Villa Rudolf, Svoboda nad Úpou: Pool, Sauna, Park

The whole place — the house and its sweeping grounds — is yours alone. Past the gate, it's just you.

You are not booking rooms in a house where somebody else is staying too. You take the whole of Villa Rudolf — a house with seven bedrooms, a fenced 4,500 m² park, the pool, the sauna, the gazebo and the fire pit. No reception, no strangers at breakfast, no waiting for the sauna to free up.

In the mountains, not at the end of the world. The centre of Svoboda nad Úpou is 150 metres away — shop, restaurants, train and bus are all within walking distance. And Sněžka is twenty minutes by car.

Seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, 257 m². The house sleeps twenty-two — nineteen fixed beds and three full-size extra beds. There isn't a bunk bed anywhere, not even in the children's rooms, so parents with small children sleep well too.

Every bedroom comes with a bathroom with a shower and a WC, so nobody has to cross the house in the morning. There is one more shower downstairs by the sauna.

The ground floor holds Rooms 1, 2 and 3 and the big kitchen with the dining table. On the first floor is Room 4 and, next to it, the Apartment Suite, which takes up the other half of the floor: three bedrooms — one on the floor itself, two above it in the attic — its own kitchen, a living room with a billiard table and a long sofa under the beams, a bathroom and a separate WC. If someone needs a break even from their own group, this is where they go. The sauna and the ski room are in the basement.

How you'll split up:

· Apartment Suite — up to 10 guests: three bedrooms with double beds, two single beds and one bed with a pull-out second bed
· Room 1 — 2 guests: double bed
· Room 2 — up to 4 guests: double bed and two single beds
· Room 3 — up to 4 guests: double bed and two single beds
· Room 4 — 2 guests: double bed

Every room and every bathroom has its own thermostat, so nobody has to negotiate the temperature. There are two large smart TVs with Netflix: one in the ground-floor kitchen, one in the Apartment Suite.

There are two kitchens and both are fully equipped — each with its own oven, dishwasher, sink and a complete set of cookware. Nobody waits for the oven at four in the afternoon.

The big ground-floor kitchen adds two microwaves, a large fridge, a fridge-freezer, a wine cooler and a Nespresso machine, and right beside it stands a big wooden table where everyone sits down at once. The Apartment Suite has a microwave, a smaller fridge and a second coffee machine. Cooking for twenty here is comfortable rather than heroic.

Washing machine, iron, hairdryers in the bathrooms. In winter you will appreciate the ski room in the basement: skis and boards have their own place, and boots dry there overnight. Wet gear stays downstairs and never makes it into the bedrooms.

The Wi-Fi is fast and reaches the whole house and the grounds. You can work and stream from here without thinking about it.

The pool is heated and covered, so you swim even when it rains. It is heated from May to the end of September and sits around twenty-seven degrees in summer. After a swim, straight into the sauna.

To be honest: early and late in the season the water can be cooler. This is not an indoor pool where you set a number — the weather has the last word.

In the evening the pool is lit. And if you have small children, it can be locked.

The sauna is Finnish and yours alone, with a changing room and a shower. It is included in the price and you can use it whenever you like — no sharing, no time slots.

The park is 4,500 m², fenced, with mature trees for shade and a stream along the edge — children fish in it and collect pine cones all over the grounds, and you don't have to watch them near a road.

Evenings belong to the fire pit. The open fire pit with its massive gabion wall holds the whole group and lights up by itself after dark — the lights switch on and off on their own. A few steps away stands a big gazebo with two large electric grills and a table where the whole party sits down at once. The roof holds, rain or snow.

For children there is a playground with climbing frames, a slide, swings and rope elements, within sight of the gazebo. Plus a trampoline and a table-tennis table. A cot is free.

Parking is free right on the grounds, behind your own gate. Seven cars park comfortably; ten or eleven fit when you need them to, it just gets tight.

After that, the car can stay put for the whole stay. Shop, restaurants, bowling and rentals are 150 metres from the gate, the bus stop 100, the railway station 500. From Prague and from Wrocław it takes about two hours to get here, from Dresden three.

Dogs are welcome; you'll find the fee in the booking terms.

There is also a masseur right next door, and it is agreed with him that our guests come to him. No discount, no package — just a practical thing: if you want a slot for certain, tell us in advance. We will book it for you, or pass on the contact so you can book it yourself.

One thing about the neighbours that really matters to us. The grounds are large and fenced, but we are not out in the wilderness — people live all around us, and in summer they want to keep their windows open too.

So please: no speakers or any other sound system in the garden, and no music in the evening. Sitting by the fire, talking and laughing late into the night is exactly what evenings here are for, and nobody minds that.

Around here we all have to get along — us with the neighbours, and the neighbours with you. It has always worked so far, and we care a lot about keeping it that way. Thank you for understanding.

The mountains start at the door. We have 43 tried-and-tested trips within an hour of the house, and nine of them are on foot from the gate, no car needed — the Treetop Walk in Janské Lázně, llama trekking on a family farm, or the Aquacentrum indoor pool when it rains.

Within half an hour by car: Sněžka by cable car or on foot, Černá hora by gondola, the Giant Valley (Obří důl) even with a pushchair, the bobsleigh track in Pec. For a whole day: the Adršpach rocks, Safari Park Dvůr Králové or the Tropikana aquapark in Karpacz, just over the Polish border.

Every booking comes with a link to our trip planner — with a map, filters and a suggestion for a particular day based on the weather.

In winter everything runs on a single SkiResort Černá hora – Pec ski pass. The nearest slopes are right in Svoboda, Černá hora and Janské Lázně are four kilometres away, Pec pod Sněžkou thirteen. The free ski bus stops 200 metres from the gate, so the car can stay put all week.

Check-in from 15:00, check-out by 10:00. Utilities are included. Non-smoking house.