Great location, very remote, with lovely views across open countryside to the village of Maria de la Salut. This remoteness suited us but visitors definitely need their own transport. The villa profile says there is only parking for two cars but there is ample parking.
Despite its remoteness, the villa was fairly easy to find once we were given the GPS co-ordinates. However, the last few hundred metres were across a rutted track on the edge of a field - I mention this only for the benefit of future visitors as we arrived in the dark, couldn't see any buildings, and were convinced that we had gone wrong somewhere.
The villa is beautiful, with an impressive entrance hall. Unfortunately this acts as an echo chamber and the second floor bedroom (a twin) is in a mezzanine style over the open, vast hall which made it incredibly noisy and hot (no a/c in this room). Consequently, the lounge became a bedroom and two of our family slept in there, which they said was wonderfully comfortable, quiet, and cool. Losing the lounge as a communal area didn't particularly matter as the outdoor space was excellent and we were outside from dawn to beyond dusk.
The villa was mostly well-equipped and we were extremely grateful to the hosts for providing us with two travel cots. But we did have to go out on day one and buy 6 mugs so that we could have cups of tea as the tiny espresso coffee cups provided were totally inadequate for the job (maybe a mug is a British thing!).
The mug-hunt was quite a challenge as the large supermarkets we went to didn't sell them (note to visitors, supermarkets don't sell paracetamol or throat lozenges either). Luckily we stumbled upon a wonderful bazaar in Sa Pobla which was a delight. We found everything in there including a 3 year-old's snorkel, beach ball, birthday bunting, pegs, and ping-pong balls (the ones in the villa were past it). The bazaar sold everything from screwdrivers to sunshades - I could have spent the day in there!
The villa should have been very private as it had a remote-control gated entry. But it was a bit off-putting how many people came in through the gate without forewarning ...... on our second or third day somebody opened the gate, drove up to the house, looked at us, waved, turned around and left again. We have no idea who it was.
Similarly, tractors and combine harvesters came in on several occasions to attend to the fields. The children in our group were fascinated by this activity as was one of our adults who blagged a ride in the tractor. Their arrival didn't matter, but it would have been courteous to let us know our privacy was going to be breached. Again, it would have been nice to know that we could expect two visits from the pool maintenance man.
Most places I've stayed have a visitor information pack telling you what's where and something about the locality. This would have been really useful. It could have included a warning about the unannounced visits, location of supermarkets, pharmacists, doctors, and perhaps a map or two. Thank goodness for Google!
I cannot fault the cleanliness of the villa and, yes, there were ants outside but we were careful not to leave food lying around. We ate every meal outside on the shaded terrace, swept the floor and wiped the table after eating, and hosed the high-chair down regularly. The ants didn't bother us. There were wasps/bees (not sure which) around the pool but as soon as we got in the water they disappeared. There were also starling nests and geckos, and - out on the road - we saw snakes a couple of times. This is the beauty of being out in the countryside - yes, there is wildlife but where in the UK can you lean over the balcony and pick a fresh lemon to pop in your next gin and tonic?
I don't like to go to the same place twice - there's a big world out there! But I would have no hesitation in returning to this villa. We had a wonderful time, thank you.