The historic house, which is nestled amid manicured gardens that blend into the surrounding bushland, has a fire pit and a wooden table on a cliff overlooking the bay. “The scent of dried eucalyptus leaves suffused every room,” says Lees, who awoke each day to native birdsong and sunshine streaming through the curtains.

Built by early settlers in the mid-1800s, the three-bedroom Airbnb has been carefully restored and styled with antiques and handmade linens. Bordered by the Royal National Park, the village of Bundeena showcases a different side of the city she calls home-one with quiet beaches and nature walks dotted with Indigenous rock carvings. “In September, I took a solo trip to recharge at this enchanting sandstone cottage on the outskirts of Sydney,” says Australian travel writer and editor Rachel Lees. To this day, it instantly puts me at ease.” “I even made an audio recording of the soft waves that danced upon the shore, and often listen to it. “The environment beckoned us to put down our phones and computers and take in the natural setting,” she says.

When they looked out their windows and back door, they were met with “turquoise-blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, more than a dozen twisting palm trees, and a hammock that my daughter couldn't get enough of.” Simon also liked that the cottage was decorated with furnishings and artwork that the owner picked up in his travels to Bhutan, China, and Botswana. Their three-bedroom cottage sat on a white-sand beach. “It was a multi-generational trip that had what we all were looking for: a postcard-perfect location to relax and disconnect,” she says.

Florida-based journalist Nila Do Simon, along with her two young children (then ages three and one) and septuagenarian in-laws, stayed at this collection of private cottages in the Florida Keys in September 2020.

Air b and