So, where do I start? It took me a lot of time to write this review, but I really do owe this to this lovely villa and firstly their owners - Marijana and Robert.
We spent two wonderful weeks here in August 2014. The house is in a tiny hamlet called Smolonje in an area called Dalmatinska Zagora (Dalmatia behind the coastal mountains). The house is only 2 or 3 minutes by car from the road to Omis (a seaside town) and about 10-15 minutes from the A1 motorway - Blato na Cetini exit .The accessibility is excellent, but at the same time the house is set in an incredibly peaceful environment with no other rental houses around, only locals living their bucolic rural lives. There are literally less than 10 cars passing by during an average day and the sound of the local traffic from the road on the opposite side of the valley connecting the A1 and Blato na Cetini with Omis is best described as unobtrusive. You can hear pensioners playing petanque under the pines. The loudest sound is that of kids playing. Every morning a bakery van arrives, announcing its presence with gentle chimes. Fresh bread, baguettes or croissants are on your breakfast table every single morning!
The layout of the villa itself is based on an older plan. The initial building work was done several years ago and completed in 2014 as a rental property. The villa lies on a sloping lot with single garage at street level, the main entrance one floor higher leading to an inner staircase which climbs another half-floor to the main living area of the house i.e. kitchen, dining and living area with 2 adjoining bedrooms. One bedroom has an en-suite bathroom, the other one with an exit to the main terrace with a saltwater pool, which is another highlight of the property. The terrace is a generous size, stone paved and with the perfect barbecue, which can literally serve as a second kitchen. A huge marble worktop with kitchen sink and enough space to put all your ingredients, utensils and cooked meals with huge garden table 3 steps away to enjoy your steaks or fish right away.
Sunsets and evenings are especially charming here. After you enjoy your dinner with the sun slowly hiding itself behind coastal mountains, you can lie on a pool chair with a glass of wine and just watch the day dying slowly and the night taking its reign. The poetry of the orange sunlight and shadows playing on the mountains on the opposite side of the valley, vesper church bells and car headlights going up and down the distant road as the darkness falls will enthral and enchant you. The best TV channel for relaxing, no doubt about it! And then you can switch on the pool light and watch bats resembling nose-diving bombers swoop down to water level to catch the attracted insects! What a spectacle!
OK, let's get back inside the house; the kitchen is modern, equipped with a full sized dishwasher (60cm width), oven, ceramic hob (all Bosch), microwave, kettle and big fridge-freezer combination (Electrolux). The kitchen itself is not particularly large, let's call it rather sufficient, but nothing to complain about, when the outside barbecue and table can stand in as a second kitchen and dining room for the main dish of the day. The dining table is comfortable and big enough to sit 10 people. I have only few minor remarks considering the kitchen - the variety of knives could be a bit better to deal with all the kitchen jobs from fruit and vegetable peeling to handling big portions of meat, another adapter plug would be useful, because the only double plug is not enough for the kettle, the microwave and the coffee machine at the same time. Speaking of coffee machines, being a caffeine addict I have to mention that the coffee machine is the filter type and not the espresso one. As I had been aware of this fact in advance, I have brought my own espresso machine with me, but not every visitor can do that. Needless omission in my eyes, as the cheapest full-auto espresso machines using bean coffee cost from 250-300€ upwards. Not a bank-breaking item, is it? And it's these small details that make the difference between good and perfect, don't they? Two more details in conjunction with kitchen - I personally missed a wall clock in the kitchen or dining area. Installing an interior jalousie on the west-oriented kitchen window would help in creating more pleasant environment in the kitchen during afternoons, when the sun shines in directly with full power. Of course, you can switch on the air-con, but strong direct sunlight is simply annoying and the glare troublesome to deal with. Oh, and a doormat would be nice in front of the terrace sliding door to prevent bringing dirt to kitchen and living room area.
There is a sofa with 2 armchairs and a coffee table on the balcony next to the sliding door and the balcony is directly connected to the main terrace. The sofa and armchairs can accommodate max. 5 adults, but 4 are more comfortable, so not everyone can sit around together as a group. Anyway, the balcony is an ideal place to drink a coffee and check your e-mail or news on tablet. A real joy in the morning, the balcony is not comfortable during most of the afternoon as is exposed to direct sunlight. As sunset approaches and shadows grow longer, the balcony becomes a place for pleasant relaxing once again. Other ideas for touch up - even a cheap floor lamp next to the outside sofa would make it even more pleasant in the evening and finally - a sliding mosquito net would complement the sliding kitchen-balcony door nicely. And protect the door hardware, because it gets very busy throughout the day with kids running to and from the house constantly. A sliding net would provide less load on the sliding hardware and surely extend its lifespan.
The living room is not separated and not particularly large, as you can see on the pictures, it forms one area with kitchen and dining part. Equipped with new 46" flat LED TV, SAT receiver and a small hi-fi system. We used the TV as an external monitor for my laptop to play programmes for the kids to keep them entertained when they got bored of the pool. The living room sofa can accommodate a maximum of 6 adults IMO, some might appreciate an extra 1 or 2 armchairs. But hey, do you remember the part about cars running up and down the opposite side of the valley and bats catching insects? That was our TV show almost every evening, seriously! We just couldn't get enough of that peaceful atmosphere. Two more ideas for improvement – again, interior jalousie on the living room window to prevent light reflections on the TV screen and a floor lamp would create cosier atmosphere in the evenings.
There is a bathroom with a new, full-size front-loading washing machine (LG or Samsung, I don't remember now), toilet and the house's only bathtub next to the kitchen. Both bedrooms on this level are tastefully decorated, equipped with double beds, wardrobes and that's basically it. Neither bedroom is especially generous in floor area, but cosy, individually air conditioned, with good quality mattresses and thick curtains to prevent the nosey morning sun ruining your dreams. And I'm very sensitive about this, so big thumbs up, because most of the hotels I have ever stayed in did not have such good light-blocking curtains. Oh, I almost forgot, there's a safe in one of the bedrooms to keep your valuables.
There are three more individually air-conditioned bedrooms upstairs (two double and one twin, one of them with en-suite bathroom) with one more bathroom available on the gallery level. And then another highlight of the property - a vast room housing a Jacuzzi with valley outlook and a shower enclosure - we used the Jacuzzi many times and found it very pleasing and relaxing.
There is a single garage on the street level with a remote operated door. Access is tricky - it takes some getting used to, but I managed to park my BMW X5 without a single scratch for the two weeks we stayed. So unless you own say, a Cadillac Escalade, it should be just OK. There is space to park two more cars in front of the house, but reversing back into street down the ramp requires some careful judgement as well. Certainly it’s not a major issue, just something to be aware of.
Exiting the garage you enter another vast room that serves partially as a storeroom and partially as a ping-pong room with a table you or your kids can use (not only) during rainy weather. Best of all, there is huge (at least 400 ltrs) shop-style glass-door fridge here, so no worries when you fill the fridge in the kitchen to the brim. Beer cans, mineral water bottles, case of peaches, big water melon – no problem. Everything you need, always at your disposal downstairs, next to garage.
I will add two more remarks about the house - we missed shelves in all shower enclosures for shower gels and other stuff and finally, the owners might consider installing mosquito nets at least in the bedrooms. Yes, you can switch on the air-con, but I know many people that prefer natural venting to A/C, mainly during the nights. And it might save some electricity as well. For online addicts: there is excellent, stable Wi-Fi coverage throughout the house based on a fixed line aDSL modem with typical speed of 4/0.5 MBit (down/up). It’s the technological maximum available here through the local telecom exchange, still fast enough to read the news and check your e-mail - just don’t expect to stream HD video from YouTube on three iPads simultaneously.
The owners, Marijana and Robert are really nice people and added to our holiday experience. Upon arrival, they greeted us with a fruit bowl, ice cold beer (very refreshing after a 10-hour drive!) and their homemade spirits as a toast. They were always helpful, ready to assist in any way (i.e. bookings in the local tavern, etc.), always responding to texts or e-mails very quickly. But yet unobtrusive and decent. They even brought us their own homemade olive oil and wine for tasting! They are another important asset of the property, so to speak. Big thumbs up, Marijana and Robert :-)
As I already told you before, the Adriatic Sea lies behind the coastal mountain chain. It’s about a15-20 minute (15 km) drive on relatively narrow roads down to the romantic town of Omis in the estuary of the river Cetina. When you turn into the final part of the twisty road from Gata to the sea, suddenly a breathtaking vista opens – a deep canyon, ending with the estuary between two mountains, you just have to see it for yourself! The town itself gets incredibly crowded and busy during the summer season, mainly because the main coastal road (Jadranska magistrala) connecting all the seaside resorts runs through it. There is a public, artificial sandy beach close to the centre, but guess what – it gets very crowded, especially during weekends and public holidays. We tried various beaches along the mountainous rocky coast; don’t expect the vast Caribbean, Thai, Bali or Aussie beaches you see in brochures. This is not case of the Croatian coast in general. We found a few acceptable spots further down the coastline, so it took us 30-40 mins every day to get to and from the sea. A fair trade-off for me as the villa and its location is quite the opposite to the coastal crowds and endless hustle and bustle. I just wouldn’t be able to stay in any of the apartments that are packed tightly along the Jadranska magistrala along the coast. What a treat to come back every late afternoon to the house in Smolonje, light the barbie and unwind by cooking the perfect cut of meat or fresh fish, away from this all. If this is your style of holidaying, this is the house and the place you’ve been looking for, trust me! Despite the fact that we usually like to explore different places every summer, my family and our friends unanimously agreed to go to Smolonje this year again. You cannot find a comparable house rental for the quality of property at this price level, especially not in Istria where the majority of rental villas in Croatia are available. We paid 200€ more for a two week stay two years ago in Istria for a house not even close in quality, convenience or ambiance to this one. Istria is a lovely and charming region, no doubt about it (been there numerous times), but last year wilder Dalmatia won my heart.
As to trips with kids – we visited Split to see the Old City and Dioclecian’s palace, surely a place worth visiting, paid a visit to the picturesque historic part of the Bosnian town of Mostar (damaged severely during the Yugoslavian breakup war) and finally went rafting on the incredible Cetina river. Although I’m no adrenaline sports type (close to 40), we enjoyed this thoroughly with my kids aged 9 and 7. And will do it this summer once again.
So what the heck are you still waiting for??? Marijana and Robert are waiting for your reservation inquiry! You won’t be disappointed, I promise.
Martin
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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