Casa Lola - The Best Child Friendly Accommodation. EVER!

It’s not often you find a place that hasn’t really been discovered before. I REALLY wanted to keep this place a secret, but at the same time, it’s a place that is too good not to share.

Let me give you the backstory.

Our group of close friends and families have been expanding ever since 2017. Babies arrived, turned into toddlers, more babies arrived, toddlers grew into small children and by the time early 2022 arrived, there were 6 adults and 6 children in our party. When that happens, the criteria for searching for amazing houses, villas, cottages or accommodation in general gets quite specific.

Are cots available? Are there stair gates? Are high chairs available? Will we need blackout blinds? Is there a garden for kids to play in? Is the accommodation spacious enough for 12? Is the place affordable? The list goes on.

Initially my search criteria was for a farmhouse in France, following a wonderful stay at Les Deux Chenes in the Loire Valley back in 2018. But the only one that made the cut was La Vrilletterie, a beautiful gite in Luzé in the Centre-Loire Valley. Sadly, that accommodation wasn’t available on the dates we needed, so it was back to the drawing board.

After switching my search criteria to Italy, I eventually came across the absolute gem that is Casa Lola.

Casa Lola is a huge hillside villa, located in the Marche region of Italy. It comfortably sleeps 12 (when I say comfortably, the rooms are so far away from each other that when one baby cried during the night, no-one else could hear…). It has a lovely outdoor private pool, stunning views of the surrounding mountains and countryside, fairly close to airports (1.5 hours), affordable (£2250 for a week for mid-July, £2700 for a week during school holidays), huge lounge area with TV, and spacious kitchen with separate wine and beer fridge, obvs.

And the real winner? There is a separate building (called Casa Pollo), 50 metres from the house that is essentially a hangar FILLED with kids toys. A huge trampoline, scooters, dressing up boxes, chalk boards, painting tables, a small pool table and toys galore. Oh, and a table tennis table which was mostly used by the adults 🙂

It ticks every box you want as a group of friends of families.

So we booked.

And then COVID hit.

Finally, 2 years after booking, we made it to Casa Lola in July.

Flight times were pretty terrible at the nearest airports of Ancona and Pescara (again, thinking of the kids), so we ended up flying into Bologna. Not ideal as the drive is 3.5 hours, but it went pretty quickly and the kids didn’t mind. Next time I really want a closer airport!

The holiday itself was superb. Local supermarkets in Amandola provided everything we needed, the pool and play barn / hangar were used at least twice daily, and the parents never tired of the wonderful views South over the rolling Marche hills.

The owner Victoria was also brilliant with arranging a homemade lasagna for us on the first night, plus some shopping to tide us over for the first 24 hours.

Want to take a peek at the place? Check out the pics below and all the info on the main Casa Lola website – I can’t recommend it enough!