I just came back from a fantastic holiday in Andalucia in the South of Spain, staying in a couple of brilliant Owners Direct properties.

Our trip started in Granada, home of the Alhambra and free tapas. We stayed in a brilliant place called Casa de las Granadas owned by John and Anna, a British couple who moved out to Spain 5 years ago. John was on hand to meet us when we arrived and was very generous with his time and advice telling us everything we needed to know about the property and the town (including the best flamenco places, best restaurants, best tapas bars  and the best local hill walks). The property itself was even better than we had hoped. It had two good sized bedrooms and decent size lounge, kitchen and bathroom and best of all it had a large roof terrace to die for. The house was positioned at the top of the Albeyzin hill (the most picturesque bit of town made up of dense medieval alleyways) and so had views over the whole city spread beneath you and disappearing into the planes and the mountains. Stunning.

Granada itself is a brilliant town. It’s large enough to have everything but once you’re in it doesn’t feel too big. The main tourist point of interest is the Alhambra Palace, built by the Moors over the 700 years of their occupation of Southern Spain and finally taken by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. Both it – and the views from it – are amazing and make it worth a trip to Granada alone. However, there is so much more to the city. You could spend days walking around the alleys of the Albeyzin … and equally as much time touring the thousands of small bars each of which gives you some free tapas with each drink (without seeming to increase the price of drinks … I still haven’t quite worked out how they can afford it). You could quite happily survive in Granada without every needing to actually pay for food. There’s also a heap of culture, especially Flamenco dancing, either in restaurants or flamenco schools. The flamenco is part of Gitano culture and there are communities of Gitanos who live in caves behind the town that you can visit. And there are hills nearby either for walks (we did a brilliant one from El Fargue which toured trench outposts from the Spanish Civil War) or you can head skiing in the Sierra Nevada from Dec-March.

We had 3 days in Granada and wish we’d had double the time. It’s an amazing city and the property from Owners Direct that we stayed in really made it. I’d definitely recommend both the city and Casa de las Granadas. Thanks very much to John and Anna!

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