The beauty of this place is the untouched surroundings; in fact the owners had something to do with the preservation of the area, personally invested in bringing back wildlife and bringing tourists to appreciate it. The well appointed rooms are fitted with good quality kitchens and bathrooms, no more and no less than you need and great value for money. If what you love is the outdoors, beautiful views, long walks, rustic barbecues, good food and good wine, this is your place. I have brought a great many great friends here and all agree that this is a secret gem in the mountains. We are even planning to rent out the whole place for a significant celebration. No wonder the times voted it one of its top fifty European villas!

I'm a big fan of old character places and love the mountains; this place however was something of a disappointment. While full of character and with amazing views, little appears to have been altered in the owner's 25 years of ownership. The bathrooms and kitchen are very dated, and the bedrooms and lounge sparsely furnished. Although supposedly sleeping 14, some of the bedrooms are hardly viable and one of the bathrooms is simply not fit for purpose. With some serious investment the place could be wonderful, as it stands it feels very tired.

We spent a marvellous week here at the end of June. We had been originally attracted by the view up the valley on the Olmares website and the view from our ground floor apartment was almost as good!

The complex is made up of the original very large farmhouse which can host I believe up to 12 people, plus four apartments sleeping two each and one four.

Our apartment was well appointed with everything you would need, and nothing you didn't. There's a communal room full of comfy chairs etc and loads and loads of books on the local area, wildlife and walking, we used this the identify the numerous birds we came across including the magnificent Griffin Vultures.

There are a number of rules, but these ensure that everyone's visit is enjoyable, such as no smoking, no music or TV with patio doors open.

There's a large courtyard which also has a huge barbecue and a room upstairs in the old hay loft for washing, almost like a laundrette, very useful.

The apartment is some 15 minutes from Potes and is very secluded up the hillside, the only bar within walking distance is now closed, so no chance of a local drink, but that's no real hardship.

All your needs can be obtained from Potes, we used the Lupa as you enter the town which has a magnificent fresh fish counter and also the one opposite the Bus Station. There is a market on Monday's which sells a lot of local produce cheese, meats, veg, fruit etc and old antique type of stuff old tools and the like.

We drove from Bilbao but was unable to take advantage of the discounted ferry price provide by the owners of Olmares as we had already booked via a third party.

We spent our time walking, a bit of sight seeing and sitting on the veranda watching the lovely view and listening to cow bells, bird spotting and watching the hay making. I did not use the car much I think the furtherest I drove was to Espinama to walk to the cable car at Fuentes De and La Hermida.

The only downside was the parking, ok if you've got a hired car but when the apartments are fully booked it all becomes a bit tight, however during our stay most of the time we were the only ones there.

By the way you can walk up the zigzag path up to 'the old lady' Pena Ciquera by driving to Cueva.