Two boys, one apartment and lots of rain

23 June 2008

This year for the first time we chose to try out an apartment instead of a villa. We love staying in a villa, because we have privacy and our own pool. However, two teenage boys need more and more entertainment as the years go by. They love the pool, but after a while want something more. The villas we have hired have usually been quite remote too, so not so easy to stroll to a shop. So that was my thinking in hiring an apartment with a shared pool. I hoped they’d meet up with other people and the write up on the apartment said shops were ‘5 minute walk’, so I guessed that they could go alone quite easily. If you click on the picture you will see the view from the apartment balcony and the nearest shop circled. Make your own mind up how long it would take to walk there! It also had ‘2 private beautiful cascading infinity pools with sunbeds, shade, showers, and another large swimming pool at the exclusive Cumbre restaurant.’.

OK. The reality. We stayed in Spain in Cumbre de Sol in an apartment, , built on the side of the mountain overlooking the Med. The nearest resorts being Moraira and Javea. The apartment was gorgeous; spotlessly clean and well furnished. It had just the 2 bedrooms, which we have managed with before. The ‘private pool’ was actually the communal pools for the apartments and although the pools had showers and a few sunbeds these were plastic without any cushions and would’ve been impossible to lie on in any comfort. The pools were mostly occupied by birds and I have to say the floating bird feathers as well as missing tiles from the edge of the infinity pool stopped me from going in. The boys weren’t so fussy! Nevermind, I enjoy lying in the sun. Unfortunately we had just 2 days of sun and the rest of our stay was one rain storm after the next! It did brighten up by 6pm on a couple of days, but the sun left the apartment balcony by 4pm, so no chance of catching any rays there. At least we had Sky TV to entertain us as being up on a steep hill the roads were also incredibly steep making venturing out in the pouring rain a bit scary!

The boys were soon very bored as the rain was just non stop. A shared room became a massive draw back. The lack of space was stifling. Even when the rain stopped there was nowhere to walk unless you’re talking hiking / walking boots. The shop was up and down said steep hilly roads and would’ve taken more than 5 minutes, but any way wasn’t a walk two boys would choose to do.

By day 2 of torrential rain and thunderstorms, resulting in power cuts, I’d had enough. If I could I would have come home. I really am easy to please on a holiday, no really! I want sun and lots of it and I want to sit and read a book on a nice comfy sun lounger all day. This wasn’t going to happen! The sun did appear on 2 days, as I said. I spent the morning sitting on the balcony. We played cards. The boys nipped to the pool mostly to play a game of football as we had no outside space of our own. They were desperate to stretch their legs. We did hit a couple of beaches, which was great on these days. The beaches are really clean and the water crystal clear

Sadly, no one can predict the weather when they book a holiday. We kind of assume it’s going to be OK. When it’s wet and cold it really is a let down. However, what you can also not predict is your surroundings unless you’ve been before or know someone who’s recently been. We like to visit different places, so it’s always a surprise. What I do know now is that I will never try an apartment again. It was just too small for 4 of us and those wet days.

Hopefully our holiday to Portugal later this summer (in a villa!) won’t be another wet one! I’m sure, or hoping it won’t!

My tip is to bear in mind that the weather is getting more and more unpredictable. Booking a holiday is difficult when trying to take in to account everyone’s needs, but I suppose you perhaps could imagine the worst case scenario and imagine being at your resort for days on end with rain instead of sunshine and consider what you might do then! Fingers crossed it won’t happen….

For information on how to book the apartment (if this review hasn’t put you off) click here.