Many home owners dream of one day owning a cottage they can escape to throughout the year in addition to their main home. Whether you own a piece of Florida or Halifax real estate it's nice being able to get away to a cottage near the lake or outside of city lines that is your own home away from home.

Not everybody can afford to own a cottage in addition to their permanent home though. However, that doesn't mean the dream of taking a vacation to a cottage any time throughout the year is out of the question. If you can't buy a cottage you can always rent one. Cottage rentals are the next best thing to owning a cottage.

Renting a North Vancouver or Muskoka cottage (Visit Muskoka), for a week or two throughout the year is doable for most people and their budgets. The great thing about renting a cottage over owning a cottage is that you don't have to worry about maintaining a cottage all year long. You just have to go to the cottage for the one or two weeks you're renting it and enjoy your vacation.

When deciding on cottage rentals you have a few factors to consider and they include the time of the year you want to vacation, the location of the cottage, the cost of the cottage rentals, your budget and the size of the cottage. You obviously need to first go over your finances to see how much money you have in the vacation budget. You don't want to start booking time at a cottage resort only to find out you can't afford it.

Once your finances are set you can start looking into the features of cottages available to see if they suit your needs and the needs of the family. If your family is made up of four people and you need four bedrooms you can't rent a cottage that's made for two people. You'd be better off saving your money and staying at a hotel or resort if that were the case.

The location of the cottage and how long it takes to get there is probably the next most important factor that plays a part in which cottage rental you choose. How much fun would your vacation be if it took fourteen hours to drive to the cottage? You also want to find something that's close and within driving distance of stores that sell items such as coffee, diapers and food. You never know when you might need something that you didn't pack enough of.

Good luck choosing the right cottage rental and have fun on your vacation!