• independent farmhouse, sleeps up to 19
• six doubles, one triple, every room with private bath (plus 2 sofa beds in upstairs salon)
• central heating, dishwasher, 2 TVs, DVD, video, CD/radio/cassette with speakers around the house
• altitude: 600mtrs, 95kms to sea
• 1 km from town of Casserres, 95 to Barcelona
• private pool, 4.5 x 9 meters, ping pong, football net, basketball hoop
• huge outdoor covered dining area, new 100m2 banquet hall with bar and fridge, etc...
• rental rates: high-season: 2400 Euros per week for up to 15 guests*, mid-season 2070 Euros/week, low-season 1785 Euros/week
  * year round, 90 Euros per week for each additional guests

La Cabana is a very unusual independent rental property in that it has 7 rooms and 8 baths. I asked the owner why he went to the trouble to put in so many bathrooms, and he explained that one of his daughters, who is now studying Tourism, might eventually decide to turn the house into a B&B. This house would make for a very nice B&B, but for now, La Cabana makes for an even nicer independent rental property. It has all the advantages of a B&B which can be enjoyed by one family or group at a reduced rental rate!

Location: Situated just outside of Casserres, a small and sleepy but not unpleasant agricultural town just 7 kms west of Puig Reig and the main C-16 road between Barcelona and Toulouse, La Cabana is on the edge of town, which means you have privacy and lots of room to yourselves, but you can still walk or zip in town by car in minutes to shop or have a meal or a drink or pick up fresh croissants at the bakery for breakfast. Directly behind La Cabana is the town´s municipal pool and sports complex. The pool - with lifeguards on duty - is open only in summer months, and the complex includes a couple of pools, a football pitch, dressing rooms, and a small bar. This is a very welcome feature for kids, and daily entry fee is about 3 Euros. Perhaps the most stiking feature of this hilltop house are the lovely views of the Caplot and Berguedà mountains to the north.

The outdoors: Directly in front of the large main entrance is a curious sort of patio: the front gate opens onto a solid block of stone onto which La Cabana was built back in the 18th Century. To the right you have the fenced in pool area, which has nice non-slip terra cotta tiling and a shower, and beyond the pool and lawn which surrounds it is a covered outdoor sitting and BBQ area for outdoor meals.

Between the pool and the house the owners have converted an old shed into a huge designer banquet hall, measuring well over 100m2, with good lighting (despite the quality of the photos below), plenty of seating, a dancefloor, a large wooden bar with sink and large frige, and a fireplace. This is really a fantastic place and it serves to free up the interior of the house pretty much except for the purposes of sleeping and bathing. Around the perimeter wall of the house is lots of wide open spaces where to kick around a football or just stroll... and as I said before, the views are lovely.

The indoors: The large wooden main doorway opens onto an atmospheric ground floor, measuring well over 120 m2, that sets the mood for what is to come. Most of this ground floor has been carved out of the living bedrock, with huge cornerstones supporting dramatically illuminated stone arches leading to a series of rooms: a vestibule from which the stairway goes up to the main living quarters, followed by the large ping-pong room flanked on one side by what used to be the cattle trough - for until a generation ago, this is where animals were kept, right below the owners living quarters! Downstairs there is also a small sitting area with a card table, and there is also the washroom (with the washing machine, iron, and a hand-wash basin).

Upstairs the stone stairway opens onto the dining room, with wooden planked seating for up to 14 (I would love to have one of these tables in my apartment). To one side of the room is the entrance to the spacious kitchen, with large fridge, electric oven, gas stove, extractor, dishwasher, microwave, stick mixer, toaster, kettle, and lots of extras. Across from the kitchen there is a main floor bathroom for the common area, the only toilet that isn´t in a room. This toilet is off the main dining area in a sort-of separate glassed-in gallery with great views of the mountain range to the north. On the other side of the dining room is the contiguous living room, with a sofa and some lazy chairs, an cast iron fireplace, a TV video and DVD player, and a radio/cassette/CD player.

Also on this floor are three bedrooms, two bedrooms with 2 single beds each just off the living-dining room, each with a bathroom with half-bath, and some closet space. Away from the living room and on the other side of the staircase going up to the second floor is another bedroom, this one a large triple room which consists of a double bed and a single bed, as well as private full bath where I bathed with my 2 year old.

For privacy, there is a door closing off the stairway up to the second floor, which consists of a large high-ceilinged salon measuring over 60m2 with two sofas (which in fact are double sofa beds), and several different sitting areas: a game table and chairs and a small library of most English best-sellers (e.g.: the ubiquitous "DaVinci Code"), as well as a large fireplace and TV and some speakers connected to the stereo downstairs. On either side of this salon are the other four rooms, the access to the rooms is through a small vestibule, to mitigate noise from the salon. On each side of the salon you will find a room with double bed and a room with two single beds, each with private bath. The upstairs living room is painted in a green that I´m not very fond of, but this is a fairly brightly decorated house in general, and the green works ok, methinks.

Well, there you have it. I think I´ve described this house accurately. I have stayed in this house myself with my wife and daughter and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Mrs Roy of Canada stayed in La Cabana for three months in 2004 and kindly wrote in to say she liked it too. Three months is the supreme test! It also helps that the owners, who live on Casserres old high street behind the church (famous for its alterpiece) are very kind and thoughful. With a house like this, it shows...

• free firewood, some farm animals
• 15 to horseback riding club, 15 km to tennis club, 30 to skiing
• 20 km to large lake with water sports
• 7 km to river fishing
• 7 km to buses five times daily to Barcelona in Puig Reig

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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.

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