Final cleaning: Included.
A
child up to two years in a cot free of charge.
The prices are not
binding and may change!
opinions:
Dear Karin,
Thanks for this follow up. I'm going to give a fairly detailed response, so please be patient! Oh - and before I start - my daughters (who stayed in Casa La Morita) managed to lose several items... a few nintendo DS game programmes and a mobile phone. If any of these have been found, we really would appreciate them being sent on - we absolutely don't mind paying for this.
1. The service of your company.
At every stage - from our initial enquiry to the guidance and support you gave whilst we were on the island - we feel your service was outstanding. When we couldn't find the accommodation, and when the electricity failed, to have someone there to help was excellent. The fact that it was you personally made it even better, as you knew the 'history' of our booking.
The only negative is that really, the directions to the property could have been better. If you wish me to re-write the English version of these, let me know!
2. The property
The layout, design, landscaping and build quality of this residence is truly outstanding. It must have taken many years and a great deal of money and care to create such a beautiful environment, from the stunning gardens along the terraces, to the magnificent retaining walls between the various parts of the property and around the pool... there is not a single a stone misplaced. This was very, very impressive. The magnificent sea views towards Tenerife and La Gomera further enhanced the beauty of this Finca.
The interior of each of the properties was also very pleasant - adequately furnished and equipped for holiday usage and attractively laid out with no shortage of space.
The enormous bowl of fruit and wine upon arrival was hugely appreciated and every last bit of it was consumed - 5 days of morning fruit salads for a family of 8 is a very generous gift! Please thank Aurelio for that!
3. Possible improvements?:-
Now, I don't want to give the impression of being critical, because we had a great time at Los Morales and we loved it there, but I do think there are a few points which could be improved, and one or two which basically can't be improved but need comment anyway:-
a) Why, oh why, is the name at the entrance to the Finca different to the 'real' name? At the top of the drive it says 'Finca Revilliros' (or something similar). On arrival, we drove past our holiday property several times, dismissing it because the name on the sign was wrong! This is such an easy thing to correct!
b) I feel that a short list 'how to use appliances and lights' inside the properties would be very useful... and from our experience it's usual to have such a list on a wall somewhere.
Some of the garden lights - those to light the palm trees and parts of the garden for example - never came on at all; others - such as the 'street light' on the steep stairs - were on sometimes, not others. It would have been very useful to know how the exterior electrics worked - likewise, without having to experiment - how the cookers worked.
c) Parking and hills. The slope down to the lower part of the property is almost undrivable for an older car because of its steepness. This didn't matter too much to us... we had the entire property and therefore could park on the track above the top property, but if one were forced to use the lower parking area, I fear that we would have had even more problems with hire cars than we did! I feel 4-wheel drive should be recommended for the lower house Cas Los Morales.
d) Swimming pool heating. This is our only slight complaint. The heating was not switched on soon enough for the pool to be usable until the third day - before this it was simply too cold. Also - in spite of the extra we were charged, we were carrying two accurate thermometers, and the pool temperature never made it above 22C in the entire time we were there - hence the charge of total 220 Euro for this was rather high. We only used the pool twice during our stay - even the sea was nearly as warm on the west side of the island
4. Summary
Overall we have only ever found one other holiday company which compared with the quality of helpfulness and support to the Canary Company - a company called 'Agni Travel' in the Greek Islands. It is a wonderful reassurance to have that level of support. The property was near-perfect, with the issues of
a) finding it and
b) the exterior lights
being the only areas for real potential improvement.
Had the weather been a little better (we were rather unlucky with this) and the hire cars been better (4 cars in a week for me from Orlando Car Hire) our holiday would have been near-perfect!
Finally, I shall tell you now that our thoughts are heading towards a return visit - this time 5 of us (my family, including my wife, but not my brother's family this time - his eldest daughter will have major school examinations next year) either at Easter or in the half term holiday at the end of May next year.
We shall be looking for a villa - possibly without swimming pool - to sleep 5, maybe on the West side of the island this time and perhaps not too far from the sea.
Any thoughts on this? We shall probably commence the 'planning phase' of this in the autumn of this year...
Warmest wishes
james (february 2012)
