Imagine sipping margaritas on the garden patio of your private Mexican villa.

What about bicycling to the nearest village from an ancient thatched-roof cottage in England?

Picture reading by a fire in a quaint farmhouse in New Zealand.

Perhaps you fancy a chic studio on the banks of the Seine in Paris, or a tranquil private island in the Caribbean?

What about an antique-filled palazzo in the hills of Tuscany?

Or even a charming little hillside bungalow overlooking the terraced rice fields of Bali?

These and thousands of other houses, villas, apartments and even castles are readily available to you for a vacation rental.

If you're the sort of traveler who likes to unpack only once and explore an area at leisure from a home base, then you'll want to learn about international home rentals. Renting a fully equipped house or apartment, sometimes replete with service staff and automobiles, can be one of the least expensive ways for a family or companionable couples to travel.

Depending on the standard you desire, you can go it alone in a secluded hideaway or be pampered like royalty in your own mansion.

Whatever your normal scale of hotel accommodation, a comparable-quality house rental tends to be much less expensive on a weekly or longer basis. Small and charming self-contained houses can be rented for as low as $400 a week in many desirable locations throughout Europe.

On the other end of the price spectrum, you could fork out more than $300,000 a month to indulge in sybaritic luxury for exclusive occupancy of a tropical isle. You may expect — and should demand — that the property you select will be delivered turnkey, i.e., with all of the furnishings and accessories essential for sleeping, cooking/dining, relaxing and entertaining.

If you're interested in exploring a particular destination in depth, there's probably no more congenial means than setting up housekeeping in a central location and making easy day excursions from there. No group schedule, no motorcoach, no rush, no hotel-hopping.

Although most available houses are in Europe and the Caribbean, you can locate a compatible rental almost anywhere on the planet. Begin your search on the Internet where scores of Web sites, featuring owner-direct as well as brokered properties, are listed.

But before you contact one of the established rental brokerage companies, you will want to make a checklist of what you're looking for.

Considerations would include specific country and region, hosted or exclusive occupancy, style of accommodations (country cottage, historic estate, farmhouse, urban studio, for example), size of house and number of bedrooms and baths, special amenities and features (phone, television, computer connections, auto use, among others), staffed or unserviced, guest restrictions, pet policies, proximity to gas and groceries and area attractions, as well as rental rates.

In most cases, you'll find that a group of people can share comfortable digs for one reasonable flat rate.

You'll want to have a list of questions answered up front: Is there a minimum stay? Might any extra charges apply? What are the policies (in writing, please) on security deposits, cleaning fees, cancellations and refunds?