Casa en el Campo
This is top of our list of places in Spain because Ray’s niece Karen, along with her husband Jeff and their two daughters Beth and Jess, lived in and ran this beautiful holiday villa on the Spanish Costa Blanca for more than 10 years.
Karen and Jeff then had a change in direction – they decided to concentrate on their growing Coast and Country Painters (villa and apartment painting) business. They sold the holiday villa to a Swiss couple and moved down the road to Denia, where they bought a house “with potential”, which they set about converting to their personal taste.
Back at the holiday villa, Karen & Co lived “upstairs”, with their own exterior access, and guests occupied rooms on the ground floor. The rooms were tastefully furnished (of course), with full en-suite facilities. Guests had use of a lovely swimming pool with plenty of poolside seating and sunbeds, peaceful grounds where they could relax, games equipment, a well-equipped kitchen and a TV lounge.
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We’ve stayed with Karen and Jeff many times since they set up their business(es), and we’ve explored some of the area’s beautiful countryside and mountain villages. In addition, Ray has managed to squeeze in the odd round of golf in the area. For more about the courses nearby, see the Golf page or click Golf on the navigation bar above. We still visit that part of Spain because there’s still lots to see and do – and many more golf courses to tackle.
The church (above) is in the beautiful mountain town of Jalon and is well worth the short drive. Better still, explore the mountains beyond Jalon, if you want peace and tranquility or an off-the-beaten-track sample of local cuisine.
One particularly good trip was in May 2010, when eight of us from Abingdon took the place over and occupied all four guest rooms. We’ve known the other six for many years, and all of them knew the area well. The only thing that spoilt the trip was that the famous Icelandic volcanic ash cloud failed to delay our return. With the May weather getting hotter by the day, those of us without work commitments were secretly hoping that all flights out of Alicante would be cancelled for a while.
If you stay at Casa en el Campo (under its new management) you will be less than an hour away from Valentia to the north and Alicante to the south. Within that coastal belt, and in the mountains behind the coast, there is a wonderful world of sights, activities and culture to satisfy the most demanding of tastes. So long as you avoid Benidorm (with apologies to you Benidorm lovers) this is a part of Spain we thoroughly recommend.
To see a more extensive photo gallery, click any “still” picture