News and opinion about villa holidays

This week our favourite villa is the Villa du Parc in Cannes. (Next week it will be a different villa. We are fickle like that.) (more…)

If you are lucky enough to be able to take your time to meander through France on the way to your villa in the South of France, you will notice that there is a point at which the scenery starts to change. (more…)

True story:

“What fantastic views” we enthused, trying to ignore the clouds of dust that were blowing in front of it, and trying not to look them other way. The views in one direction were indeed of the highest quality, as was the villa that we were being asked to offer, but the earth was shaking underneath it, and I couldn’t think of a nice way to put it, so I said, “Those JCBs are a bit noisy though”.

“Oh, we hardly notice them, ” the owner said. That was hard to fathom, since there were 6 of them engaged in earth moving operations.

“Well, you would if you were paying to stay here.”

“To be honest, we do notice them when we arrive”.

“When do you think the work will finish”

“I’m not sure. Not soon.”

“Why don’t you let us know when it’s all finished?”

“Is it a problem?”

“UK law says we can’t let a house when there is a building site nearby. We are an ABTA member.”

“Oh, well, I’ll just put it on a direct website then! They won’t be able to sue me here. ”

Dealing with an agent means that you can sue the agent. If you are spending serious money then accountability is worth thinking about.

The Algarve Resident recently highlighted the issue of new government regulation in Portugal. (more…)

The largest island in the Caribbean, second only to Cuba, with a commercial existance not wholly dependent on tourism. (more…)

A hundred very beautiful islands, 7+ hours flight from Europe. The three we offer are radically different. (more…)

The end of the year is statistics time. In the spirit of Glasnost and for the delight of our competitors, here is what it tells us about the state of the world: (more…)