An Englishman’s home is his castle, so the phrase goes. As a nation we spend countless hours and millions of pounds creating the spaces we live in. So why would we settle for a generic experience from our holiday accommodation?
Should I spend my precious time away sharing amenities with other guests in a hotel or relax with my family in a villa I’ve handpicked to deliver all our needs? Whilst good hotels offer a fantastic range of services, in my view they’ll always fall short in comparison to a luxury villa.
Let’s break this down into three areas key to my holiday enjoyment: (in no particular order) eating, relaxing and entertaining our 5-year-old daughter.
Eating. Breakfast is not usually a shared experience in our house so having the opportunity to get up at a time of our choosing and enjoy it as a family is a great way to start the day. We love the flexibility to cook and eat as and when, unshackled to menus or sittings. If you prefer to leave the cooking at home you can splash out on a personal chef, an added extra luxury villas provide for the ultimate break from everyday life.
Relaxing. Holidays for us are as much about recharging our batteries as they are about excitement and exploration. Location, ambience and comfort are paramount to ensuring our accommodation delivers the holiday we cherish. A villa stay allows you to dial the luxury up or down. This can include the opportunity to enjoy a private swimming pool, secluded sun deck, hot tub or even a spa treatment or two.
Top Villas Santorini 12 on the beautiful Greek island of the same name ticks all our boxes. A cosy, secluded hideaway flooded with light thanks to the high-vaulted ceilings throughout. Santorini 12 features a fully equipped kitchen, a sunny courtyard blushing with bougainvillea and furnished with an alfresco dining table, a master bedroom with an opulent bathroom with sunken bathtub and a natural stone shower and a second separate en-suite bedroom overlooking the courtyard. Peaceful roof top terraces offer a view of the village and the Aegean Sea in distance.
Entertainment. Keeping our daughter entertained in our accommodation makes for a good holiday all round. Again a villa stay can provide as much or as little as you choose depending on your requirements. For example the awesome Saratosa 1 in Orlando from Top Villas features a fully equipped games room with table tennis, pool and a choice of 4 TVs playing a selection of games as well as its very own 8 seater cinema!
We enjoy researching and planning what we’re going to do on our holiday but it’s always good to have help from those in the know. Villa’s with concierge services can do all this for you from booking attraction tickets, to arranging excursions or delivering a hire car to your door to get you there. Top Villas concierge service caters for all holiday requirements from airport transfers, car hire, babysitting, laundry and dry-cleaning services to butler, private chef and personal trainers.
The choice of villas, size and services is wide but whichever we choose we’re confident that booking a villa over a hotel will deliver a holiday to remember – for all the right reasons.
Top Villas is one of the world’s leading luxury villa rental specialists boasting a portfolio of more than 5,000 luxury villas in 100 of the world’s finest holiday destinations. They offer holiday rentals in Orlando, Barbados, Thailand and all over Europe. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post with Top Villas. Opinions are as always our own.
Featured image iStock. Santorini 12 photographs courtesy of Top Villas.
Looks like a great place to unwind!