Mas Campmol

We loved the pool and the outdoor dining and barbecue area, which has two grills. The house has seven bedrooms and two living rooms, and even though the host lives next door, we had complete privacy. They also let us bring our dog. A few things to know: part of the access road is unpaved, so take care if your car has low clearance, and the tap water isn’t drinkable, though the host supplies bottled water for the stay. Every bedroom has a fan. We did miss having a dishwasher.

The pool was the best part, and we had a great weekend in a lovely place to unwind. The stay was good, though the rooms could use improvements like ceiling fans and working outlets. The bathroom faucets don’t work properly either, so replacing them might also reduce water waste.

The place is beautiful and peaceful, and it can fit a large group with its pool and barbecue. But it badly needs maintenance. The rooms are old and uncomfortable, the doors, windows, and plumbing are more than 20 years old, and there are lots of mosquitoes with no mosquito nets. The kitchenware is sparse and there’s no dishwasher. Getting there by car is difficult, and the nearest recycling bin is three kilometers away in the village. They should bring the house up to minimum standards, especially for families with children.

The garden and good-sized pool are lovely, and the kitchen has the utensils you need. I’d also recommend checking out the interesting book collection in the living rooms. But our winter weekend with 16 adults and children was a terrible experience. The tap water wasn’t drinkable, and the supplied firewood was damp, filling all three floors with smoke. It was one of the coldest weekends of winter, and we couldn’t get warm the first night: the electric heaters had to stay on their lowest setting or the circuit breakers tripped. The owner’s children kindly brought dry firewood the next day, and we got the ground-floor fireplace going, but the chimney in the second-floor room and the one in the ground-floor living room weren’t working, perhaps because of drafts. The house is very large, but some mattresses and furniture are extremely old, including in the small third-floor room and one second-floor double room. The water regulator also seems faulty, making it hard to keep the shower from turning scalding hot or freezing cold. The sofa and TV room is in an annex on the middle floor, outside the main house, and the first-floor toilet cistern didn’t work. It seems much better suited to summer than winter, though with a few improvements it could work well all year.