At last a property where you can really say "the more the merrier!". Mas Dalt is unique. Situated on a huge 15-hectare (over 37 acres) hillside wooded property with great views, Mas Dalt offers 17 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms in three different fully independent and spacious living quarters, each with its own kitchen, living room, terrace, etc. (There are a total of 13 double beds and 17 single beds.) For extra large groups, keep in mind that 12-bedroom Can Tapies is only a 10-minute walk away. Situated 4 kms east of Banyoles beautiful old town and lake, 2 km walk to Camós, 35 km inland from the Costa Brava beaches, this is an ideal area for holiday-makers.

Mas Dalt: I have been working with the owners of Mas Dalt since 1998. At first they offered 2 separate large apartments in the main house that they would rent out to different groups, but in 2004 the owners decided to restore an old stone building next to the huge mansion and put in a new pool. The idea behind the enlargement was to have a very large property which is comfortable for large groups or several families who want to be together but not necessarily crammed into one house. Each living quarters here is fully independent of the rest, with full kitchen (including dishwasher & washing machine & all mod cons) and dining/living room (including TV & stereo), and each apartment has its own outdoor seating & BBQ area. However, the 10 bedroom part of the main house also has a huge living room (about 120 m2) and a large dining room where everyone in all three apartments can have indoor meals together. Outdoors there are two places all guests can have meals together: the very handsome 130 m2 covered wooden-beamed terrace overlooking the pool, and well as a porch under stone arches with BBQ and picnic benches, both beautifully lit for outdoor meals, both day and night.

The owners have had the private road up to Mas Dalt paved recently. From there, the unpaved road continues across the hillside to the owner's other house, 12 bedroom Can Tapies. The unpaved road passes 12thC church of Santa Maria de Camós, where some guests have had religious ceremonies while celebrating their weddings at Mas Dalt. Mas Dalt and Can Tapies are becoming increasing popular for weddings and other celebrations , mostly in the off-season, and the owners are offering their own catering, decorating, and other serviced involved in organizing events. As an alternative, there is a lovely medieval rectory in nearby Camos, 2 km away, a beautiful dining hall specialized in hosting large events. So you can choose to celebrate your event at Mas Dalt, with the option of accommodating up to 40 or so guests at Mas Dalt, or renting both Mas Dalt and Can Tapies for even larger groups, and you have the option of using the restaurant in Camós to take care of the banquet, using the houses only for accommodations. You choose what is best for you...

Here is the detailed run down on the bedroom and bathroom distribution, by apartment:

The main upstairs 10 bedroom duplex:

Let´s start with the main floor, level 1: the kitchen here is the least modern of the three kitchens at Mas Dalt, but is more than made up for by having lots of character, including a very convenient large old-fashioned cold-storage closet dating from the 1920s that still works, beautiful wooden doors and copper handles and all!. The kitchen also has another modern refrigerator, an old marble sink, a gas stove and oven, a microwave, expresso machine, a dishwasher, a large fireplace, and there is a food prep area you can sit down at and a huge collection of glasses and plates.

Beyond the kitchen is the dining room with four red-checkered cloth covered tables seating 8 or 9 guests each, set around another fireplace, and with windows affording nice views across the Pla de Estany out towards the sea. There is a pantry and wash and ironing room just off the dining room with another fridge and a full bathroom which doesn't get much use as all the rooms around here have private bath. Around this dining room are three bedrooms:

• Bedroom 1) with one double bed (150x190cm) and private bathroom with shower
• Bedroom 2) with 2 small double beds (135x190cm) and a private bathroom with shower
• Bedroom 3) with 1 double bed (200x190cm) and a private bathroom with shower

Just off the kitchen and up four steps are three more bedrooms to your left along a long hallway:

• Bedroom 4) with two single beds (90x190cm) - can be pushed together to make a large double
• Bedroom 5) smaller room (good for kids) with two single beds (90x190cm)
• * the hallway bathroom with half-sized bathtub
• Bedroom 6) with with double bed (150x190cm) and a small balcony and nice views.

Level 2: Upstairs from the vestibule is the huge living room divided into five different sitting areas, one around the TV (digital TV, about 30 channels, original language option available), another sitting area around the DVD player and stereo (with CD, radio, and cassette), and other sofas and card tables scattered around the huge wood-paneled and heavily beamed room. Off the main living room is the only bedroom on this floor:

• Bedroom 7) a large room with double bed (150x200cm) and private bathroom with half-bath. This room is just above Bedroom 1).

Just like on the floor below, off the kitchen, there are four steps up off the living room to a back hallway with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on your left:

• Bedroom 8) with two single beds (90x190cm) - can be pushed together to make a double
• Bedroom 9) smallish (good for kids) with two single beds (90x190cm)
• the hallway bathroom with half-sized bathtub
• Bedroom 10) larger room with two single beds (90x190cm) and nice balcony.

Level -1: Downstairs of main house:

The downstairs part of the house can be reach either 1) from the ancient and atmospheric stone spiral staircase on your right on the main floor vestibule and dining room, or 2) from the large stone-arched main entrance downstairs, or 3) from a side entrance, which has some outdoor seating for this part of Mas Dalt and a BBQ. The downstairs 3-bedroom part of Mas Dalt is like a well proportioned private apartment, somewhat darker than the more luminous upstairs rooms, but not humid and not at all unpleasant, and also a lot cooler in summer than the upstairs rooms (which can be kept cool only if you remember to keep the shutters closed during the day, keeping the sun out, and opening up when it is cool outside at night. The massive nearly meter-thick stone walls will do the rest.) So, the spiral staircase down from the upstairs vestibule leaves you in front of the huge downstairs door in the downstairs hallway. To one side, there are two bedrooms:

• - Bedroom 11) with double bed (150x190cm) and bathroom with shower
• - Bedroom 12) with one double bed (150x190cm) and two single beds (90x190) and bathroom with half-bath

On the other side of the long downstairs hallway is the central kitchen/living/dining room, measuring a good 50 m2 under a gorgeous stone and brick vaulted ceiling. The modern kitchen has a double sink, a dishwasher, refrigerator, stove top and microwave, but no oven. Up 6 steps from the kitchen is another large and mostly empty 30 m2 living room, also under vaulted ceilings, barely furnished, with a table seating 6 and a small wicker sofa seating two. Just off this living room there is the third downstairs bedroom

• bedroom 13) room with double bed (150x190cm)
• - and next door a bathroom with shower

A door leads outside where the hillside is terraced and there is some seating and a barbecue and an old marble sink with tap water...

The new 4 bedroom house:

The newly restored, spacious, and well-appointed house backs the swimming pool and has a huge terrace of 130 m2 overlooking the pool and the Pla de L'Estany below. The views are magnificent, completely unspoiled panoramas of checkered fields and church spires showing where little villages dot the landscape. This fully independent house is divided into two "L"-shaped floors, the kitchen, dining room, and living room and a small WC on the main floor, and the bedrooms below, somewhat underground to keep them cool in summer, but each with windows for natural sunlight.

Upstairs:the modern kitchen has a fridge, dishwasher, electric oven and hob, double sink, washing machine, microwave, etc. Next door the dining room has seating for 12, and after that, the living room has a TV and CD/radio/cassette player, the speakers are out on the terrace, and there is a little WC in the hallway with toilet and sink - no shower. This is the 16th bathroom at Mas Dalt! Doors from the living and dining room lead out to the terrace.

Downstairs: 4 bedrooms, each wwith private bathroom, all these bedrooms have 1 double bed and 1 single bed:

• bedrooms 14, 15 & 16) each one with one double bed (150x190cm) and one single bed (90x190cm) and private bathroom with shower
• bedroom 17) with one double bed (150x190cm) and one single bed (90x190cm) and private bathroom with bathtub

You may have noticed that the description of the layout adds up to beds for 42 guests: 13 double beds, 16 single beds, and this doesn't even take into account the cots for babies and a couple of fold outs kept in the huge living room upstairs..... But this house is priced based on 2 guests per room, so 34 guests, with a small 17 Euros per day supplement (€125/week) for additonal guests. Oh, another thing: all bedroom windows have mosquito netting just in case.

Outside:The good-sized kidney shaped pool is surrounded by 14 lounge chairs, a couple of different tables and chairs under parasols, and there is a poolside bathroom with shower so that you don't have to go into the house to go. In front of the main house is a large sloping lawn about half the size of a regulation football pitch, and there are two movable goal posts for football.

On both sides of the larger house are large playing fields with different outdoor sitting areas, two of which have BBQs for outdoor meals, although I guess most of you will have meals together on the huge terrace above the pool.

The road up to Mas Dalt is now fully paved. There is parking for half a dozen cars in front of the main floor of the main house, and in that photo of Rosa sitting on the swing in her red sweater (see the last photo below), you will see the arched garage and old BBQ area. Before the huge covered porch-terrace was built above the pool, this was where guests would have their BBQ feasts sitting on long wooden-planked tables and benches.The location is excellent, and I´m not saying that just because my wife and I have been renting little a place just on the other side of Banyoles for years now. Nearby Banyoles (4 km away) is a market town with a huge array of shopping, including an impressive collection of no fewer than 12 supermarkets set around one traffic circle, but also you´ll find a weekly farmers market on the 11th Century arcaded square, and a huge variety of little specialty shops like butchers, bakers, fresh fruit and fishmongers, etc, in the historic pedestrian center of the old town. While the beaches are about 35 km away, mostly highway driving (the C-66 highway exit is 3 km from the house!), you have closer to home the lovely environmentally protected lake of Banyoles, with its grassy beaches with lifeguards on duty, and the open playing fields and bike paths going all the way around the lake. Be sure to read my extensive guide to the excellent restaurants in this area. I know the area very well as it is where my family and I have spend our last 4 summers!

Mas Dalt is simply fantastic! The feedback is excellent. If you are a large group, why not give it a try? If you read the Comment's Page for this house you'll see that everyone thinks it's great!

Indeed, the more the merrier!