Author: marlowe

Booking a vacation rental in Newport Beach, CA means looking forward to plenty of relaxation and leisure. But travelling can also be stressful and complicated unless you’re organized and prepared! To help make sure your trip is stress-free and full of fun, check out our top recommended travel apps for 2021! These apps help you get to your rental smoothly, split travel expenses, and find great things to do in Newport Beach.

MyTSA

If you’re flying into LAX, Long Beach, or John Wayne before making your way to your Orange County beach house rental, having MyTSA installed on your phone helps make your trip a little easier. MyTSA is the official app of the TSA, allowing you to check wait times at TSA checkpoints, letting you know how early you need to arrive at the airport to ensure you have a smooth journey.

Splitwise

If you’re travelling with friends or family and plan to split expenses, Splitwise is an excellent app that makes it easy. Simply keep track of shared expenses as you incur them over the course of your trip, marking down who paid for what. Then, when you’re ready, Splitwise breaks down who owes what, saving you a lot of painstaking math problems and taking the stress out of sharing expenses.

PackPoint

Packing is perhaps the worst part of traveling, which is why we love this PackPoint app. All you have to do is tell the app where you’re going and how long you’ll be there. Once you’ve done that, PackPoint will tell you what you should pack! If you want a more detailed list, you can also tell the app what kind of activities you’ll be doing while on your trip. Perfect for chronic over- or under-packers.

Tripadvisor

You’ve probably used Tripadvisor before, because it’s among the top websites and apps for trip planning and sightseeing. Scope out all the great activities, restaurants, and excursions worth exploring near our Newport Beach house rentals. You can even book activities through the app or save places for later and view your saved places on a helpful map.

That’s it for our travel app recommendations! If you appreciated this post and would like to see more of our tips, recommendations, and features, be sure to bookmark our blog page for easy access to future posts! And make sure you’re following us on Instagram so you stay in the know about special offers and seasonal updates for guests at our Orange County beach house rentals.

Did you know our Orange County beach house rentals come with BBQ grills? Nothing says “vacation” like a delicious cookout complete with your favorite burger, steak, fajita, or grilled veggies. This is one of our guests’ favorite amenities to take advantage of while staying at our Newport Beach beachfront rentals, so we wanted to share some tips for getting the most out of our BBQ grills! These tips make your meals more delicious and cleanup even easier.

Start with a Clean Grill

Food cooked on a grill coated with char and food pieces will transfer unwanted flavors, and just isn’t appetizing. Although we take care to clean our Newport Beach house rentals thoroughly between each guest and ask that guests clean the grill after each use, it’s worth quickly double checking to see if the grate needs a light brushing before you heat up the grill.

Direct Heat vs. Indirect Heat

Grills are perfect for creating a nice sear, but you need to keep an eye on what you’re cooking to make sure that sear doesn’t turn into too much char. For vegetables and thick meats that need to cook evenly all the way through (like chicken breasts), you’ll want to utilize the edges of the grate to get the food out of the direct heat so it has the chance to cook more slowly and gently. Feel free to use direct heat at first when you’re after that tasty sear, and move to the sides if necessary once the sear is achieved.

Keep It Simple

Especially when you’re cooking for a crowd, trying to grill too many different things can make it difficult to keep track of grill times and open you up to mistakes that normally wouldn’t be too hard to avoid. Stick to one or two main options so you can manage it all, and then supplement if desired by side dishes and condiments that don’t need grilling, like slaw, fresh fruits and vegetables, pickles, and so on.

Kabobs are King

When you’re not sure what to grill, kabobs are one of the easiest choices. With kabobs, you
can cut meats into even-sized chunks, which promotes even cooking, and you don’t have to
flip a bunch of individual meats or veggies, you can just flip each skewer all at once. When
cooking

kabobs, it’s easiest to stick to meats and hardy vegetables like bell peppers and onion, but
nothing that takes too long to cook (like root vegetables). Cherry tomatoes, pineapple, and
zucchini are also popular choices, just make sure you keep an eye on them and don’t overcook
them.

Ready to get out there and start grilling? We hope we’ve inspired you to grill up something
delicious during your stay at Newport Beach Vacation Getaways! If you’d like to see any
future tips and recommendations from us in the future, make sure you bookmark our blog page
for easy access to upcoming posts. Finally, if you don’t want to miss out on special
promotions and seasonal updates for our vacation rentals in Newport Beach, CA, follow us on
Instagram!