If you could buy a villa with a pool anywhere, where would you buy?

[MyveryownFlyingSaucer]

Budget up to £700,000

Somewhere easily accessible from UK

where would you buy?

Spain

Greek islands, but in reality I would use the money to go lots of luxury long haul holidays instead.

Mallorca, or the South of France. I wouldn’t want a flight of more than 2 hours.

Lisbon

Lanzarote.

I am typing from the Languedoc and can see the sea and the Pyrenees. I have been faffing about on MNet nearly all day from a shaded sun lounger by the pool. I might put a frock on for dinner.

Nowadays we mostly fly to Barcelona and get the train across. We keep a car here. Obviously it wouldn't work if we were more than an hour from LHR or LGW.

We have a housekeeper and handyman here who also look after the gites.

One of te Canary Islands. Lovely in winter

The Algarve. Not on the coast but slightly inland where you have fantastic countryside and sea views.

Plenty of lovely beaches and delicious food and you can also take the train to Lisbon or drive over to Spain for lunch. There are flights from most airports and for us, in the NE it takes just over 3 hours.

I would buy somewhere along the coast, where the beach is free and close to an airport which offers frequent flights to the UK and doesn’t suffer with temperatures above 30*. A good rail or road service would be a plus. I’d look at France (Atlantic coast) or Croatia. I’d forget about the swimming pool. It’s far cheaper to book a few days at a swanky beach bar…or alternatively buy in a well managed block with a decent pool.

Somewhere warm with frequent, direct flights from my nearest airport. Most likely mainland Spain.

Amalfi coast, stunning

Corfu, very short and affordable flights from Gatwick, to get the best value out of a holiday home - you need to be able to get there easily and cheaply.

Cyprus, but not in pafos or Ayia Napa, maybe along the quieter bits of the south coast near limassol

Seconded Tuscany for me please. Provided you can deal with Italians ripping you off your pool maintenance etc. otherwise Provence.

Canary Islands are sooo basic

True, true and so true. Had 18 years of private pool in France!

That does sound idyllic 😍

We're happy with pool maintenance as we've done it before.

Cant always fill private pools in Mallorca

Corfu, specifically North East Coast. Its a shortish flight and a 45 minute drive from the airport so you could easily go for a long weekend. Also lots of flights.

I'd actually prefer Paxos but the boat trip from Corfu adds a lot of travel time.

Florida!

That's another favourite place of ours. St Stephano or Kassiopi would be nice.

At what times of year do you envisage using the holiday home? Makes a big difference as Greece, for e.g. has a v short season.

Or is this fantasy villa hunt?!

Brittany - easy to get to and beautiful scenery.

I’m just back from a week in a villa in the Algarve. Was far too hot and no air con. I wouldn’t want to own a villa there. Plus a 2hr 30 min flight from Heathrow and the inevitable delays. I’d pick France for ease of travel (Eurostar) and their great train network. Temperatures are crazy at the moment in a lot of Europe and will only get warmer so consider this too.

The pool at our villa was saltwater and someone only visited once during the week so doesn’t sound too high maintenance with that schedule.

Just adding that Algarve is a super dry region so how long pools will be allowed is something to think about as well as fire risk areas in various countries. Last year in south of France, we came across students who are paid to stay in towers watching out for fires.

I do agree with this, £700k would buy me 20 years of pretty damn good holidays, especially when I add in the saved ongoing maintenance costs. I would see the world.

Spain, near Javier sort of region so temperatures are still decent in the winter but it's quick to get to Valencia

South of France or Spain as both are easily accessible all year round . We had family with a villa on Rhodes and it was a bugger in the winter / off season .