Casa Rural Ana María Pairal

Lovely place for a big group, and a car is needed to get around.

The house has huge potential and sits in lovely surroundings, but we found the furniture shabby and the beds awful. Most mattresses must be more than 20 years old, and the pillows were just as bad. Sofas are crammed into the shared spaces, with tables stacked half on top of each other. I’ve seen storage rooms that were better organized. Some of the supposed bedrooms are really just passageways to other rooms. There’s a terrible damp smell throughout the house, and I hate to imagine how it is in winter with the windows shut or during the rainy season. There were 14 of us and not enough towels for everyone. A shame, because despite the setting, it wasn’t worth it.

For what we paid, the portable barbecues were falling apart, and the fridge was small for 13 people, let alone 17. I wouldn’t recommend this place for families with children either, with all those stairs, and there was a strong damp smell. We went with friends over the Halloween long weekend, but won’t be back. They kept 50 euros from our deposit, claiming the kitchen was dirty. That wasn’t true: we all stayed to clean, wash the dishes, and even make the beds. The beds were uncomfortable and felt full of springs, the pillows were awful, and we woke up dizzy the next day. We also found a few bugs.

Ionut, the maintenance man, welcomed us warmly and was very attentive. The pool table and foosball were useful extras when traveling with children, and although the pool is small, it’s fantastic, almost like a jacuzzi. There’s just one television, on the second floor. The village is pretty, though there are no shops nearby. The house is huge, with spacious rooms, and everything was clean, but it felt a bit neglected. Some linens and towels were old. There was lots of old, mismatched furniture, tables and chairs that seemed out of place, like unwanted things being stored there. We weren’t told that the bed next to the pool table had been removed, leaving its en-suite room without a bed, and moved to the attic. It was much too hot to sleep there in summer, and we’d pictured the room layout differently. There were other small issues too: light fittings without bulbs, bathroom mirror lights that didn’t work, cabinets missing doors, and some bathrooms lacked towel racks or hooks for the shower faucet. The dishes were mismatched, with some very old ones. We didn’t speak with the owner. If those details were taken care of, this could be an amazing house, a perfect 10.