Pretty village house for two by Capileira square and walking paths

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Capileira stands out in more ways than one. Of the three old villages of the Poqueira Gorge (the others are Pampaneira and Bubión), it occupies the place of honour, directly below the Sierra Nevada National Park and facing south, with the mountains at its back and sweeping views down the valley.

It's one of the best walking destinations in Spain, where the fine combination of altitude and Andalusian sun creates an ideal climate for hikes virtually year-round.

This one-bedroom village house represents an opportunity to stay in a traditional Alpujarras dwelling with the comforts of a holiday home.

 It’s conveniently situated in a quiet corner below the village square, where it is close to facilities and parking. Once you realize that Capileira is built higgledy-piggledy down the slopes of the gorge, you appreciate how desirable this situation is: pity those who have to struggle up and down from the lower reaches of the village that cars cannot reach through the narrow streets!

The house is a sweet, old-fashioned affair. Walls are of thick rounded stone and plenty of wood is in evidence throughout. The flat roof and chestnut-and-slate ceiling are a typical example of North African Berber architecture, heritage of the era when the Moors were here after their expulsion from Granada in 1492.

There’s a neat kitchen with a breakfast bar. This is open-plan with the front room sitting area, furnished with a comfortable sofa and wicker armchairs. The chairs are deliberately lightweight so that you can carry them outside: the broad (and traffic-free) street corner is a good place to sit out quietly and enjoy drinks or read, studying the walks and maps provided in the house.

Three steps go up to a rear living room, also furnished for comfort with a sofa and armchair. A quality wrought-iron woodburning stove here provides cosiness in the winter months, the warmth rising into the double bedroom directly behind it. The bed is Queen size and there's a walk-in wardrobe.

The bathroom also leads off the rear living room, opposite the bedroom.

Although holidays in La Alpujarra are inevitably about exploring the legendary mountain area, the house is an inviting place to hole up and relax. There’s a DVD for evenings in, although you might want to venture out to one of the several nearby hostelries offering drinks, tapas and meals. The detailed recommendations we send you as one of your holiday documents include an old cellar bar and a pizzeria with wild boar on the menu.

At the end of the street you have a cybercafé – or cyberbar, rather, with drinks served downstairs and the internet facilities above.

The nearby square is the focal point of the village, with bar-restaurant terraces, craft shops, and a shop-cum-gallery with works by local artists, including Capileira resident, Cristobal Hoare.

The plaza also doubles as a playground for children in the late afternoon, when mothers gather together to sit and chat. The fountains (every village has their own) provide mountain spring water to refill your water bottle. Right next to it is a supermarket, bank, pharmacy, leather goods workshop, baker’s and more café-bars.

Capileira (population 570), mostly local Spanish but sprinkled with other nationalities) is a fascinating labyrinth of winding streets, a maze impenetrable to cars, where you will find chickens and goats sharing whitewashed, geranium-bedecked dwellings and views up to the snowy Sierra Nevada peaks or down to the southern Contraviesa, the last mountain range before the Mediterranean Sea.

It’s also one of the best provided for in terms of cafés, bars, restaurants, interesting and useful shops, without succumbing to the depredations of tourism: it remains a genuine and very attractive Alpujarras village with plenty of life of its own.

The main road (there’s only one) goes up 13 km to the National Park entrance (just park and walk in, there’s a ranger but you are free to wander wherever you please), where pine forest eventually gives out and you are left with another landscape altogether: rugged mountain scenery, herds of ibex, eagles, a silent high altitude world. In the summer, a mini-bus service runs up here from Capileira.


The summit of Mulhacén, the highest mountain on the Iberian peninsula, is the goal for many a hiker, but there are plenty of other great routes, to the Seven Lagoons, up the gorge past the ghost village to the meeting of the rivers, or simply down to the Poqueira River and across the bridge: a walk that starts from the house’s front door step and takes less than half an hour.

Days or half-days out can take you to a variety of similarly ancient villages of the high Alpujarra, to the pretty hamlets of La Taha, for example, for strolls in the countryside and good food. There’s also O Sel Lin, the Buddhist centre, founded by the Dalai Lama.

Granada and the magnificent Alhambra are naturally a must for many, and we can also suggest beaches on the Costa Tropical. Both the city and the coast are a little over an hour away by car.

Facilities
4-ring gas hob and oven; kettle; coffee maker; toaster; small fridge; TV; DVD; washing machine; hairdryer; gas & electric heaters; quality cast iron woodburning stove; fan; assorted books and maps; all bedding and towels provided (except for for beach use).

Distribution
All on one floor (with a few internal steps): open-plan kitchen/sitting room with breakfast bar, leading to rear living room with woodburning stove; one double-bedded room; bathroom (shower over full bathtub/WC).
Exterior: quiet corner of a traffic-free street.

Locations & Distances
In a quiet corner of the village of Capileira (bars, restaurants, bank, butcher, bakeries, craft shops, pharmacy, small supermarkets, internet café).

Sierra Nevada National Park (mountain walks)	5 km
Hamlets of La Taha (pretty walks, country restaurants)	15 mins
Orgiva (Low Alpujarra market town)	25 mins
Granada and Alhambra	1 hr 15 mins
Granada Airport	1 hr 30 mins
Malaga Airport	2 hrs 15 mins
Almeria Airport	2 hrs 30 mins

Booking information for this property
Start and finish day: has some flexibility.

Prices and dates

Rustical Travel´s prices are in euros and fully inclusive.
No hidden costs, no surcharges.

AP19 Sleeps 2 people

From	To	Price per week
01 January 2012	31 May 2012	€ 320
01 June 2012	30 September 2012	€ 340
01 October 2012	31 December 2011	€ 320