Celebrate life
A whole villa near Valencia for celebrating what matters
Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases and reunions. Building feelings, hugging the people you love, making memories that last. The whole house for your group: no reception desk, nobody else around, nobody else’s schedule. And nobody telling you how to celebrate.
Neither function room nor flat
Fourteen people are too many for a flat and far too few for a function room
Venues built for celebrations are set up for a hundred or two hundred people, and a group of fourteen isn’t worth their while. A large apartment, on the other hand, can’t seat fourteen for a meal or sleep them comfortably.
Villa Paula can, because it’s a house you also sleep in: a table for sixteen indoors, seven bedrooms, 4,500 m² of garden and an enclosed, climate-controlled space for twenty-eight if it rains.
And because it’s run by the people who live here. That’s what lets every group organise it their own way.
What gets celebrated here
Almost always one of five things
A hen or stag weekend
The group has the whole house and garden to itself, with no neighbours to disturb and no closing time. You sleep here, so nobody drives home.
An anniversary
With the whole family or with the same four couples as always. The house works just as well for eight as for sixteen.
A milestone birthday
Forty, fifty, seventy. The group stays two or three nights and the celebration stops being a lunch and becomes a weekend.
A reunion
People who haven’t been together in twenty years, or a family spread across three countries. The airport is five minutes away.
Christmas and New Year
From 20 December to 6 January is seventeen nights, not six. A five-hundred-year-old house with two fires lit doesn’t need fairy lights: the tree is real and the mandarins are out in the grove.
It happens more than you’d think
The ones flying in and the ones already here
Someone who studied in Valencia and now lives far away. They come back with friends from the States or Australia who need somewhere to sleep, and they want to see the local ones, who’ll go home that same night.
Those are two different problems — putting some people up and getting everyone together — and they’re usually solved in two different places. Here they’re solved in one.
The ones not staying the night
Sleeping and celebrating are two different numbers
Seven to sixteen people sleep at the house. More can come to the celebration, arranged in advance: it’s the usual way to handle a family meal where not everyone is staying over.
Indoors, the extending table seats sixteen. The garden pavilion is enclosed, climate-controlled and has a wood stove, and seats twenty-eight: rain doesn’t change the plan.
There are tables and chairs at the house for thirty-five people. Beyond that it’s hired in, and that gets arranged too: we can handle it or the group can bring it.
PLAZO SIN FIJAR
No closed lists
At Villa Paula you choose your own suppliers
The house imposes nobody. There’s no approved list to choose from, no minimum spend per head, no catering you’re obliged to book here. If the group has a cook, a musician or a florist they trust, those are the ones who come.
And if you’d rather organise nothing, the house has its own: asado, paella, the clay oven. It’s an option, not a condition.
The only thing you don’t choose is the house rules: hours, sound levels, who sleeps here and what has to be agreed beforehand. They’re written out with no small print in the house rules.
What people have set up here
The garden takes more than you’d think
These aren’t things the house provides: they’re set-ups brought in by groups who celebrated here. We mention them because they show how far the place goes.
A cocktail bar under the bougainvillea
A stage in the garden
A bar built onto a motorbike
Sofas and tables out in the garden
What gets prepared for the day
The table
Argentinian asado, paella, clay-oven pizza, empanadas or pasta. And live flamenco with any of them. How the kitchen works.
Getting ready without leaving
Hairdressing, make-up and manicures come to the house. Every bedroom has its own mirror and light. How wellbeing works.
The house made ready
Flowers cut from the garden that same morning. If the stay has a particular occasion, the house is prepared for it.
How it works
The celebration happens during a stay
Villa Paula is a place to stay. The group books its dates and, while it’s here, celebrates whatever it came to celebrate. The house isn’t hired by the hour for a meal.
If it’s only the people staying
There’s nothing more to pay. The celebration is part of the stay: the house, the garden, the fireplaces and the table already belong to the group those days.
If more people come
That’s fine, arranged in advance, and then there is a supplement. It covers what it genuinely costs: wear on the house, insurance and cleaning.
If the group brings in outside suppliers
Same again: you tell us and there’s a supplement. But who comes is the group’s choice, and that’s what matters.
A piece of advice that costs nothing
A December birthday gets asked about in spring
Enquiries reach us four to twelve months ahead, and people usually ask before they’ve even chosen where to stay. If you already have the date in your head, writing early is the only thing that guarantees it’s free.
The questions we get most
Do we have to book catering through Villa Paula?
No. The group can bring its own suppliers: a cook, musicians, a florist. There’s no approved list and no minimum spend per head.
The house has its own meals — asado, paella, the clay oven — but they’re an option, not a condition.
Can we hire the house just for the celebration?
No. Villa Paula is a place to stay. The group books its dates and celebrates during its stay.
What does celebrating here cost?
If the celebration is only for the people staying, nothing extra: it’s part of the stay.
If more people or outside suppliers come, there’s a supplement covering wear on the house, insurance and cleaning.
Are there tables and chairs for everyone?
The house has its own tables and chairs for thirty-five people.
If more is needed, or a different kind of furniture, linen or tableware, it’s hired in. We can arrange it or the group can bring it.
How far in advance should we book?
Enquiries come in four to twelve months ahead. A December birthday gets asked about in spring.
What happens if it rains?
The garden pavilion is enclosed, climate-controlled and has a wood stove, and seats twenty-eight. Indoors there are several sitting rooms and two fireplaces.
If you want the thinking behind it
Why we do things the way we do
We wrote a letter about what we think: the land, the local crafts, the food and why we’re not interested in growing much. You don’t need to read it to come, but it’s there.
R.S.V.P.
What to ask for in advance
None of this is compulsory and none of it has a form. You tell us on WhatsApp and it’s sorted before you arrive.
The firewood, the flowers from the garden and having the house entirely to yourselves don’t need asking for: they’re already there.