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Barcelona area villas : El Pou villa

Feedback on villa El Pou





----- Original Message -----
From: Ewan Hurtford - Jones
To: villasbarcelona
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 8:50 AM
Subject: RE: EL Pou, 16 to 30 July - how was it at El Pou?

Hi Charlie,

Hope all is good with you and yours....

I did mean to send you a message ref El Pou but you know how it is!!

We had a truly fantastic time at the villa - it is stunning and in such a peaceful part of the country. Our friends who joined us were stunned as to how beautiful it is around the area...

All worked good - kids loved it and took full advantage of the pool as expected.

Few comments would be - kitchen in both parts of the house needs more workspace and I would agree with comments from other visitors that there needs to be bigger salad bowls, large serving plates, and ordinary knives (rather than the steak style serrated ones!). You can see I spent a lot of time in the kitchen!

If El Pou had Vilanova’s pool then I would say this property would be five star. Certainly a superior property to Vilanova - but both are very special.

We were looked after by Jordi and Mercedes who are great to deal with - I’m sure you already know that.

I have been toying with the notion of buying a property in this area for the past five years and looked at the internet to no avail. Is there a chance you could forward me Jordi’s mail address so I can ask what his thoughts are or indeed have you any ideas on getting a bit of an inside track on finding a property i.e Estate Agents seem to sniff British money a mile off and surprise, surprise the price starts increasing!

Anyhow - great holiday thanks for all your efforts as usual.
Kind regards.
Ewan



----- Original Message -----
From: Debra Fearnley
To: villasbarcelona
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: El Pou, July 30 to August 13, 2005

Hi Charlie

We had a wonderful time at El Pou, weather a bit iffy for a few of the days we were there but it gave us a chance to go out and explore. Went into Vic, and to Andorra which was good fun. The House was lovely, very peaceful. The only slight criticism would be about the windows (ie. the drop) and small children - you really have to keep an eye on them - but everything else very nice - no sign of a cd player or dvd player which would have been useful especially on the rainy days. Thanks for all your help, hopefully when we all get together, we will decide on next years jaunt - I'll keep you posted.

Many thanks again,
Debbie

Charlie adds: in the future I´ll make sure there are screens in the windows and the DVD and radio/cassette/CD player is provided. I apologize to Debbie for these missing items!


----- Original Message -----
From: w.oman
To: charlie@villasbarcelona.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 12:59 AM
Subject: el pou, July 17 to 31, 2004

Dear Charles,

El Pou was fantastic in every way.

I did pass on your e-mail to the rest of the group, however I assume everybody was a bit busy at the time.

Our journey was eventful. It is worth noting that all maps direct from the airport, not from the car-hire offices. We used Easycar, which was disasterous. A taxi to the office cost 15euros, the cars were dirty and needed fuel. It is not easy to find fuel in an industrial estate at midnight on a Saturday night, while trying to learn to drive with gears etc on the opposite side.

Our three cars got separated very quickly in the fast motorway system. Mobile phones between cars were essential to the holiday, but expensive. Make sure the navigator in hire-cars knows good maps and not just the driver. You cannot read maps and drive!

El Pou was quite spectacular. The rooms had great charm, especially the lower ping-pong room and the large kitchen with it's long ancient table. The bedrooms were very comfortable with high quality linen. Everyone was happy with the beds, bathroom, size etc.

The shutters made a hugh difference to heat.

The welcome groceries were ideal.

Food shopping was best in Prats, but did involve lots of carrying of bags. Catering for this size of party is not without its problems, but both kitchens were equipped with more than was required.

The two large living rooms were ideal, each giving their different atmospheres. Plenty of sofas was great as we had several lazy teenagers.

The pool was always meticulously maintained by Geordi, and its location is perfect, giving spectular views and the right balance between hot terraces and shady areas. The loungers were plentiful and comfy.

The whole feeling of being on a rock was great and gave views of the rolling fields from the sheer drop of the rock-face a spectular aspect. The skyline of the Pyrenees was beautiful.

Geordi and his Mum were lovely and were welcome couteous visitors, always helpful to the most.

Eating out was in the main casual, and late in the evening. Gironella has a good pub with food and some English spoken for the menu. Prats has a more basic cafe, but the atmosphere of the central avenue tables is magic, even if it is just sausages or omelette to eat. Finer dining was harder to find for our size of party with children, and appears to be more formal, certainly no shorts for the men.

The butcher, bakery,chemist, supermarket, and street market were very good in Prats

Day-trips included;
Barcelona- not so scary to drive in second time around.
Montserrat-Brilliant. Take the car then the train up the mountain. Really well signposted. Art Gallery alone worth the trip! All ages enjoyed this day.
Vic- not so easy to get to, but very pleasant old town square with decent eating and shopping.
Gaudi's gardens- Bit strange but very reasonable and enjoyable drive with nice small town near by.
Berga- Really easy to get to. Very near. Major shopping and eating, eg Lidl etc. A big hit with the girls for the narrow cool shopping street.
All had a fantastic holiday, and we hope to return someday not too far in the future.

Only points I can think of that are slightly negative, is that the football pitch mentioned in the site is unusable, and that journeys in the car are required for the most basic provisions but that gives El Pou it's privacy, remoteness and charm. The roads are good but scary due to the sharp drops at the edge. Not for those scared of heights or not confident in their driving .

PERFECT Holiday



----- Original Message -----
From: Guy Mat
To: Charles Williams
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 9:34 PM
Subject: Re: El Pou, August 14 to 28

Hello Charles,

Our stay at El Pou was very good.

We were a bit afraid when approaching the house for the first time, but once we saw the front of the house and the interior, we knew that we had a perfect place for spending our holiday. The interior of the house was very nice, superbly restored and offered our group of 17 more than enough space. The location on the hill and the swimming pool and its view are also great. Equipment and accommodation were really top. The welcome by the family (Jordi) was very warm and open. He showed us round the house and was always available when we called him. We had to phone him a couple of times, because diarrhea hit our ranks.... We even had to go to the hospital with our oldest son to have him examined. So, you can see that we had an eventful stay, but, at the end everybody recovered well and we could enjoy our nice stay in Spain. During our stay, we visited a lot of interesting places : Berga, La Pablo de Lillet, Ripoll, Vall De Nuria , Zona Volcanica de la Garrotxa and ... last but not least : Barcelona ! The only place that disappointed us was Montserrat (and the Monestir) . The kids were also a bit disappointed by the lack of settings in the neighbourhood for adventure sports (such as canyoning and rafting )

El pou and surrounding were super. (like you promised us), the only proposal we have is to have some more documentation about the surroundings available in English (e.g. how to find access to the lake (Moli De Cavaller) near Berga), but the tourist information was very helpful.

So, in brief, keep up the good work in showing foreigners the nice countryside of Catalonia, and keep on stimulation locals to develop some more tourist initiatives.

Best regards,
Linda and Guy and the entire group



----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Willi
To: villasbarcelona
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: EL POU - 1st week in July 2005 - how was it?

we had a wonderful time in El Pou and enjoyed the hospitality of the owners. We look forward to some day visiting El Pou and the region again. Next year we will be going back to Europe. The location was perfect for all the things we did with Barcelona so close in driving distance as well as the mountains and hiking. Again thank for you this place and say hello to the owners as well from the Willi Family



----- Original Message -----
From: alberto
To: Charles Williams
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 8:53 AM
Subject: Re: Egaña, July 3 to 17

Hola;

Solamente le tengo que decir que tuvimos un tiempo estupendo en "El Pou".
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Ya hemos recomendado este sitio a muchos amigos.
Para nosotros un sitio inolvidable. Siempre me puede mandar información de casas suyas a alquilar .
Espero de haberle hecho servicio con este mail.
Saludos cordiales desde Belgica.

Alberto Egaña.



----- Original Message -----
From: Julian Potter
To: 'Charles Williams'
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 7:07 PM
Subject: Great House - El Pou, November 2003

Charlie:

Merce and Jordi were tremendously hospitable and the vacation was enjoyed by all. FYI-we found another horseback riding place in Olost. The guide was Ramon Serrat, his wife runs the butcher shop in town off of the square across from the church. 10 Euros per hour and fantastic trails and views-. Bernard (Charlie adds here that Bernard runs the horseback riding club I recommend in the guidebook at Vilaformiu) gave us a great ride too...but he had to prepare for a competition so we searched out this new location.

Thanks.
Potter



----- Original Message -----
From: Simeon Mitchell
To: Charles Williams
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2003 2:46 PM
Subject: El Pou, 13-20 June

Dear Charlie,

Just a brief message to say thanks very much for facilitating our stay at El Pou last month. We had a fantastic time – it’s in such a lovely situation, and with very good facilities, and plenty of space for our large group of 16 adults. Brilliant value! We were delighted to discover that the Patum was on in Berga during our stay – an intriguing and spectacular festival – and also welcomed the recommendation to visit the old monasteries up the road at La Quar, worth it for the views alone.

Thanks again,
Simeon.



----- Original Message -----
From: Calverley
To: tourism@catalonia.net
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: El Pou - 12 July 2003 to 26 July 2003

dear charlie

I was going to write and say thank you anyway, but now I have to say thank you for your really useful email before we left. I agree with everything that Simeon says (especially about the bowls)... of course we had a much smaller party, but it was great. When it was really hot the kids had room to play inside without getting on each other's nerves (or ours!). your recommendations were marvellous and we had a really relaxing time... we will definitely be back!

Sx



----- Original Message -----
From: Lisa Jones
To: Charles Williams
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: El Pou, May 25 to June 1, 2003

Hi Charlie

Just a quick note to say we arrived back from Barcelona yesterday and had a wonderful week at El Pou. The property is truly stunning and we really enjoyed walking around the local area and sampling the cullinary delights at Els Casels (although we couldn't let them know that you'd recommended us because language was a bit of a struggle!). Merce was lovely and friendly and very kind. She arrived on Monday with an English Welcome/Info book to help us along. Our only criticism (although it's more of a suggestion than a criticism) would be that it would be a great idea to provide all newcomers into El Pou with a basic welcome pack of tea/coffee/milk/bread/water/butter?. As we arrived on Sunday afternoon, with children and babies, and hungry adults, we had a struggle getting food that evening, although we managed after a trip to Berga.

It was the first time one of our families had been abroad and they, and we, thought it was a fabulous place. Thanks for all your help and info/directions etc too,which were invaluable.

Kind Regards
Lisa Jones and all of our group.
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Catalan Tourism Authorities

This sign indicates that the Catalan Tourism Authorities regularly inspect and license the property. We have also visited and recommend all the properties we have selected for our listings.