THE HOTEL CASA DE LUZ, ALMÁCHAR
The hotel is a Vivienda Rural (countryside hotel). The 200 square meter living space contains five double rooms, two living rooms, a large ten-seat dining hall, a kitchen spacious enough for three chefs, two bathrooms (one with shower, one with a bathtub) and a guest restroom.
Altogether, the balconies measure 60 square meters.
On the top terrace you have the refreshing pool with the outstanding view of the mountains, big enough for five people. Wintertime it can be heated to 35 degrees.
All five bedrooms are beautiful with rustic windows facing either the street or the balconies. One family room, with enough space for at least three beds, has a charming interior window facing the atrium.
Ten beds king size, and four extra beds for children, makes the hotel also perfect for sport clubs coming with families. For those of you who want to enjoy breakfast outside under the grapevines, the first-floor balcony offers a warm morning sun even during February.
Entering the house one immediately finds the dining hall to the right. This room is the atrium of the house, and plenty of light flows through all the way from the transparent glass roof of the third floor. The base of the house is from the morish period 500 years ago, and the construction with the atrium has typical Arabic influences.
An impressing view is the stairs to the the attic passages in the house and the cactus tree growing all the way up to the transparent roof. The first floor living room has a fully working Danish cast iron wood stove, a TV with 40 channels and a Marshall Stereo bringing music to the entire house. The internet has 600 Megabit, enough for all you need. The guest restroom and the wardrobe are located to the left while you find the kitchen with the lovely tiles and the cosy light to the right connected to the dining room.
The entire house has beautiful terracotta tile flooring. The colour of the tiling is identical to the colour of the fragile rock so commonly found in Spain. The tiles, decorated with artfully painted flowers, are a theme in the kitchen and the bathrooms. All walls are white-washed and natural.
The 200-year-old house is built all from natural stone brought from the riverbed on donkeys. Heavy-duty wooden beams supporting the ceiling are visible in all rooms. From the hall, a staircase leads you to the second floor, where classic Mediterranean open-air corridors lead to four of the bedrooms, two of which feature French balconies with iron forged hand railing facing the street.
The bathroom with a shower belongs to the two rooms facing the street and the bathroom with a bathtub is intended for the rooms closest to the mountain. A staircase leads to the third floor. To the right a bedroom with tasteful green bedspread and yellow lamps invites you to nap under the sloping wooden ceiling. The connected living room on the third floor has a sturdy Moroccan dining table for 4-6 people and a beautiful sofa, a small tea-table, and an Italian hand-painted newspaper stand. A small book collection and a desk in front of the balusters invites you to a literary escape.
From here you can see the atrium and the beautiful windows that lead you to the large terrace with the breathtaking views of the mountain area and the surrounding mango and orange orchards.
The splendid flowers on the neighbour’s balcony are worth admiration. This terrace has a dining table for ten people and sunbeds for lazy days.
The house was rebuilt in 2001 by a Danish architect with Arabic ideals as inspiration. Impressively, the walls, the window vaults, and the doorposts are 70 centimetres deep and all early 19th-century original construction. This helps maintain an even inside temperature throughout the whole year. The lamps, the carpets on the walls, and some furniture such as the small, decorative hand-painted tables are purchased at a local market in Fuengirola. The solid wood table in the dining room weighs way too much to be moved in one piece, and it´s significant for the rustic character of the house.
