Gite-Holiday House Sils - Spain

Location: Casadevall Villa is just outside of Sils, a town 15 km inland from Blanes and Lloret de Mar and the southern resorts of the Costa Brava, just off the N-2 and AP-7 motorways, an hour by car from Barcelona (though I would recommend you leave the car in the free parking at Sils station and make your way around by commuter train: 55 minutes into Barcelona, 15 to Girona, 30 to Figueres, etc.. The Sils train station is about 1,2 kilometers from the house, a 20 minute walk! and train´s are every hour from 7 am to 11 pm). In short, Sils is not such an attactive village but very practical for its excellent location vis a vis the main sights, and plenty of shopping, restaurants, markets, PGA golf, tenis, spas, etc.

The house: Villa Casadevall was built by a well-known local architect about 15 years ago. The layout is quite logical. The building itself consists of a two one-storey wings flanking a central two-storey oval-shaped livingroom office, with the pool and garden in front, and the parking lot and driveway to the remote control gate behind.

The north wing has five bedrooms. At the end of the hall, bedroom 1) is an en suite bedroom with a 150x200 cm bed, private full bathroom with a separate toilet room, and access directly to the garden and pool area. 2) Another en suite bedroom with 150x200 cm bed and private full bathroom and also direct access to the pool area. 3) and 4) two bedrooms with 135x180 cm beds facing the driveway side of the house, and 5) a sort of kiddy bedroom with lots of toys and children´s decoration and two single 90x180 cm beds, and direct access to the pool area. These three rooms share a full bathroom with bath and shower in the hallway.

On the south wing of the house there is bedroom 6) with two single 90x180 cm beds and the bathroom across the hall, that has a shower stall and the 4-man sauna. This bedroom might have originally been intended as the maid´s room as it is over on the kitchen side of the house and doesn´t have nice built-in closets like the other bedrooms. Beyond that there is the gym with weightlifting and static bicycles and other exercise equiptment, and then the 4-car garage. The caretaker has installed a electric counter to charge for the electicity you use for the sauna as an extra ever since some guests have left the sauna on for the entire two weeks of their stay.

The split-level living room is bright, spacious and comfortable, set around a large fireplace on one side and TV on wheels on the other. There are two large white sofas and two large poofs and a card table an other assorted chairs, all behind large window panes offering great views of the pool and the pine forest. The lighting is especially nice at night time, with lots of halogen spotlights in the slanting ceiling as well as some free-standing lamps. There is also an old HiFi system that still works and a curiously ecclectic collection of old cassettes. The TV has local digital channels, many of them in original language broadcasting, so you can always find something in English, and some channels, like the Disney Channel, are always in English, 24 hours a day.

The kitchen area at Casadevall villa is divided into three rooms, the kitchen, a pantry, and a washroom. The kitchen, which measures about 20m2, is relatively small for such a large house, but has a nice foodprep island in the middle and a small table with seating for four. You´ll find the usual double sink, a 4 burner stovetop, oven and extractor, a normal sized dishwasher, a normal 1,8 m sized fridge, microwave, toaster, stick mixer, electric drip coffee-maker, stick mixer, juicer, and tea kettle. We did most of our foodprep outdoors, and most of our cooking at the bbq.

In the pantry you´ll find a large top-loading freezer and plenty of shelving to store your shopping.

The washroom has a washing machine, a sink for hand washing, and an iron and ironing board.

Taken all together, this makes for around 40 or 45m2 of kitchen space, so maybe I shouldn´t complain about the size of the kitchen, especially given the better than average covered BBQ dining area just across from the kitchen´s garden exit, where most guests will be having their meals from Spring to Autumn.

Undoubtedly the nicest part of the house is the pool and garden area, including a nice covered poolside porch, and the covered BBQ area with a outdoor dining table and foodprep area and lights for night-time meals. The garden at the back of the house above average, and the illuminated pool at night makes for a very attractive ensemble.