It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for our Stylish Vacation Rental of the Week!

Today, we’re heading to a luxury beach house retreat in Venice, California. If you’re planning a trip to sunny SoCal, consider this beach house rental for your holiday home stay. It’s bright, sophisticated and perfectly located near the famous sand and surf, as well as restaurants and shops.

This eco-friendly beach house is ideally located on a charming pedestrian street in Venice, California, near the canals. Do you know about the canals?

Here’s a pic from my last little tour through Venice – the California version. As you can see it’s a colorful place.

(This is not the specific house I’m featuring today, but it does give you an idea about the neighborhood. Trust me, you’ll love it.)

In the secluded canal area, the “streets” are actually waterways. No cars are allowed but there are plenty of sidewalks, bridges and the occasional paddleboat or kayak. This holiday rental is in a secluded pedestrian paradise between the old-world canals and the excitement of Venice Beach.

The world famous Venice Beach boardwalk area is always buzzing. There’s Muscle Beach, sun-tanned surfer dudes, street musicians, head shops, food stands and souvenir shops. The boardwalk has starred in lots of movies – you should check it out for yourself, at least once.

Luckily, this home stay is removed from the hustle and bustle of the crowds, but still steps away from the SoCal sand and surf, as well as the restaurants and coffee shops.

The overall vibe of the house itself is luxurious yet casual and it’s all about indoor-outdoor living. Which means pure California style.

Since you’ll be so close to many of L.A.’s best restaurants, there’s no need to find yourself trapped inside unless you want to be. But this gourmet kitchen features state of the art appliances and a full assortment of kitchen gadgets to help you prepare a yummy meal at home, if you’re into it. Personally, I’d want to visit one of the nearby fresh markets and cook at least a few meals at home. I would definitely want to have some lazy breakfasts here before heading out to the beach.

Floor-to-ceiling glass doors create indoor-outdoor living and bathe the space in natural light.

There is also a convenient desk area off the kitchen, for completing work projects, doing homework (or working on your travel blog!)

The master bedroom has a king bed, Belgian linen black-out curtains and a private balcony.

A flatscreen HDTV and elegant furniture complete the relaxing space Don’t you love the pops of turquoise throughout this beach house? I just can’t resist it.

I’m not a shower girl – I’m a linger-in-the-bath girl and I think you can tell a lot about a place by the bath room. I’ll take a small bedroom and a larger bath any day. I love bathtubs so much that I once wrote a whole post called Water Rituals which showcases some of the best tubs I’ve encountered while traveling.

The master bath in this vacation rental definitely doesn’t disappoint me. What do you think?

Everything in this vacation villa is well designed and furnished with that sophisticated laid-back Venice style. You’ll see the same California/Urban/Rustic look in restaurants and bars along nearby Abbott Kinney Boulevard and frankly, throughout Los Angeles.

Another bedroom on the lower level enjoys private access to the courtyard and the pedestrian street.

The roof deck offers truly spectacular 360-degree ocean, mountain and panoramic city views. Enjoy iconic Los Angeles sunsets to the West and equally impressive sunrises to the East from this roof deck.

Plus there is dining seating for 8, and a cozy fire pit for cool beach evenings.

Private pedestrian entrance only 150 yards from the beach.

Families, couples, artists, and award winning writers, actors, and musicians have vacationed here and fallen in love with it.

The property is family friendly, but it’s probably worth noting that it’s not really “toddler friendly”.

If you are a regular reader, you know that I use a number of different sites when I book my vacation rentals – TripAdvisor, VRBO and HomeAway, just to name a few. Each has something special to offer and I try to feature each of them, from time to time, on the blog.

I found this particular California vacation rental on Airbnb. I’m a big fan of the home stays I’ve booked through this service so far, and their referral program allows me to offer you a $25 Travel Credit if you’ve never booked with them. Plus, if you use my link, I get credit, too. That means you’re helping me support my travel habit. So thank yous and high fives all around! We both win.

Here’s the link you can use to get the discount, for this rental or any other on Airbnb —-> Airbnb $25 Travel Credit.

And here’s the link to the specific beach house in this post where you can find more info on this lovely stay – the Luxury Venice Beach House Retreat Reservations Link on Airbnb: www.airbnb.com.

If you’re planning your trip for this fall, check out this list of awesome things to do in Los Angeles in October.

So. Dude. Have you packed your bags for California yet?