Reviews of Caserio del Mirador, Jalon, Spain

spend plenty of time just gazing at the stunning view...

The joy of staying in one of the five apartments in this large villa halfway between Valencia and Alicante airports is that you can decide how private or communal you want to be. The simple but chic apartments have cooking facilities but five days a week the English owners, Sarah and Johnny, who live on site, cook for anyone who wants it. The delicious meals feature local produce - squid, morcilla (the local blood sausage), lentils and steak. There is an outdoor pool, a trampoline and other play items tucked into strategic corners around the grounds, along with rabbits, goats and ponies. Although the beach is about 35 minutes away and Benidorm with its theme parks about 40 minutes, you’ll want to spend plenty of time just gazing at the stunning view down the valley at the Caserio.

First Published in The Times, 15th May 2010

Travelling with Baby

A new baby doesn't have to spell the end of holiday fun, says Anna Shepard.

After I had a baby, I couldn’t help thinking that going on holiday wouldn’t be fun any more. It would be just like normal life, except with new worries about sunburn and mosquitoes. No more lazing by a pool with nothing more to worry about than what to eat for supper and whether to apply a fresh layer of suncream. Instead our little bundle of worry would come too, and with him a gruelling routine of feeding and nappy changes.

It’s enough to put parents off bothering altogether, or at least to lower their expectations. We decided to test the ground with our seven-month-old in Spain, only a short flight away. One tip from friends was to choose a babyfriendly destination that would provide as much gear as possible. Given that it took me several days even to make the list of things we needed, these were wise words. Half of what I packed ended up being weeded out at the last minute when we realised, to our relief, it would all be waiting for us in our apartment.

So proficient is Caserío del Mirador, a family-run country house in rural Alicante’s Jalon Valley, at dealing with babies, it provides everything from buggies and baby monitors to cots and changing mats. Each of the five private apartments has its own basket of toys and books. In the kitchen, there are plastic spoons and plates and even a blender to make baby food. You hardly need to bring anything. Except, of course, the baby.

In the weeks before we left, I had accumulated hundreds of flight-related anxieties. Would his ears explode during take-off? How would he cope with being imprisoned on my lap for two and a half hours? What if I had to change his nappy mid-flight? In fact, I needn’t have worried. My ears played up more than his – he seemed not to notice take-off or landing. He was lulled by the white noise of the engines and promptly fell asleep both ways (and a discreet nappy change in our seats, by the way, would not have been a problem).

Making the experience even smoother, our flight attendant was delighted to have a baby to look after and passed him a stream of plastic cups and spoons to play with. It was also reassuring to know not only that we could use our pushchair right up until the moment we boarded the flight, but we were able to collect it on the landing strip the other end rather than lugging our baby in our arms to baggage reclaim.

My other concern was that the trip would unsettle him and turn him into a cranky beast intent on disrupting his parents’ hope of spending the week reading books and drinking Rosado. I wasn’t sure he’d be flexible enough to adapt to the laid-back Spanish vibe. But he was surprisingly obliging, quickly slotting back into his usual nap routine, and after plenty of fresh air and regular dunking in the sea, he slept better than we could have dreamt of.

The idea at Caserio del Mirador is not so much to take babies or small children off your hands – there is no crèche or baby club – but to provide ways of keeping them content. With swings and slides, a trampoline and a Shetland pony, not to mention goats, cats, and dozens of pet rabbits hopping around the place, there are easily enough distractions to guarantee parental peace. Owen was particularly delighted to experience his first sandpit. From the loungers by the pool, I could keep an eye on him, popping over every so often to empty his mouth of sand and ants.

The evenings posed a different problem. Should we take Owen out on the tiles after his normal bedtime? Put him to bed and creep around in fear of waking him, or splash out on a babysitter? It’s a familiar conundrum for parents. The main advantage of a self-catering flat over a hotel room – on top of the fact that you have a fridge and other kitchen appliances to make baby food – is that it’s possible to put the baby to bed and enjoy yourself. Either we cooked ourselves and ate on the terrace or we trotted off to the closeby communal kitchen to take advantage of our hosts Sarah and Johnny’s fantastic Spanish cooking and get to know other guests. With all our little ones tucked up in bed, we felt, for a few hours at least, footloose and baby-free.

First Published in the British Airways highlife, August 2009

Mum, can we move here?

Where hols are concerned, "stylish" plus "family-friendly" usually equals "eye-poppingly expensive" - not so at Caserío del Mirador, which gets top marks for not hiking prices the minute school's out. Superbly located at the head of the Jalon Valley, its chic apartments are equipped for self-catering, but delicious meals can be delivered to your terrace from the main house, or enjoyed communally. (There are nightly dinner parties and baby monitors) Plus, to make life even easier, essential baby gubbins is on hand. Kids get equally spoilt, with tea parties, art sessions, play areas, a cracking pool and friendly goats to pat.

First Published in the Guardian 21st February 2009

Three top toddler-friendly breaks
Jane Knight

Sit gazing down the scenic Jalon valley with its olive trees from the view point at the end of the garden and you'll realise what a magical place this is. As goats' bells clang in the distance, it's the perfect spot for a romantic sundowner while the little ones play at your feet in a sandpit.

The five apartments in this large villa midway between Valencia and Alicante airports offer the perfect adult/child combination. Simple but chic - tiled floors, white sofa and dark wooden furniture - they all come with their own box of toys and books. There is an outdoor pool, though it's neither fenced nor alarmed (the only drawback I could find here) and a trampoline and other outdoor play items tucked into strategic corners around the grounds.

Though you can self cater, you would be crazy not to join the communal table for one of owner Sarah Robinson's excellent meals. An early children's supper, with enough choice for even the pickiest eaters, rolls into a delicious adult's meal using local produce - squid, morcilla, the local blood sausage, lentils, and steak.

The Sunday paella lunch is a much-awaited event, and you can walk it off by heading up the hill to the donkey sanctuary, past wild flowers galore, then back via the tadpole pond. Although the beach is about 35 minutes away and Benidorm with its theme parks about 40 minutes, you'll want to spend plenty of time just drinking in the atmosphere at the Caserio. Starting with that wonderful view, which you can appreciate over a breakfast of home-baked rolls and croissants on your own terrace.

First Published in the Times 20th September 2008

Link to original article on the Times website

Armchair Traveller
All in the family
James Delingpole

‘Do you think we’ve made a terrible mistake?’ I said to the Fawn as we studied the map of Spain’s Costa Blanca (the bit between Valencia and Alicante), trying desperately to find stretches of coast that weren’t dominated by tower blocks, cement factories and urbanizacións. We’d paid the deposit, booked the flights, allocated the precious week’s holiday time. But what we hadn’t done beforehand, as perhaps we should have, was to make sure that the area we were about to visit wasn’t a complete toilet.

The thing was, the place we were going to stay — Caserío Del Mirador — looked so ravishing on the website that we couldn’t resist. It’s situated (well away from coastal development horror) at the top of a remote and beautiful valley above Xaló (Jalón) at the foot of a jagged mountain, with fantastic views down to the sea. It’s surrounded by olive and almond trees on terraces built over a thousand years ago by the Moors. The rooms are gorgeously done — spacious, decent bedlinen, no tack. And it’s quite brilliantly run by a delightful family team — laid-back, amiable Johnny Robinson and Sarah, his powerhouse of a wife who used to run Bloomberg’s London office and now dedicates all her considerable energies to feeding you good food, stopping your children dying and making sure your holiday is absolutely perfect.

So, no complaints on that score. But what about the rest of the Costa Blanca? The key here is not to look at a map or read any guide books because if you do, you won’t want to go. Not 40 minutes’ drive away is the high-rise hell of Benidorm and even the nearer coastal resorts — such as the old fishing village of Calpe — have been compre-hensively trashed by overdevelopment. Round and about you will come upon places like Gert And Daisy’s Pub — ‘The Original Fawlty Towers’ and Supermarket Lyn y Dave. You will shudder at the accents of the kids your offspring befriend on the beach.

Now I’ll explain why it’s still worth going and why you’ll love it. Number one attraction for me is the hidden-away pebble beach in the cove at Barraca — as beautiful and unspoilt as any I’ve seen in the Mediterranean. The water’s clear and great for snorkelling — except when the waves are up and the surfers move in — and on the cliff overlooking it is a restaurant which does the most fantastic paella and tapas for next to nothing. Every time I’m there, I pinch myself in disbelief.

Farther up the coast, on the way towards Valencia, is my other favourite beach at Oliva. This one is much more Atlantic in style — very long (ergo not too crowded) with tremendous breakers which are fun to jump with small children and to body-board-surf with older ones. There’s a restaurant nearby called Tasca Olivense which does a cheap fixed-price menu of proper local food, but if you can’t find it, don’t worry: in my experience any restaurant in these parts which isn’t on the tourist strip and does a menu of the day is going to hit the spot.

I haven’t mentioned the walking, which is the other big draw. Besides the thrilling razor-back ridge directly above Caserio del Mirador — on the other side is a famously picturesque pass called Col de Rates — there are several first-rate hikes within half an hour’s drive. There’s the Rock of Ifach in Calpe, the Montgo and the Bernia, all offering exhilarating climbs rising sheer above the coastal plain and the most dramatic views.

The other place I must mention, because both my kids declared, quite unprompted, that they thought it was the best thing they’d ever done ever, is the waterfalls called Fonts del Algar. In peak season, I gather, they’re beyond dreadful because they’re right on the Benidorm trail. Out of season, though, they’re a paradise of cascades and grottos and deep pools you can excitingly dive into and river trails you can scramble up. Seriously — go!

Though I can imagine young or old couples having a pleasant off-season walking holiday there, the thing I’d most recommend Caserio del Mirador for is a very reasonable, low-effort family holiday. Your children will almost certainly form a gang with the other (nicely brought up) children in the neighbouring apartments (five in all), leaving you free to get gently sozzled by the pool. If you can’t be bothered to self-cater, Sarah — for a bit extra — will do all your cooking for you, while Johnny keeps re-charging your glass with the local organic red wine. They push the ‘organic’ line a lot on their website, because that’s the sort of guff the punters like to read these days. Quite unnecessary, though. Caserio del Mirador is so wonderful it doesn’t need marketing.

First Published in the Spectator 26th May 2007

Alistair Sawday’s Special Places to Stay

Verdant mountains swoop around Johnny and Sarah’s dream home with staggering views, some stretching to the sea. Splash amongst the hills in the fantastic pool, chat in comfort to your young, generous, humorous hosts under the bamboo canopy. Crisp, charming B&B bedrooms are bathed in whites and browns; solar-lit shower rooms display minimalist lines. Two spacious open-plan apartments (above
which live the owners) are equally rustic-contemporary; the rest are self-contained. And you can tell that Sarah is a cook because your kitchen has absolutely everything you need (except, of course, for Sarah, to fill it with the delicious aromas of her tapas).

Enjoy conversational dinners brimming with local produce and wine (made by the mayor himself); tempting to eat in every night. Families will love it here: the sandy coast is a breathtaking drive, there’s a donkey sanctuary nearby, bustling Jalon (true Spain) is five minutes away, and
there are fantastic walks in the hills. Best of all are the lazy days spent here, at this charming and happy home, in the company of Johnny,
Sarah and their three young children.

Baby Friendly Boltholes Website

Cookie Magazine, Staying There in Europe

Best Family Feast

Caserío del Mirador, Jalon, Spain

The owners of this inn, who have three kids themselves spend Sundays cooking up a massive pan of paella over an out door fire. Parent trade travel secrets while the kids play in the sandbox or the pool or play with the goats that wander in the field.