Take the Plunge. Review on Jamesvillas

If you enjoy being independent and swimming in your own pool on holiday, or just splashing around in it, then James Villa Holidays are for you. James Villa Holidays specialise in villas with private pools. These villas can be found in the following places: The Algarve, Costa Blanca, Andalucia, Majorca, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Tuscany, Cyprus, Malta, Gozo, and Florida. The company is Atol protected and ABTA members. They are based at Centre 3000, 20/20 Business Park, St Laurence Avenue, Maidstone, Kent, UK, ME16 0LL. In June 2003 I went on holiday with my wife and in-laws, for a 2 week break to Tias in Lanzarote. We stayed in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa set in its own private grounds with its own swimming pool.

About the Brochure The James Villa brochure and its accompanying price list are very well set out and easy to understand and follow. The brochure is in sections, as to which part of Europe or Florida you wish to visit. It is an excellent way of being able to flick through to find a villa you want to travel to. The illustrations are of a very high quality, and there is a basic description of what the villa has to offer, i.e number of bedrooms, bathrooms, terrace, air-conditioning, if car is needed and others. Alongside the main picture of the villa is a comprehensive and (I think) truthful write-up of the villa and surrounding area. This includes whether there is patio furniture, barbeque, washing machine/tumble dryer, microwave, tv (including satellite), video, hi-fi, or cd player etc. Also alongside the main photo is an inset photo. This usually shows part of the inside of the villa.

About the Website Before we actually decided on which villa we were going to choose, we went onto the James Villa website at https://jamesvillas.com. You can either book your holiday by telephone on 01622 655900 or via the website. On the site you can just type your destination, date of travel, departure airport, and number of people travelling, and all available villas will then be shown. Their website is very easy to follow and you can customise your holiday pricing schedule by amending such things as car hire, insurance, and different flight prices from the one actually quoted. I think this was a great idea for our party, as we had our own travel insurance, and we needed to hire our own car to enable us to take a wheelchair abroad. The only drawback to amending the quoted holiday price is if you want to book your own flights. If you want to do this, (which we did not) then you have to add on 20% to the cost of the villa. Another nominal charge per person that is made, and is shown on the final holiday cost, is for breakages whilst in the villa. We eventually found the villa of our choice and booked it through the internet. The airline used by James Villas was Excel Airways through Freedom Flights. On contacting James Villas re our wheelchair passenger they informed us to get in touch with the airline about taking the passenger to the departure gate at Manchester Airport. We did this by e-mail and received confirmation that this was acceptable to the airline. When we arrived at Manchester Airport and checked in, our seats had been pre-booked by Freedom Flights. This was a very pleasant surprise to us. We had no problems with Excel Airways and the plane/journey were fine.

The Holiday and Villa On picking up our hire car at Lanzarote Airport, finding the villa was no problem, as James Villas had sent us a detailed print of the route to take with all the travel documents. On arriving at the villa, the key was where it should have been and the villa was in great order. The location and villa were as described in the brochure. The villa itself was clean and tidy throughout, and there was plenty of space and storage. This was especially so in the bedrooms and kitchen. The utensils in the kitchen were plentiful and clean. Outside, the pool area was clean and the patio furniture was in excellent working order, and enough for 4 people (4 beds and 4 chairs). The following day after our arrival we had a visit from the James Villa Holiday rep at the resort. She was well dressed and well mannered, and asked if we had any problems or queries, (we did not at that time). She also gave us a typed sheet with contact telephone numbers and names on. These were for her and a colleague and the villa managers. The managers were a husband and wife team, and came twice a week. The wife came to change to the towels once a week and the second time brought an assistant, and gave the villa a thorough clean and changed the bed linen. The husband came twice a week to clean and test the water in the pool. He also cleaned the patio and patio furniture. We thought the testing of the water was a very good and hygenic idea. We did have a problem with one of the bathroom door handles though, so we contacted the manager and it was fixed the same day. Also, the pool pump stopped working and this was fixed quickly. We will definitely be using James Villa Holidays again, and can certainly recommend them as an independent travel company for this type of holiday.