Category: Casa Rural Spain

First Despedida of the Season!

The weekend of May 4th, 5th & 6th saw the first of the “Despedidas de Soltera” of the season. A group of girls from Banyeres de Mariola – a small inland town in Alicante province – had booked the house for the weekend and were due to arrive on the Friday evening. At about 7.00pm the first of the girls arrived, shortly followed by the rest, making a very full house indeed! The schedule for the first evening was to have a meal together and settle in to their surroundings. They were delighted with the house and its facilities, and had a great time into the small hours of Saturday morning with a party upstairs on the dining terrace. Saturday morning was a fairly quiet time, with the girls gradually appearing around the pool and in the gardens up until lunchtime. They made lunch on the barbecue and enjoyed sitting out in the sunshine, although only a few were brave enough to venture in to the pool for a swim. The weather was good, but the water was still a little on the cool side! After lunch and a time of relaxation, they had organised a bicycle trip in conjunction…

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Family Holidays in Spain

Easter was a very busy time for us all at our casa rural in Gandía, with a completely full house over the Easter weekend itself. Visitors returned from last year, as well as many new ones visiting us for the first time. The weather had been forecast to be damp and cool, but in the end only a little rain fell over the holiday period, and mostly the weather was fine and warm – always good for our guests on their holidays! Tony, Trudy and their children Harvey, Monty and Queenie visited us for just over a week, and chose to stay in our self-catering apartment. Tony and Trudy had visited the area last year with a possible view to purchasing a holiday property and wanted to return this time with their children to give them the opportunity to see the region also. The self-catering apartment was the ideal option for them, and allowed them much more flexibility – they enjoyed the sense of independence and privacy that the apartment allows, but at the same time they joined us for most of their evening meals – and even for some breakfasts too! They wanted the advantages of the apartment, but…

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Mountain Biking, Nature Trails and Valencia Football

On Monday we welcomed a guest from just about as far away as you can get – Australia. Nic was travelling on his own and doing a bit of a tour, visiting his father in the U.S. before embarking on a trip around Europe. He had visited his sister in Edinburgh before going on to see Amsterdam and then Berlin before making his way to Spain. However, he felt that he now wanted a break from busy city sight-seeing and was looking for a spell of getting back to the countryside and nature so decided to visit us here in Gandía. He thought we would be well placed for a tranquil, rural setting but within reasonable reach of Valencia city if he wanted to have a quick day trip. He arrived by train in Gandía, having flown in to Barcelona from Berlin earlier in the day. We were happy to collect him from the station, and he dined in with us on his first evening. When he arrived the previous evening, it was already dark, so the following morning he was very impressed with the surroundings of the villa and felt he had made the right decision in coming here…

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Villa Florencia Casa Rural Gandia B&B Spain 2012

The season that lies ahead in 2012 will be our sixth full year of operation, and we are looking forward to a year of welcoming back previous guests as well as meeting new ones for the first time.  The New Year period has already been and gone and was a busy time for us, with a full house of guests, many of whom had come for the excellent rock-climbing to be found in the area.  We hope to have more rock-climbers visit us in the future, as this is an activity – along with other outdoor and nature-related interests – that we are actively promoting.  In the cooler months of the year the area is a haven for those looking for an outdoor holiday rather than one based around sunshine and beaches.  Mountain biking, hiking, horse riding, bird watching and hill walking are just some of the other activities that can be enjoyed in the immediate area around the villa, or at most within a 20 minute drive.  Diversification has to be a positive thing, especially in the uncertain economic times that seem to face everyone at present– in whatever European country you find yourself.  In past seasons, we have directed…

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Christmas and New Year – Something for Everyone!

The Christmas and New Year period was a very busy time at the Gandia Casa Rural, with everyone making the most of the versatile accommodation and catering options available to our guests. Not only were all the B & B rooms occupied, but also the self-catering apartment as well, with the guests there sometimes looking after their own mealtime requirements, but sometimes also coming up to the main house to join their friends who were dining there. Gary and Andy from Liverpool were with us for their winter sunshine holidays, the whole time from Christmas Eve through until after the New Year, and dined with us every evening. They would often take day-trips to local places of interest as well as visiting Valencia city, which far exceeded their expectations. Shortly after Christmas we were also joined by a couple from Germany – Axel and Kerstin – who were visiting their daughter who was on a student exchange scheme and studying at the Gandía campus of Valencia University. Most of their time was spent with their daughter, although on several occasions they took advantage of our evening meal service too. The other guests in the property were a group of friends…

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Happy & Successful House Hunters

In amongst all the doom and gloom concerning the economic situation and the housing and property market in particular in Spain, there are still instances of things turning out happily for all concerned. Back in the summer, we were pleased to have Carmel and her family stay with us whilst they were on a house-hunting expedition here. They had done plenty of research in their quest to find a bargain property on the Costa Blanca, and had narrowed their search to one property that they felt really met their requirements. It might seem strange to come half-way round the world (they spend most of their time in Malaysia) on a property hunt here in Spain and then only look at one house, but they felt that this was the one – and so it has proved to be! Not for them the standard type of “villa with a pool” that is so often the target of the foreign property purchaser in Spain – they were looking for something different. There are plenty of homes of the more conventional type on the market – and they have seen lots of them in Malaysia too, of course – but they already had…

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