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Not everyone feels at home in the same way

Most mornings here begin in much the same way. Before the first guests are awake, I can hear the coffee grinder downstairs. Feiko is usually already at work. Not because anyone has asked him to be, but because he firmly believes that a day simply starts better with good coffee. There are matters of principle on which he is considerably less outspoken.

Last May, my nieces were our very first guests. One of them prefers a straightforward cup of good black coffee. After the first morning, she cautiously asked whether she might make her own coffee the next day.

I think Feiko very nearly beamed.

Of course she could. In fact, he took visible pleasure in showing her how our barista machine worked: which button to press, how finely to grind the beans and why there are certain things one should never do to coffee. What began as a quick explanation probably ended as a short vocational course.

From then on, she ground her own beans every morning. Not because we were unwilling to make coffee for her, but because this was what made her feel most comfortable.

Thinking about it later, I realised that this small moment says almost everything about the way we see a stay at Cortijo La Vista. Not everyone feels at home in the same way. One person loves finding coffee waiting for them. Another enjoys the ritual of making it. Why should we decide which of the two is right? As long as nobody puts instant coffee in the machine, a great deal is possible.

Attention is not the same as constant presence

The same idea extends well beyond the coffee machine. You can have breakfast with us at the Cortijo, for example. Lovely, when that is what you feel like. But perhaps you would much rather sit among the locals in Belmez with a tostada. In that case, we will gladly tell you where to go.

It may not be the cleverest choice for our own breakfast revenue, but we did not create Cortijo La Vista in order to keep our guests on the estate for an entire week.

More than anything, we hope you return home feeling that your holiday was exactly the holiday you wanted. That also means we will not plan it for you. There is no activity programme, no entertainment team and no timetable that has already decided what you will be doing on Wednesday afternoon.

We regularly offer a daily menu and occasionally organise a themed evening. You are very welcome to join us when you feel like it. We do ask you to let us know in the morning whether you will be eating with us. Not because joining in is secretly compulsory, but because we plan our shopping accordingly and prefer not to waste food.

So, when we say you are free to join us, we mean that the choice is yours. We do not mean that at six o’clock we will be standing beside a pan of food for fifteen people, waiting to discover how many guests happen to appear.

If you would rather eat somewhere nearby, we will be just as happy to recommend a restaurant we think is worth the detour. That way, we know where we stand and you do not have to feel guilty because an untouched tortilla is waiting for you somewhere in our kitchen.

Perhaps all of this sounds perfectly obvious. Even so, many of us have quietly become used to places where part of the programme has already been arranged. There is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes it is a relief when someone else has decided what happens at half past nine. It is simply not how we imagine a stay here.

We do not rent out a room with a timetable attached. We offer a place where you can settle in for a week.

Some guests prefer to withdraw. Others wander over for coffee or a game of Rummikub. We enjoy that too, although we cannot make any promises about the atmosphere once someone uses the joker incorrectly.

We are always happy to think along with you about a walk, a restaurant or a village you might otherwise drive straight past. Not because we believe every day needs an outing, but because inland Andalusia is full of places that are remarkably poor at advertising themselves. We have a weakness for them.

And if you would like to relax a little further, you can book an AromaTouch massage during your stay. We genuinely enjoy giving them. While you relax on the massage table, we generally become calmer too. That is probably not the official division of labour during a massage, but it works very well for us.

On a pleasant day, the massage can take place outside in a sheltered spot, where you hear the wind and the birds without feeling that the whole of Andalusia is watching. If you would rather be indoors, that is equally possible. You choose where you feel most at ease.

Quiet does not depend on everything being silent

Some guests are barely seen all day. Not because anything is wrong, but because they have found a book in our library and disappeared with it into a hammock between the holm oaks. We consider that an entirely valid way to spend a day. In fact, it is more or less why we put the hammocks there.

Others go for a walk or linger on the roof terrace.

Speaking of the roof terrace, did you know that the Valle del Guadiato is known for its dark night skies? There is very little light pollution here. On a clear evening, nothing needs to be organised. You sit down, look up and suddenly an hour has passed. It is one of the few evening activities that requires no preparation, shopping list or reservation from us.

The same principle runs through the Cortijo. We do not try to create the same stay for every guest. We try to create a place where different people can feel at home in their own way.

Even our decision not to clean the rooms every day comes from that idea. We change the towels after three days, of course, and if you need anything, you only have to ask. But we also like your room to become your own place for a while.

A place where your book can remain open on the table, your shoes can stay exactly where you kicked them off and nobody unexpectedly appears to turn the duvet back into a geometrical exercise.

And, to be honest, we did not begin this dream only to spend every morning doing the very work we never particularly enjoyed at home. Before you arrive, we clean your room with care and prepare everything properly. After a week, we do it again. But cleaning every room and making thirteen beds every day when we are full does not suit the way we want to work. Nor, probably, the life for which we moved to Andalusia.

For us, hospitality means that things are well taken care of. It does not mean appearing at your door every morning with a vacuum cleaner and a stack of fresh sheets.

Who this way of staying suits

Perhaps this is the simplest way to describe our idea of hospitality: not that everyone receives exactly the same thing, but that everyone feels free to enjoy their holiday in their own way.

It suits people who appreciate personal attention but do not need to be entertained all day. People who like knowing that someone is nearby, without being asked every hour whether everything is all right. And people who enjoy staying somewhere where something may happen, but nothing has to.

Frequently asked questions

In summary

Not everyone feels at home in the same way. That is why we do not try to offer every guest exactly the same stay.

Some people enjoy a good conversation around the long table. Others recharge with a book in a hammock between the holm oaks or an evening beneath the stars. For us, hospitality does not mean arranging everything for you. It means attention when you need it and space when you would rather be left to yourself.