IDYLLIC HOLIDAY VILLA CAN BE YOUR HOME FROM HOME
But check fine print before renting abroad
The first villa we ever rented abroad wasn’t really a villa at all. It was a small, rough-and-ready house in a tiny village in the Dordogne, not far from the town of Riberac. There was no air conditioning, no pool and no real privacy – it fronted on to the main road and the local farmer wandered through our back garden every morning on his way to see to his livestock in the adjacent field. But we all loved it – myself, my son, and the man who would become my husband.
It was July 1997. And it was our first taste of what would be numerous other villa holidays still to come.
Nowadays, of course, they are all the rage, people having cottoned on to the great advantages that they can offer over hotel or B&B accommodation. And with such ease of access with booking, of course, through various established and reputable online sites. (There are many of these nowadays, but tried and tested by me over the years, and always coming up to scratch, have been James Villas, Mallorca Farmhouses, The Thinking Traveller and Rustic Blue.)
It’s the sheer freedom of this kind of holiday that so appeals to me.
We have enjoyed several villa-based holidays over the past 20-odd years in myriad different locations – all over Spain, for example, including a great villa outside Montefrio in Andalucia and a gorgeous one near Pollenca in Mallorca a few years ago. Then there was the oh-so-chic one in a quiet part of Turkey, the one with the cerise pink shutters on the Greek island of Zakynthos that my husband called ‘the Barbie house’, plus a number of villas in different parts of Italy, including a spectacular one with its own private chapel up a mountain in Sicily and another gem, like something out of Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty film, in the Tuscan countryside near Volterra.
It’s all about making the right choice to suit the people involved. And, a bit like that old estate agent mantra, it really is all about location, location, location.
So check that distances are correct, for example. Really check. When it says 10km from the sea, how specifically accurate is that? If you think that that seems like nitpicking, it isn’t. For just imagine pitching up at that villa, with three young children in tow, only to discover that it’s closer to 30km from the sea. In a villa with no swimming pool. At the height of the Mediterranean summer. Just picture that journey in the car every day. No, not exactly idyllic. The same goes for access to a local shop. If you are the sort of person who likes fresh bread every morning, then that kind of detail is crucial.
Air conditioning is another vital aspect – even with the best of rental agencies, not all villas have it. So if it’s essential for you, check the small print. (Tuscany/ Umbria was the only exception we ever made – with old properties there, the thick walls keep the place cool, even without air-con.)
The pool is another important aspect. I love having a private pool but, occasionally, especially when my son was young, it was a decided advantage to have a villa with a shared pool because he had some playmates!
Once you’ve established the important basics, however, the wonderful thing about a villa holiday is that, actually, there are no rules. At all.
And isn’t that precisely what a holiday is supposed to be all about?