Sorbas holiday cottage: EL Campico de las Moletas - Los Castanos

Paul and Carole have created the perfect getaway-from-it-all holiday home for Spainophiles. Along a beaten track, up in the hillsides half an hour's toottle from the coast, the old farmstead takes you to life in another age with some gratifying modern comforts thrown in. You stay in a converted piggery which is simple but has everything you need - shower, kitchen etc. and a handy welcome basket. Not that you spend much time inside. There is a Moorish outside sitting area which offers shade, your own private pool and beautiful garden with barbeque area, looking down along a valley of olives and almonds and goats and darting swallows. No need to leave the property for a day or two but walk along the valley through Spaghetti Western territory and forget about the strains of our high-tech world in an instant. Drive (car is a must) down to the coast or further up into the mountains and you can absorb all the other varied attractions of this hospitable part of Southern Spain. Paul and Carole and their adopted dogs make you welcome in this ancient village now revived by a mixture of nationalities but still only numbering a dozen or so houses dotted along the track which is a five minute drive from the main road. They are environmentally friendly, with power coming from solar panels and water pumped up from a well. They know everything there is to know about the area and in our case went more than the extra mile to help us out of a difficulty we had half-way through the holiday at a local resort which Arthur Conan Doyle would have termed: The Curious Case of the Vanishing Hire Car. We'll save that story for another day, but our hosts could not have been more helpful and helped us through our visits to the local police. Finding the property was easy and Almeria was a great, quiet airport to fly into. If a tranquil holiday, enjoying the simple Spanish life is your aim, this is the place for you. And there's lots of fun to be had too.
Andrew and Deborah

We stayed at this property in August 2009 and found it to be a well appointed, lovely quiet spot well away from everything. The owners Paul and Carol were very attentive and helpful without being intrusive and made our holiday extra special. Our kids loved the pool and the owner's dogs, we thought the garden was pretty and the views spectacular. We would definately go again.