Anyone got any tips for where's best for villa rentals online? Seem to be a couple of big sites, but most seem to be a bit misleading with regards prices. Not fussed where I go just want a week in the sun in a private villa. Could be Canaries or Balearics but nothing further a field than that unfortunately.
Only thing I'm really keen on is having its own private pool.
Cheers,

We used James villas a few years ago, they were reasonably priced then, not too sure what they are like now though

we used villas to go and were very happy
i would check out the rules on villas in cyprus as i think if the person letting the property has not got permission, the government can stop you taking the villa and lose your refund, AFAIK
http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers.com/2009/08...
this may be applicable in other countries

Paulo,

Is that your villa? What like is weather over there in October?

That looks a stunning villa!

I've bookmarked it for future use....

I tend to use www.villarenters.co.uk as they charge you a £25 insurance fee instead of owners wanting up to £250 damage deposit which you might rather put towards the holiday.

Solmar villas do the same though I tried to cancel a villa with them the morning after an evening "click" and they wanted to charge me £30 so I ended up keeping the villa. Villarenters allow you tpo cancel with no charge at all and for that reason alone, Solmar won't see my cash again (the villa itself was fairly middling too).

Sure. It was Villa La Martina in Los Pinos, Calpe. It was a mixed bag with some very good points and some equally bad ones. The upside was that it was discounted to about £1150 for the week in August. The highlight was the huge, deep and clean pool (cleabned every 2 days) and the proximity to Calpe promenade (10-15 minute walk). The downsides were only 2 air con units either end of the villa (one drippy and occasionally rattly)which were simply not enough in 35-42 degree heat. The bloke who lived next door seemed to be the local car breaker so the lane outside had 4-5 sheds along the opposite side and you occasionally got a whiff of petrol which I assume he was draining. Despite being behind a row of restaurants, that was never an issue. It was a little shabby, could be great with some work but this lent itself to not worrying about it. The other downside was a crap DVD player, small flat-screen and manual change of SCART to a German-only satellite with broken remote. NO DVDs supplied either.

Like I say, it could be a great villa as it had quite large grounds, spoilt by the neighbour in terms of artistic presentation but reasonably self-contained. It had shaded parking and an electric gate which emerged onto a (quiet) blind bend in the lane. I suppose you get what you pay for.

By contrast, we hired a second villa up on Monte Pedreguer by Gata de Gorgos for the second week which was a much, much nicer villa with great satellite and DVD player, lots of food and though only served by ceiling fans in all rooms, this was a better arrangement in terms of cooling the rooms. That was a few hundred cheaper being inland abpout 10km from Javea and Denia but great as a base for going various places. However, the pool was "normal size" and shallower and we really did miss that huge pool in the Calpe villa.