Year: 2013

Family Mountain Biking Holidays

Family Mountain Biking Holidays A short while ago we received a reservation from Louise and Adam for an August weekend in our self-catering apartment. They were going to be visiting Louise’s father who lives in Alicante, but wanted a few days away in a different environment – away from the city – and where they could enjoy a more rural setting. They were bringing their children Harry (8) and Issy (6) with them, and they hoped that Adam and Harry would also be able to have a day’s mountain biking over the course of the weekend. Louise and Issy intended to make the most of the sunshine and the pool! They arrived on the Saturday morning, with the day’s biking planned for the Sunday, so soon settled in to the apartment and enjoyed some time around the pool and in the gardens. However, Adam and Harry thought it would be a good plan if they could possibly spend a short time biking on the Saturday afternoon too, and although Dave from Mountain Biking Valencia was only going to be guiding and tutoring them on Sunday, he had already delivered their bikes here in readiness. Mark therefore volunteered to take them…

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Casa Rural Holidays in Spain

Casa Rural Holidays in Spain August has been a busy month for holidays on the Costa Blanca, and Villa Florencia Casa Rural has seen a constant stream of visitors, both new guests as well as those coming back to us again. The weather has been perfect for all the activities our guests wanted to take part in, whether it was excursions to nearby attractions in some of the coastal resorts, trips to Valencia city, enjoying the inland scenery on mountain walks or simply making the most of the sunshine around the pool. Guests came from a variety of countries, mainly Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom and of course Spain, and stayed with us on both a bed and breakfast basis as well as in our self-catering apartment. As well as guests who were staying with us on a commercial basis, we also were delighted to have family members come and visit us as well, and this made for a great mix of people in the house at any one time. August is also a great fiesta month in Spain, and one for getting out and about in the evenings and eating outside the many restaurants and cafés in the town….

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Spanish Property Hunters become Buyers!

Househunters become Buyers! Back in April, we had the pleasure of having Mark and Rosalyn stay with us on a Spanish property house-hunting trip. They loved the area and saw several Spanish properties that they thought had possibilities, but their visit was greatly marred by a serious car accident they had. It was not their fault – a car hit them on the wrong side of the road in heavy rain – and they were not seriously injured, but it inevitably cast a shadow over their visit. However, when they left they said they were still keen on the area and that we would see them again. It was therefore a lovely surprise when they paid an unexpected visit a couple of days ago – they were driving past our house on the way to Gandia. The bigger surprise, however, was that in the interim they had purchased a really lovely Spanish property, a villa in the area at a very realistic price! It turns out they had spotted some properties on another estate agent’s website, had viewed them on a couple of day-trips to area (which is why we had not seen them here as guests again), and decided…

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Self Catering Holidays in Spain

Self Catering Holidays in Spain Some months ago we received a booking from Macarena, who wanted to reserve our self-catering apartment for a week’s holiday for herself and her family.  They live in Madrid, but were planning to spend some time to the south of here on holiday, before enjoying a week with us in the La Safor region.  They had in fact been to Gandia several years ago, when their children were very young, and were interested too in revisiting some of the places down at the beach that they remembered from that earlier visit. Macarena, her husband Rafa and sons Rafa, who is twelve and Manuel, who is nearly nine, arrived last Monday and soon settled in to the apartment and made friends with our dogs and cats.  Sons Rafa and Manuel are particularly fond of animals and so were delighted to find that they were able to play with our pets as much as they wanted!  The weather was beautiful for the entire length of their stay and so they were able to make the most not only of the pool and the gardens, but also took every opportunity to go to one of the wonderful beaches…

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Spanish Property Hunters return for a second look

Spanish Property Hunters return for a second look! A couple of weeks ago we were glad to meet Malcolm who stayed with us for one night only at the end of a property hunting trip to Spain – but that was enough to convince him that this was the part of the country that would be right to look for a home in a serious way. He found a couple of properties that he liked during that visit, so now he returned to us, but this time with his partner Paul, in order to look again at some of the houses he had already viewed before, as well as to look at some others for the first time. They had in fact been staying in a hotel in the centre of Gandia for a couple of nights before coming to us in order to get a proper feel for the town they were thinking of making their home. This period spent in the town itself only helped to confirm in their minds that Gandia is indeed the vibrant place they had thought, with plenty of heart and soul to it and well able to supply everything they would want for…

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All-Inclusive Mountain Biking Holidays Spain

We were delighted when we received a booking from Rob on behalf of himself, his wife Frances and their friends Brian and Christine who wanted to take advantage of one of our all-inclusive mountain biking short break packages. Our offer of a three night stay with bed, breakfast and evening meal included as well as two days guided mountain biking with a packed lunch supplied suited them perfectly. The fact that we also allow a late check-out for these packages (effectively making it a four day break) was also a bonus for them, as their flight home only left in the evening, so they were able to enjoy an extra day around the pool. They had begun their Spanish holiday in Valencia, and then came to us by train on the Sunday. We collected them from Gandia station and brought them to our casa rural in time for lunch and then a leisurely afternoon around the pool before dinner. They then were keen to have a fairly early night, in preparation for their first day’s mountain biking that lay ahead. Dave Warrington from Mountain Biking Valencia arrived on Monday morning after breakfast to discuss with them the route they might…

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