California self-catering?? Apartment/Villa recommendations

[CHUMMUM]

Hi, we are looking at going next year to Anaheim, San Diego areas, March/April for about 3 weeks.
I cannot find any websites with apartments/villas.
We would like to go self catering so we can cut costs/be more healthy with food also we will take less luggage with 3 kids, 4, 8, 11 and two adults!
Please can someone give us some recommendations.
Thanks in advance.

Bump!

If you google search "Anaheim Apartments" it will come up with results but have no idea how safe they are to use. Be careful. Would also suggest you look at www.tripadvisor.com.

Much of the accommodation in the cities you cite is actually hotel based and hotels generally offer room only accommodation. There are suite hotel chains like Embassy Suites etc which you can use to self cater (the Embassy Suites and other such chains give their clientele a daily free breakfast).

Thanks, hubby and I went to California in 1998 before the kids! It was great and we just travelled around stopping at hotels we liked the look of! We did Hollywood. L.A, San Fran, finished with Las Vegas.
Obviously we want a bit more structure with the children.
We were going to go to Florida but California is calling! There are lots of self-catering for Florida and I was hoping some wise mumsnetter would have details of a good place for California.

we have been to san clemente ( not far from anaheim )on a few occasions and rented aparments via www.vacationrentals.com ( sorry not sure how to do links )
they cover the whole of the USA so should have some in Anaheim -
not sure what you are looking for in your trip but anaheim is very close to disney so you might pay a premium to be there. There are tonnes of places to rent along the coast - laguna /newport etc - San Clemente is about where the prices start dropping a little for apartments. (its a great laid back beach town by the way i would really recommend it ) we never had any probs booking via that site but i seem to remember we had to do some kind of complicated dollars/sterling transfer as they were not used to dealing with Uk. You deal direct with the owners so a quick phone call normally gives you confidence etc. You have made me want to book another trip now !!

We have used www.homeaway.com for Ca rentals but usual common sense required when dealing with private rentals

Look for Seal Beach which is a beautiful unspoilt seaside town south of LA. Short easy drive to Anaheim from there and on the PCH so you can get to San Diego no problem. There are vacation rentals on Vrbo.com and try homeaway.com. Private message me if you like and I can tell you more.

www.vrbo.com/ Is a good site

My grandparents used to holiday in San Clemente each year, I went once with them :).
What is your budget like? I know some very pricey rentals in San Diego. Self-catering accommodation is kind of unusual in the USA, though, I think.

I was totally wrong. Just my family who wouldn't consider own cooking while on vacation!
Loads of SD vacation rentals here. Ocean Beach looks good. Have you just been using wrong search terms?

we've had lots of luck with vrbo for other places.

I live in San Diego, I wouldn't stay in OB, I'd prefer Mission Beach or Pacific beach area I think if I wanted to be near the beach. OB tends to attract a different crowd. You also might consider somewhere like Encinitas or Carlsbad. Bear in mind there are many places in San Diego where you can find a place to stay that is a short drive to the beach and other fun things in San Diego.

PM me if you want some help with San Diego.

we have use Staybridge Suites before, and they were good. we had a 2 bedroom suite, with a kitchen/sitting room in the middle, with a sofabed.

was clean, practical, and just what we needed.