Experiences
Five things worth getting up for
Nothing here is compulsory and nothing runs to a timetable you did not agree to. Reception arranges everything the evening before, usually over a glass of something on the terrace.
All five are included for house guests except where noted; the private table carries a supplement.
01West ridge, 520 m
The sunrise ridge
Out before the valley wakes, back before breakfast is cleared
A guided walk up the old shepherds’ path to the west ridge, leaving in the dark and reaching the top a few minutes before the sun clears the far range. It is 40 minutes of steady climbing on a stone track, not a scramble.
We carry a flask and something to sit on. Most mornings there is a layer of mist sitting in the bottom of the valley that burns off while you watch it.
- Duration
- 2 hours, returning by 08:30
- Group
- Up to six guests
- Effort
- Steady climb, stone track
- Bring
- Shoes with grip, a warm layer
- Season
- All year, weather permitting
02Lower orchard
A table in the orchard
One table, one fire, four courses under the apricot trees
The kitchen carries a table down to the lower orchard and cooks over wood beside it. Four courses, whatever the garden and the coast delivered that morning, served slowly across a long evening.
It seats two to eight and it happens once a night at most, so it is worth asking when you book rather than when you arrive.
- Duration
- Three hours, from 20:00
- Table
- Two to eight guests
- Menu
- Four courses, no choices
- Supplement
- €95 per guest
- Season
- May to October
03Pine slope above the villas
Forest hours
Two hours among the pines with no particular objective
Forest bathing, if you want the name for it. In practice: a slow, mostly silent walk through the pine slope above the villas, with long stops, and a guide who says very little.
It is not a fitness activity and it covers perhaps a kilometre in two hours. People arrive sceptical and leave asking when the next one is.
- Duration
- Two hours, mornings
- Group
- Up to eight guests
- Effort
- Gentle, level ground
- Bring
- Nothing at all
- Season
- All year
04Workshop, Puerto Aldena
Clay and hand
An afternoon at the wheel with the potter who made our plates
Almost everything you eat from at Solace was thrown eleven kilometres away, in a workshop at the edge of Puerto Aldena. Twice a week the potter opens the workshop to four guests for an afternoon.
You will make something imperfect. It is fired and glazed over the following weeks and sent on to you, which means it arrives long after you have gone home and reminds you of the valley in the middle of an ordinary week.
- Duration
- Half a day, including the drive
- Group
- Four guests
- Travel
- House car, 25 minutes
- Included
- Firing and shipping
- Days
- Tuesdays and Fridays
05Upper field, above the orchard
The night field
The upper field, blankets, and no light for thirty kilometres
The nearest town is over the ridge and the valley faces away from it, so on a clear moonless night the sky above the upper field is genuinely dark. We take blankets, a low chair each and a thermos.
An astronomer from the coast joins us on new-moon weekends. The rest of the time it is simply a field, in the dark, which is enough.
- Duration
- Ninety minutes, after dinner
- Group
- Up to ten guests
- Effort
- Ten-minute walk on level track
- Bring
- A coat — it drops quickly
- Best
- Around the new moon
Arranging
Everything is arranged at reception, the evening before
Tell us what you fancy when you arrive, or mention it in an enquiry and we will hold a place. Nothing runs unless someone wants it to.