Casa Canasta

Lovely villa. Very private and peaceful. Great views. Exactly what we were looking for. Would love to book again. Stuart Hall.

We, (6 adults and one 10-year-old child) had a fantastic time at the Casa Canasta . The villa is extremity comfortable. The living area and the 4 bedrooms (all with on-suits) were fully airconditioned, pristine and decorated tastefully to a very high standard. The kitchen was very well equipped with every possible utensil and gadget ever needed. We loved the round marble dining table to the right of the kitchen. There is a laundry room at the far end of the kitchen, which has a door to the front garden. There are quite a lot of grounds around the villa, which are beautifully landscaped with lots of fruit trees, the fig tree in the left garden (in front of car parking area) was our favourite. The ripened figs were as sweet as honey. Look out for cute small chameleons on the trees in this area. There is a car parking area for two, possibly three cars with remotely controlled electrically operated access gates. We also helped ourselves to some almonds from a tree in the right-side gardens. We used the outside sitting area and dining table in front of the pool quite a lot. The pool was good size and surrounded by a Pool Guard removable fence with one entrance door at the shallow end. The pool guard spoiled the fantastic view a little bit as we sat outside. But as we had a child in our group, I think it was probably a requirement by Portuguese property rental laws. If your group is all adults, you can request in advance for it to be removed. The villa is very safe with electrically operated vertical shutters on all doors and windows, which you can open or close individually or all in one go by the master switch in the entrance hall. All doors also had a sliding hand operated shutters as a secondary safety barrier, they were all locked with no keys provided (except the sitting room sliding French door to the outside pool area and one of the ground floor bedrooms). The upstairs master bedroom has a large private balcony, which would have been great for private sunbathing but its hand operated shutter was locked with no keys provided. All doors and windows also have internal hand operated sliding insect screens. One hundred percent recommended for a fantastic, private, quiet and relaxing holiday.

We spent three weeks in the villa. We had a great and very relaxed time. The house is a bit out of the way, but you can reach the supermarket very quickly (7 minutes) by car and the beaches can also be easily reached in about 20-30 minutes. You have a great view. The house is very tastefully and lovingly furnished, so we felt very comfortable. We didn’t miss anything. A big plus for us was that there was an option to make a fence around the pool as we were there with small children. We would come back again and again and would highly recommend the villa.

I’m a little bit reticent in writing this review. Casa Canasta is quite simply exquisite… and if I reveal all of its charms and perfect-ness – we will never be able to get a booking again ! It’s location is even more glorious than the photos suggest – the house really feels like a home from home – with treasured possessions combined with all the gadgets a house full of cooks could wish for; juicers, ice-maker in the fridge, big salad serving bowls, tagine pot, great knives, fresh courgettes and figs in the garden and the herbs!! – and even champagne glasses to celebrate degree results! There is privacy and cosiness and expansive views across the valley down to Faro the sea… we had a very special family break and none of us wanted to leave. All of us needed to keep in touch with work commitments back in the UK – including at least two Zoom meetings, the WiFi is excellent. Comms were great from Matthijs, the villa manager Danny and the owner as well – keen to keep in touch as we were her first let. Thank you and please let us come and stay again – your home is an absolute gem.