Casa Linda is rather different to our other properties; it is small, there is no pool, and it is a town house. But we have included it in our collection precisely for these reasons. It makes the ideal base for couples or small families who want to explore the area, or for those who want to immerse themselves in Andaluz small-town life. Itâs a five-minute walk to the famous Conil market, ten minutes to the beach, there are tapas bars on every corner, and the smells and sounds of Spainâs deep south abound! In typical moorish fashion, this converted house is nothing special from the outside (white-washed walls and a nice wooden door), but the inside is your own little twenty-first century oasis: Canadian oak floors, underfloor heating, air-conditioning, top-quality beds and bathrooms, all your hi-tech gizmos, and a mini (but state-of-the-art) kitchen on the top floor, opening on to your roof terrace and views across the Strait to Morocco. This is a place to stay for several months in the winter, cooking everything you find in the market, signing up to the language school (and surf classes?), and sipping chilled sherry on the roof terrace while studying your verbs. But of course few people have this sort of time, so try it for a short break insteadâŠbut you will want to come back for more!
Casa Linda is built on three floors: you enter from the street into a hall, off which are two ground-floor double bedrooms and their shared bathroom (with good-size walk-in shower). The stairs then take you up to the main living area, where you have a 30sqm sitting room with high windows that open on to balconies and the views along to the Trafalgar lighthouse and the Strait of Gibraltar. The sitting room is separated from the main bedroom suite by large sliding doors, which can be left open to create a cool "loft" feel. The furnishing is stylish and comfortable throughout, and there is everything you will need for relaxing afternoons at home (plasma satellite TV, i.Pod dock, and fibre optic broadband connection). Keep walking up the stairs and you come to the small, but perfect, kitchen, packed with all the essentials, and more (deluxe coffee machine, capuccino machine, electric juicer, etcâŠ) There is a small table, really for 2-4; but most of your meals will be had on the roof terrace outside, where there is a larger table with a retractable awning. The views are just what you are looking for with such a property: village rooftops and glimpses of the sea on one side; and open country, 12km of beach, the sea, and beyond that Tangiers and the Riff Mountains. There is a top-of-the-range gas BBQ on the roof, as well as comfortable loungers; this is, almost definitely, where you will spend most of your time!
The house has been extremely well converted by its German owners, with an eye for every detail and zero concessions on quality, despite the small size: sliding doors and built-in cupboards throughout optimise space, the walk-in showers are compact but luxury; the underfloor heating is backed up by designer marble radiators; the water is heated by solar panels; the house is cleaned with natural allergy-free products, and all the bedding and mattresses are eco-friendly. It would be difficult to make a more complete conversion.
When exactly you visit Casa Linda depends on what you are looking for. In the winter months, Conil-de-la-Frontera is still an authentic Andalusian coastal village, and it will be you and the 20,000 local inhabitants; in the spring and autumn, you will find some other northern European travelers like yourselves (normally couples and backpackers, who will start to fill the cafés); and in the summer, the population jumps to 100,000 and it becomes a hubbub of surfers and predominantly younger Spanish tourists in search of long afternoons on the beach and late nights of music and partying (but without the razzmatazz of Ibiza or the Costa del Sol)
