Villa Alcahuey

The views from this lovely villa are fantastic, though it can get very windy because it’s so exposed. The villa could use a little maintenance in places, but it’s still a great place to stay. Getting up the mountain was much worse than I expected. The drive down was easier, but still hair-raising, and the earlier reviews about it are accurate. You need to be a confident driver, and make sure your rental car has full insurance. There seemed to be one route into nerja that was the least crazy, so find it and stick to it. Google Maps sent us down a dirt track through what seemed like a jungle, and we had to turn back and find another way. We hardly met any other traffic, which was a godsend. Lovely villa and views, but the drive there was scary as hell.

The villa’s 180-degree outlook over the mountains, the valley around Frigiliana and Nerja, and the sea is incredible. We watched the sun rise from that direction over breakfast, then saw the mountain shadows stretch out beautifully as it set. We spent a week here with the family, and the whole place impressed us. The rooms were spacious and clean, the kitchen had everything we needed, including a dishwasher, oven, hob and large fridge-freezer, and there was a handy washing machine in the utility room. Air conditioning worked well in the bedrooms and lounge. Outside, there’s a large unheated pool, a pool table, sun loungers and plenty of seating. The drive up is the hard part. The directions were good, and I checked the route in Street View first, but it was the steepest and most dangerous road I’d driven in 30 years. I wouldn’t want to tackle it in the dark. We got used to going up and down, though it was still a bit hair-raising each time. Glad it was a hire car. The view makes the drive worthwhile.

We stayed in early May 2024, me, my wife and our three teenage children. The villa is beautiful, and the pictures don’t show how good the views are. There’s loads of space inside and out, though the exposed hillside gets very windy when the wind picks up. I won’t go through all the rooms since they’re in the listing, but here are a few answers to questions we had after booking. There’s Wi-Fi, around 8 Mbps, so it won’t handle lots of video streams at once. Our streaming box worked on the TV until all the kids were on their phones watching YouTube and the like. The pool isn’t heated. There’s a washing machine, a huge parking area inside the property, and a pool table in fantastic condition with all its balls. It really is in the middle of nowhere, as the listing says. If you want to be able to walk to things, don’t book here. If you want to get away from it all and switch off, it’s the place for that. The drive up is what people complain about most, so here’s my honest take. It’s a concrete road, not a dirt track, and definitely steeper than most UK drivers are used to. In a few spots there’s a steep drop if you drive off the edge, but if you stay in your lane and don’t hit oncoming traffic, it’s not a big deal. You don’t need a 4x4 or a specialist car. Keep it in first gear and take your time. In our 10 days, we met an oncoming car just once. It’s a single-track road with passing places, side roads and driveways. Being able to parallel park and control the car is all you need. I actually enjoyed the drive, and our oversized, underpowered petrol car managed it without trouble. One other thing: my wife and I hadn’t been bothered by mosquitoes on previous holidays in mainland Spain, but this time that changed. The tiger mosquito seems to be relatively new to Spain, as I found out, and it’s a little bugger. I wish we’d brought repellent from day one, as they’re definitely around Nerja and the surrounding area. Like anywhere, what you make of the place depends on what you’re after. If you’re using Google Maps and Street View to find the villa, the map is right, but in Street View it’s called “Villa KARINA.” It seems to have changed its name, and those images are out of date.

We’ve been home for four months now, and that just makes us miss this place even more. It was fabulous.