An unfavorable exchange rate need not turn a dream rental into, well, just a dream. With the challenge of stretching the weak dollar in Europe, Consumer News Editor Wendy Perrin honed strategies for getting the most value out of a villa vacation. She shares her field-tested tips—and renders the process foolproof with a directory of 50 villa rental specialists who hold the keys to an array of properties on six continents, from modest beach cottages to opulent castles

Who doesn't dream of renting a villa in Europe? And who doesn't wonder whether such a thing is still affordable, given the angst-producing exchange rate? Probably few. Which is why my mission for this, our third annual worldwide villa rental guide, was to figure out how to beat the $1.57 cost of the euro. I put to the test several money-saving strategies that Americans itching to rent in Europe should consider. The result? My weeklong rental of a four-bedroom house—a traditional village home in southern Spain—cost $2,400. That's only $343 per night. Had I filled the house with the eight people it can sleep, rather than just my family of four, the cost per person per night would have come out to a mere $43. What did I get for that price, and, more important, what did I give up? Here are the lessons I learned about what to scrimp on and what not to.

In my pursuit of a deal, I took three risks that most Americans don't. First, I went in the low season. As you know, many pockets of Europe are best visited not amid the heat and tourist hordes of July or August—when even the locals flee—but rather at off-peak times, when you can get a more pleasant and authentic taste of the place. Summer is the usual choice of families with children, of course. Instead, I took my kids during their school break in February—when not only villa rates but also airfares are lower. Second, I had to steer clear of high-profile, high-priced locales such as Tuscany and Provence. As an alternative, I chose a lesser-known area of great cultural interest: Spain's Andalusia region, which enjoys balmy winter weather. What Florida is to New Englanders in winter, Andalusia is to northern Europeans (it's only nine miles from Africa). Third, I chose a villa that is geared toward the British rather than the American market. Why? Americans rent pricier, more luxurious villas. They want to leave home yet bring it with them, demanding the creature comforts to which they are accustomed: en suite bathrooms for every bedroom, televisions with a range of English-language channels, gourmet kitchens, air-conditioning, wireless Internet access, to name a few. Such amenities—where they exist in European homes (try finding a historic house with AC and Wi-Fi in Tuscany!)—can drive up a villa's price enormously. Since not all Condé Nast Traveler readers consider such amenities crucial—the beauty of renting a home in another country, after all, is that it allows you to live like the locals rather than in the bubble of a hotel—I chose to test-drive a house at the level of a three-star European inn as opposed to a four-star U.S. resort. And I chose to do it in Andalusia's working-farm and orange-grove Lecrin Valley, a 30-minute drive south of the Moorish city of Granada—home to the Alhambra Palace and an Arab quarter that is the next best thing to Marra-kech—and a 45-minute drive north of the Costa Tropical, the Costa del Sol's less developed neighbor.