Mas Dalt, 17 rooms, 14 baths, with pool, sleeps up to 35 or more guests, near Banyoles, Costa Brava

At last a property where you can really say "the more the merrier!". Mas Dalt is unique. Situated on a huge 15-hectaire (over 37 acres) hillside wooded property with great views, Mas Dalt offer 17 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms in three different fully independent living quarters, each with its own kitchen, living room, terrace, etc. For extra large groups, keep in mind that 12-bedroom Can Tapies is only a 10-minute walk away. Situated 4 kms east of Banyoles, this is an ideal area for holiday-makers.

Click here for travel information on this area

Click here for emails sent in from past guests at Mas Dalt

put your cursor over the photos for more information

the newly renovated 4 bedroom house is fronted by a huge porch and the pool directly downstairs

17 bedrooms & 16 bathrooms, sleeps around 34 or so guests
3 independent living quarters in 2 different houses on the same large private property
one part with 10 rooms, 8 baths, one part 4 rooms, 6 baths, and one part 3 rooms, 3 baths
each part with full kitchen (washer + dishwasher), living/dining rooms (fireplace + TV + stereo), outdoor seating with BBQ, etc...
central heating, so available year-round
Altitude: 200mtrs, 35kms to sea, 2km to town
current rates:
high-season: 6090 Euros per week
mid-season: 4510 Euros/week
low-season: 3940 Euros/week
off-season weekends: 2000 Euros (+ 775 Euros per extra night)
in the off-season we accept bookings for individual apartments

another great shot of my thumb! and the pool at Mas Dalt! and the beautiful church in the oak woods in the background... I have been offering this property as a separate apartments for years now, but the owners have decided to restore an old stone building next to the huge mansion and put in a new pool, and rent the entire place as a self-catering villa. I don´t yet (29 September) have pictures of the new 4 bedroom house, nor of the swimming pool, which is already built but the owners are waiting for the landscaping, especially the new lawn around the pool, to grow in before taking photos. For now, I will display these photos of the exterior of the main house as well as interior shots of the 10-bedroom main part of the house, and the 3 bedroom apartment that occupies the ground floor.

The idea behind the enlargement is to have a large property which is comfortable for large groups or several families who want to be together but not necessarily crammed into one house. Each living quarters here is fully independent of the rest, with full kitchen (including dishwasher and washing machine) and dining/living room (including TV and stereo), outdoor seating and BBQ. However, the 10 bedroom part of the main house has a huge living room (about 100m2) and, along with the large dining room, there is a 130m2 covered terrace overlooking the pool, with lighting and BBQ area for outdoor meals, day and night.

Mas Dalt´s new pool is on a raised-platform and just in front of the big house is a playing field just a bit smaller than a football pitch Here is the detailed run down on the room and bathroom distribution:

The main house - upstairs:

From the area where you have left the parked cars, the main door opens on to a small vestibule with some coat racks where there are there are two flights of steps: one leading to the main floor and kitchen and dining area and 6 bedroom, and to the right the staircase leading up to the huge 100m2 plus living room and the 4 upstairs bedrooms.

each apartment at Mas Dalt has it´s own outdoor sitting area with BBQ, but the new terrace just above the pool will be the main outdoor seating area for all three apartments

Let´s start with the main floor: the kitchen here is the least modern of the three kitchens at Mas Dalt, but is just about made up for by having lots of character (but there are a couple of things I've asked the owners to improve on, such as getting rid of the neon lighting!). The kitchen has a modern refrigerator, a cold storage closet (refrigerator with wooden doors dating from the 20s!), and old marble sink, a gas stove and oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a fireplace, and there is a food prep area you can sit down at and a huge collection of glasses and plates.

Beyond the kitchen is the dining room with four red-checkered cloth covered tables seating up to 6 or 7 guests each, set around another fireplace, and with windows affording nice views across the Pla de Estany out towards the sea. There is a pantry and wash and ironing room just off the dining room with another modern fridge and a full bathroom which doesn´t get much use as all the rooms around here have private bath. Around this living room are three bedrooms:

- one large room with a double bed and a small bathroom with shower, and extra bed in a corner, and a nice little balcony
- one room with 2 double beds and a small bathroom with shower
- one room with 1 double bed and a small bathroom with shower

Just off the kitchen and up four steps are three more bedrooms to your left along a long hallway:

- one bedroom with two single beds - can be pushed together to make a double
- one small bedroom (good for kids) with two single beds
- the hallway bathroom with half-sized bathtub
- one large bedroom with double bed and a small balcony and nice views

the dining room in the upstairs 10 bedroom part of the house

Upstairs from the vestibule is the huge living room divided into five different sitting areas, one around the TV (local channels only, DVD player) and stereo (with CD, radio, and cassette), and other sofas and card tables scattered around the huge wood-panelled and heavily beamed room. Off the main living room is the only bedroom on this floor:

- one large room with double bed and private bathroom with half-bath

Just like on the floor below, off the kitchen, there are four steps up off the living room to a back hallway with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on your left:

another shot of the upstairs dining room

Downstairs of main house:

The downstairs part of the house can be reach either from the ancient and atmospheric stone spiral staircase on your right between the main floor vestibule and dining room, or from the large stone-arched main entrance downstairs, or from a side entrance, which has some outdoor seating for this part of Mas Dalt and a BBQ. The downstairs 3-bedroom part of Mas Dalt is like a well proportioned private apartment, somewhat darker than the more luminous upstairs rooms, but not humid, and also a lot cooler in summer than the upstairs rooms (which can be kept cool if you remember to keep the shutters closed during the day, keeping the sun out, and only opening up when it is cool outside at night). The massive nearly meter-thick stone walls will do the rest.

the upstairs living room is huge, measuring well over 100m2

So, the spiral staircase down from the upstairs vestibule leaves you in front of the huge downstairs door in the downstairs hallway. To one side, there are two bedrooms:

- one room with double bed and bathroom with shower
- one large room with one double bed and two single beds and bathroom with half-bath

On the other side of the long downstairs hallway is the central kitchen/living/dining room, measuring a good 50m2 under a gorgeous stone and brick vaulted ceiling. The modern kitchen has a double sink, a dishwasher, refrigerator, stovetop and microwave, but no oven. Up 6 steps from the kitchen is another large and mostly empty 30m2 living room, also under vaulted ceilings, barely furnished, with a table seating 6 and a small wicker sofa seating two. Just off this living room there is the third downstairs bedroom:

the upstairs living room has all kinds of sitting areas, sofas for TV, card tables, stereo, games, etc... and lots of natural light

- one room with double bed
- and next door a bathroom with shower

A door leads outside where the hillside is terraced and there is some seating and a barbecue and an old marble sink with tap water...

New 4 bedroom house:

The newly restored, spacious, and well-appointed house backs the swimming pool and has a huge terrace of nearly 100m2 overlooking the pool and the Pla de L'Estany below. The views are magnificent, completely unspoilt panoramas of checkered fields and church spires showing where little villages dot the landscape. This fully independent house is divided into two "L"-shaped floors, the kitchen, dining room, and living room and a small WC on the main floor, and the bedrooms below, somewhat underground to keep them cool in summer, but with windows for natural sunlight...

Upstairs: the modern kitchen has a fridge, dishwasher, electric oven and hob, double sink, washing machine, microwave, etc. Next door the dining room has seating for 12, and after that, the living room has a TV and CD/radio/cassette player, the speakers are out on the terrace, and there is a little WC in the hallway with toilet and sink - no shower. This is the 16th bathroom at Mas Dalt! Doors from the living and dining room lead out to the terrace.

Downstairs:

- 4 bedrooms with private bathroom, all these bedrooms have 1 double bed and 1 single bed, and all four bedrooms have a private bathroom, one bathroom with a bathtub, and the other 3 bathrooms have showers. So 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

one of the 4 en suite bedrooms in the new house

Outside:

Tthe good-sized kidney shaped pool is surrounded by 14 loungechairs, a couple of sitting area under parasols, and the front of the main house is a sloping lawn about half the size of a regulation football pitch.

On both sides of the larger house are large playing fields with different outdoor sitting areas, three of which have BBQs for outdoor meals, although I guess most of you will have meals together on the huge terrace above the pool.

The road up to Mas Dalt is now fully paved. There is parking for half a dozen cars in front of the main floor of the main house, and in that photo of Rosa sitting on the swing in her red sweater (see the last photo below), you will see the arched garage and old BBQ area. Before the huge covered porch-terrace was built above the pool, this was where guests would have their BBQ feasts at make-shift long-planked tables and benches.

is guess this was the entrance years ago but now it is a separate back entrance

The location is excellent, and I´m not saying that just because my wife and I have been renting little a place just on the other side of Banyoles for years now. Nearby Banyoles (4 kms away) is a market town with a huge array of shopping, including an impressive collection of no fewer than 12 supermarkets, but also you´ll find a weekly farmers market on the 11th Century arcaded square, and a huge variety of little specialty shops like butchers, bakers, fresh fruit and fishmongers, etc, in the historic pedestrian center of the old town. While the beaches are about 35 kms away, mostly highway driving, you have the lovely environmentally protected lake of Banyoles, with its grassy beaches with lifeguards on duty, and the open playing fields and bike paths going all the way around the lake. Be sure to read my extensive guide to the excellent restaurants in this area. I know the area well as it is where my family and I have spend our last 4 summers! (see little bedroomed La Quintana in our Costa Brava - Pyrenees listings.

Indeed, the more the merrier!

the large kidney-shaped pool is backed by a huge terrace seating about 50 with great views of the Costa Brava out towards the sea aside from the kitchen/dining/living room in these photos, there is another large living room next door with one table but otherwise nearly empty. Mas Dalt is so huge it has space to waste this is the view from the terrace which fronts the newly refurbished four bedroom independent house just across from the main house another bedroom in the new house just a little detail that I liked: the interior flagstone spiral staircase that links the upper and lower parts of Mas Dalt