The drive from Madrid to Herrera del Duque was very easy on extremely good, quiet roads. Finding our way though from the town to La Huerta de Los Nogales was slightly more of a challenge. We stopped and showed someone our booking form and with a bit of pointing and arm waving we got there in the end. There are actually quite a few Casa Rural signs – we discovered these on about day 3! The House is about 1km from the town, along an un-made (although fairly smooth) road. A nice stroll in the evening, or like us, you could park your car at the end and walk the last little bit. The house itself is first class. It is spotlessly clean and very tastefully furnished, the photographs don't do it justice. The swimming pool and its surrounding area are well maintained and there are good quality sun loungers. There is a fully equipped kitchen that guests can hire for a fee, although the owner let us keep a few things in the fridge and make coffee free of charge. Breakfast is as you would expect in a rural house, fresh bread, butter and jam, cakes, tomatoes and fruit from the garden, fruit juice and extremely strong coffee. We ate dinner once and lunch a couple of times at the house which was very pleasant and reasonably priced. The owners, Lourdes and Carlos couldn't do enough for us. Twice...The drive from Madrid to Herrera del Duque was very easy on extremely good, quiet roads. Finding our way though from the town to La Huerta de Los Nogales was slightly more of a challenge. We stopped and showed someone our booking form and with a bit of pointing and arm waving we got there in the end. There are actually quite a few Casa Rural signs – we discovered these on about day 3!

The House is about 1km from the town, along an un-made (although fairly smooth) road. A nice stroll in the evening, or like us, you could park your car at the end and walk the last little bit.

The house itself is first class. It is spotlessly clean and very tastefully furnished, the photographs don't do it justice. The swimming pool and its surrounding area are well maintained and there are good quality sun loungers. There is a fully equipped kitchen that guests can hire for a fee, although the owner let us keep a few things in the fridge and make coffee free of charge.

Breakfast is as you would expect in a rural house, fresh bread, butter and jam, cakes, tomatoes and fruit from the garden, fruit juice and extremely strong coffee. We ate dinner once and lunch a couple of times at the house which was very pleasant and reasonably priced.

The owners, Lourdes and Carlos couldn't do enough for us. Twice in our stay we were invited to join them for a barbecue and on our last day they took us in their 4x4 through the Reserva Nacional del Cijara, which is about 15km from the house. The scenery in the reserve is stunning and there are numerous marked hiking and cycle routes of various lengths (http://www.reservadecijara.com). We were there in August and it was extremely hot so unfortunately our walking boots never made it out of the suitcase.

Lourdes and Carlos don't speak more than a few words of English. We got by with the aid of translation on the laptop and phone, plus miming and a whole lot of laughing. I would recommend to anyone else though who doesn't speak Spanish to take a phrase book as it would not only help at the house but also when out and about.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at La Huerta de Los Nogales and would highly recommend it to anyone.More