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Area: Asturias

Janet and John live in Asturias. We are now at the end of our fifth year of so called retirement here and love it. This is definitely not the Costas! We live in Valdes in Asturias….. a county of rugged coasts with super ( but often stony) beaches. The interior (where we live at 270 meters high in the hills and 30 minutes from the nearest beach) is largely mixed forest of sweet chestnut, oak, ash and beech with plantations of northern pine and eucalyptus. The valley bottoms and tops are mainly green pasture for cattle grazing or silage with flatter fields with maize for cattle. It is beautiful – a lake district without the lakes and without the crowds. Weather – This is green Spain so we have clouds and rain. The temperature is higher than the south of England – a greater noticeable difference in the back part of the year. When we bought our house we wanted a house with some land to grow veggies on. We ended up with two houses (one “the barn” had no floor and was only home to spiders and cobwebs – we called it the barn because it was the oldest and still had the cattle feeding stalls), a traditional Horeo, 5 fincas (fields - one with a small maize mill – not functioning) and two Montes (bits of hillside with lots of trees on.) Thank goodness three of our neighbours keep most of the fields clean by grazing cattle, sheep and growing grass, so I am left with only the finca (6500 m2 )below the house to look after. We have six chickens and two dogs (and a cat that adopted us). During the year we grow most of our own vegetables. John does most of the work on the land while Janet writes and directs two musical shows a year for her group of performers back in England

Area: ANDALUCIA, Cadiz province, Barbate

We are a french family of four, with 2 kids (7 1/2 and 3 years old). We have worked abroad (Africa, Central America, Pakistan) for years, and after few years in Paris, we decided to settle down in Costa de la Luz (Cadiz province, Andalucia), wich is a perfect place to raise children (and for adults too!). We know the area since 20 years now, and have lived here full time for 9 years. We live in a beautiful and preserved environement, in a old hacienda, in a natural park of pine trees. He runs an hotel/bar/restaurant (with partners) and I am naturopath/nutritionist (give consultations, write recipe books ...). Our children are healthy, easy going on and bilingual (french/spanish). They love receiving friends and visitors. It is a great place for great walks in the park, we are 5 km from unspoilt beach, you can also enjoy many activities (horseriding, surf, bycicling ...). We can drop you at the bus station when you want to visit more of Andalucia on your day off. And when we drive out (everyday to school and more), we drop you so you can visit easily the nice little town around (Barbate, Vejer ...).

Area: Catalonia

I went to study to Switzerland when 15. When finished my studies moved to Spain. For years lived among Spain, Andorra and Chile, Argentine working at the begining as ski instructor and then working as ski mag journalist. Moved here to Valle de Aran, 6 years ago. The hotel is its 4th year. It is a 14 room hotel in the old quater at Vielha, capital of this Valley. Since the begining we offered Japanese food at the hotel. But now I am changing the direction of the hotel to ecological way (from what I can..) and will hopefully incorporate macrobiotic, yoga in the hotel. The hotel is located 15km from Baqueira Beret ski resort. All my family live in Japan.

Area: Tuscany, Umbria

Dear guests, The work can be hard, but so is the play. We're a family fixing up a country house, raising two children, cultivating an organic garden, and caring for 50 olive trees. So we're pretty flat out. We're near Chiusi in Central Italy, halfway between Roma and Firenze, Assisi and Siena. The house and grounds are within an old estate ensuring privacy and providing swimming pools, tennis courts, playing fields, and wooded parkland.

Area: Evia

Myself my partner, and a friend run a conservation, education and welfare project with a rare breed of pony the small skyrian horse on the beautiful and unspoilt island of Skyros. We are always looking for volunteers who are either experienced with ponies and who are interested in helping to care and train our herd of very sweet natured ponies or enjoy farm smallholding work. We are based on a small farm which is near the sea and pine forest, in a traditional Greek area. We are really looking for Volunteers for March as we have an unexpected vacancy. It is a very interesting time on the island as in Skyros we celebrate the goat festival "Apokrais" and it is an amazing cultural event.