Before our trip to Mallorca with James Villas we had never been on a villa holiday.  Now we are converts and I can safely say that it is something we will be repeating in the future. Our recent family friendly villa holiday was a real treat.  It allowed us the comfort of a traditional Mallorcan home with its own pool and left me safe in the knowledge that my sometimes loud boys would not interrupt anyone.

Mallorca – Family Friendly Villa Holiday with James Villas

Having never booked or been on a villa holiday, I have to say we were so impressed with James Villas.  They arranged the airport car parking, flights, car hire and villa.  We received all our paperwork via email (due to late booking) and I was able to check in online, complete the car hire details and ensure that we had everything we needed.

We travelled from Newcastle to Palma and then collected our hire car from the airport car park as per our instructions.  We discovered that our hire car had the same sat nav that we have in our car at home, so changed the language to English and input the longitude and latitude of the villa into it and set off on the 30 minute drive to Villa Ferragut Crestaix near Sa Pobla on the North of the Island.   As we landed late on Saturday night and our drive was in the dark we were really glad the instructions to the Villa were clear and accurate and of the welcome pack on our arrival meaning, we could grab a cup of tea and sandwich.

The boys immediately ran to the bedrooms (two twins and two doubles) to claim their beds.  In the end, they decided to share a room. They were soon fast asleep and I unpacked our cases and popped our passports and valuables in the villa safe.

About the Villa

We woke early on Sunday and were wowed by the beauty of the outside of the Villa.  Villa Ferragut Crestaix sleeps up to eight people comfortably and also has a cot available.  Set off the motorway next to a snail farm, it isn’t overlooked at all and is stunningly beautiful.  The images on the website certainly do not do it justice.  It is the perfect base for exploring the delightful island of Mallorca.

The villa had everything we needed for a comfortable holiday including a dishwasher, washing machine, airer, hairdryers, satellite TV and wifi.  I am not going to lie, the one thing that concerned me about a villa holiday was self-catering.  I wanted this to be a holiday for me too.  I needn’t have worried.  The kitchen was amazing with everything we needed and more.  They was more than enough crockery for all of us and extras, so we could just pop the dishwasher on overnight.

There was a fantastic covered BBQ which meant that the husbeast was more than happy to cook most nights. In fact, he found cooking a pleasure.  We shopped at the local markets and Lidl and the food was just delicious.  I have to say he excelled himself with the bass, potatoes and green beans that he cooked for us on Good Friday.  We found if we ate out at lunch time then he would BBQ on an evening or we would have fresh bread with ham and cheese for lunch with salad from the market.

See all the video’s from our trip including a full tour of the villa here on my facebook page.  I loved that our villa was in the traditional Mallorcan style.  The landscaping outside was excellent and the upkeep was spot on.

The owners really do look after the place and add new equipment each year.  We returned on the Wednesday to new towels and also brand new sun loungers around the pool.  The boys love the fact that there was a Bluetooth speaker tower making listening to music a doddle both in the house and around the pool.  Plus as there are no neighbours you can play your music loud and not worry about disturbing anyone.

Whilst we are talking about the pool, it was cold, but we expected that in April as it is unheated, but that certainly didn’t stop us using it A LOT.  I took the boys shorty wetsuits and a number of floats and it really was wonderful to have a pool to use at any time.  In fact, the pool felt a lot warmer in the evening when the air temperature had dropped making the water feel much warmer in comparison.

An Autism Friendly Holiday for All the Family

I want to touch on why a villa holiday worked so well for us.  Mini is on the spectrum and can find holidays a challenge.  He can get overwhelmed by the noise and change of routine and also anxious about smells, new foods and eating out.  Before we went on holiday we were able to look at the villa online and he could see what to expect.

Crowds and noise can cause him sensory overload and he doesn’t always play well with others.  Having a pool to ourselves was perfect and the fact that it wasn’t overlooked meant that he could even swim and sunbath nude without disturbing anyone.

Having a villa all to ourselves was really comforting for the whole family when Mini had a meltdown.  We didn’t have to worry about disturbing other families.  He could also retreat to his room when he needed his own space and listen to his audiobooks.

We used brochures and websites to show where we were going to Mini and made sure to visit markets and places such as the Caves de Drach during their quiet times.

Being self-catering worked really well.  We knew that we could always find food that would be suitable for him and cook it back at the villa, which really took the pressure off finding the “right” restaurant.  However, Mini loved tapas and eating outside as there were no cooking smells.  We tended to eat out during lunch time when it was quieter and warm.

James Villas were brilliant, they booked our seats so he knew where we were sitting on the plane both on the flight out and the return flight and we had an idea of the style of car that we would be getting.  All of this might seem insignificant, but they reassured Mini and therefore, made our holiday more of a break for all of us.

Mini was also the cameraman for all of the holiday. A job he took really seriously and gave him something to concentrate on when he was feeling anxious.

We loved Mallorca and there is so much to do for all the family, so I am going to do another post on what we got up to when we weren’t busy relaxing at the villa, in the pool or eating!

If you fancy the chance to win your own big holiday with James Villas then they have a great competition at the moment.

Disclosure: We were provided with the flights, hire car and villa by James Villas in exchange for this post.