I stayed with my six fellow research students from Norway at the house for almost 5 weeks this January-Febuary of 2012. We found the house by coincidence on the website of "home away.com" The house has a good feel to to it and it felt very much like a home. The house looked much better in reality than it does in the pictures on the website. Maura, the landlord, was extremely helpful with anything we needed during our stay and she would check in with us several times to see if there was anything we needed. Anything. The house had a lot of space and had all the appliances we needed. The beds were very comfortable! The bathroom had a high standard, which I think is important to mention. Even though it was a little bit cold outside when we arrived on the 11th of January, the heating system in the house worked perfectly without any problems. The kitchen was very equipped and we did not lack anything. This in particular was very neat since we all cooked many dinners at home during our stay. There is a Whole Foods and a Safeway grocery store not far away from the house, just a short walk away (5-6 minutes). We were also very thrilled when we discovered a Trader Joe´s right next to Rockridge Bart Station. Of course we did not eat dinners at the house every night. There are plenty of quaint little restaurants close to the house. In Elmwood we found a very nice greek restaurant that I enjoyed a lot and also an Indian restaurant right on College street and Alcatraz ave. Due to our research project, we had to go to San Francisco very frequently for meetings. There was no problem for us to get there. We either walked to Rockridge Bart station (about a 23 minute walk) or took the bus either on Telegraph street or via College street to the Downtown Berkeley bart station. I especially liked the neighbourhood. It´s great to go for a jog or run in the morning and the people I met were very friendly. I felt very secure and relaxed just walking or jogging around on my own. I would definitely recommend this house to families but also to young adventurous adults who wants to visit the Bay Area and San Francisco. You don´t need a rental-car to get around, because the public transportation system in this area is very good and easy to access. Will I come back here? Yes, for sure! And I would love to bring my family from Norway along next time!

Travelling from Norway and stayed here for a month. Such a lovely home, and Maura was great. Close to everything I needed; grocery store, shopping, restaurants, cinema, BART station, bus and UC Berkeley. And what I loved the most was the safe and nice neighbourhood. Hope I can come back and stay here next time I'm back in Berkeley.

Elmwood Place met all our expectations and beyond, with the highest quality throughout. It was quiet, sunny, breezy, and warm, with all rooms large, spacious and inviting. The outside deck was especially nice, comfortably seating six adults at the table and chairs We rented here for two months during the summer, and loved the idyllic location, the sun-filled house, the quiet neighborhood, and easy access to all that Berkeley has to offer. Located on a quiet cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood with lots of young families, it was within walking distance of shopping, great restaurants, Whole Foods, several coffee houses, theater, BART, and UC Berkeley. The accommodations and appointments are first-class. The living space was great with a Carlyle sleeper sofa (when we had family visit) and very comfortable beds and linens. There was a high resolution SONY TV, SONY DVD blue ray player, and DirecTV satellite for watching TV in the evenings and the Olympics were great! We had everything we needed in the kitchen to cook great meals, including a powerful gas range and convection oven, which was great for baking. Just like I have at home, there was Sur La Table stainless steel cookware, Henkel kitchen and steak knives, Le Creuset and Chicago bake-ware, small appliances, and important tools like a garlic press and cherry pitter for serious cooks like me. The owner did everything we asked and more, including helping with suggestions about day trips and exploring the Bay Area and wine country. We could not have enjoyed our stay more and look forward to visiting again next summer.

My wife, 1.8 years old kid and myself + friends couple with their 1 year old kid stayed in this beautiful house for a month so we can definitely give accurate feedback on this house and host. The house is as advertise - great location near Telegraph and Collage st. in Berkeley - close to everything from BART, UC-Berkeley campus, many local shops and restaurants. Very fun place to walk around - beautiful houses and gardens + a haven for families with babies (2 great kids parks 30 second walk from the house!) The house is packed with equipment for the stay and is decorated very elegantly. The master bedroom is huge with great light and very comfortable bed and beddings. The second bed room have 2 beds (for 2 and 1 person) and is also very comfortable. The house has a great dinning room (which we also used as a work table) and a nice living room with a couch that opens into a bed. The kitchen has everything and we made many home cooking dinners there. The landlord Maura was very nice and attentive. She answered all our SMS/email very fast and even during the weekend and supplied us (with no extra charge) with more equipment for the kitchen when my wife wanted to bake some special treats. She also supplied the two babies in the house with baby beds and many toys and baby books. All in all we had a wonderful month stay with many days of work and travel to the wine county (1 hour drive north) and SF (less then 30 minutes in BART). It was fun coming back to the house every evening and having a home away from home. I wholeheartedly recommend this house - if the price is right for you - you will enjoy it.