Tarifa cliff garden villa with sea view, WiFi and large shared pool

It’s bright, cheerful and gives directly onto the gorgeous gardens that make the property so pleasing.

Luminous thanks to large plate windows on two walls and cooled by ceiling fans if need be, it’s an intimate and uncomplicated place to enjoy as a holiday base. The living space is open plan with a small but properly equipped kitchen. Classical prints decorate the walls.

Eating in here or on your furnished terrace is really very cosy and many guests alternate between catering for themselves and going out to restaurants in the area (Moroccan, French, Mexican, Italian and traditional Spanish). Bear in mind that if you intend to eat out, you’ll need to drive back along the track to the highway.

You have a small but perfectly adequate kitchen for cooking meals.

The private, shaded porch terrace, screened off from the neighbouring cottage by a hedge, is a natural place to enjoy drinks, meals, or a barbecue, while the lawn spreading out in front of you offers oceans of space to arrange sunbeds.

The gardens may be shared by guests staying at the two other small cottages, but that means no more than two other couples, and the gardens so extensive that you can feel very much in your own space, if intimacy is your first consideration. One area of the vast lawn extending from the cottage terrace all the way down to the pool is private to your cottage to all intents and purposes, and there are quiet, shaded spots under trees or the pergola where you can be on your own.

The owner has created colourful gardens reminiscent of English landscaping. There are peach and fig trees, roses, clematis and agapanthus, with a special emphasis on scented plants. You can sit by a fountain in the shade of a Peruvian pepper tree or walk the springy lawn down past palms, cypress and jacaranda to the swimming pool.

The cool green, mosaic-tiled, infinity pool is positioned at the foot of the gardens, where it has an incredible view out over the sea and across to Morocco which is as close as it looks: just 15 kilometres of the Strait of Gibraltar plied by ocean-going liners and merchant ships.

To get here you come off the coastal highway and drive down a long (3 km) but well-maintained track through cork oak forest, passing occasional cows, to the private, secluded finca. You park directly outside and walk round to the garden entrance of your bungalow-style holiday home.

Similarly, to get to beaches and restaurants, you need to drive back up to the main highway and take your pick of heading towards Tarifa or Cadiz.

If you want more than a beach, and wind or kitesurfing isn’t your thing, you might try horseriding, take a trip out on one of the whale or dolphin-watching boats, visit Gibraltar, Roman Baelo Claudia, or Cadiz. You can also take the fast ferry (just 35 minutes) from Tarifa to Morocco to enjoy a day out in Tangiers.

Birdwatchers will appreciate the bird guide book left in the cottage for guests to spot and learn about the dozens of birds that inhabit or migrate the Strait of Gibraltar, including storks, grey herons, vultures and eagles.

The English-speaking Spanish owner –and her old dogs– live on site in independent accommodation.