If you're reading this, you know what we usually get up to when we have a tourist season - but you might not be aware that Emma and I tend to be just as busy during the winters. It's not all skiing and cricket (yes, really!), finding new waterfalls, routes and locals to include in our eco-holidays in Montenegro; nor is it all marketing updates or putting our feet up. No, we like to get our hands properly dirty with what we call our "winter projects" at Villa Miela, the base for the multi-activity holidays we host ourselves at Lake Skadar National Park! Transforming this once-ruined stone farmhouse into stylish, eco-friendly accommodation back in 2008 inspired us to make constant improvements our guests will love - and we'll admit it, us too seeing as this is the amazing place we get to live. The Hot Tub Our first ever winter "project", back in the days when we were still starting out. I picked it up from the factory in Kettenacker, Germany (a first, apparently), and towed it back down to Montenegro with a £100 trailer bought off eBay and half a dozen ratchet straps. When we finally arrived back at the villa, only one strap remained. My first kilometre on French soil (where both trailer tyres burst) and our Croatia/Montenegro border crossing experience ("Is it for making wine?") have since become two of my favourite go-to anecdotes...and the tub was a real hit! A HOME FOR YOUR HOSTS After four summers of living in various dilapidated flats in and around Virpazar with our young children, we finally got together the funds and builders to construct a home for ourselves next door to Villa Miela. Respecting the architectural integrity of the centuries-old building was massively important to us, so our idea
If you’re reading this, you know what we usually get up to when we have a tourist season – but you might not be aware that Emma and I tend to be just as busy during the winters. It’s not all skiing and cricket (yes, really!), finding new waterfalls, routes and locals to include in
