF for 15 years and one of us was born and raised in the Bay Area so if there is something you want to know… we can tell you. You already know about Alcatraz and The Warf, try veering off the beaten path! Plus, as an added (free) resource for your stay we are constantly updating this blog and twitter (@blizzzz) with SF travel tips with everything from restaurants, sight seeing and entertainment. If there is something you want to know, just ask! In regards to check-in, we have a site-manager to greet you and answer any questions about the house. She’s available during your stay for any type of house issues or questions, if something were to come up. We also took the time to prepare a household guide book covering all the details on how the house works (like heat, surround sound, xbox, etc).

6) Rental Resources
By doing all this research for our business we’ve come to realize that finding a vacation home online has never been easier, and we can share what we know to point you in a couple directions. We’ve looked around and found these sites the best resources to post our rental – which means we feel they cater the best to our audience, you, the renter. They either are the most well known and therefore have the most traffic and most inventory, or are up and coming new services that seem to really “get” the best way to present services to renters and home owners alike.

1) For an affordable “couch”, “room” or “entire house”: Airbnb.com
2) For vacation home listings: istopover.com and vrbo.com
3) Not our favorite for consistent rental comparisons and can be hit/miss, but worth taking a look in any region/city: sfbay.craigslist.org/vac/
4) For tips on traveling like a local: spottedbylocals.com (Europe only) and facingthestreet.blogspot.com