Dear booking traveller, we here at Refugio Marnes Casas Rurales provide, for those who like it of the beaten track, a rural holiday haven on the Costa Blanca In an orginal Eco&Chic style we offer holiday accommodations that you want easily find elsewhere. All electricity that we use here is generated from a giant solar system, we recycle our waste water with a highly efficient reactor and use it for irrigation, We are keen on our ‘act local, buy local’ ethos, and use local businesses for all our supplies, and we encourage our guests to do the same. Our aim is to be CO2 neutral by 2020. Come to kick back and relax, hike, bike and climb, go birdwatching or hang out at one of the Costa Blanca beaches Kind Regards Richard Steenblik & Willem Pieffers

Richard is Dutch, has a consumer background and is a long distance swimmer by heart, loves to cook for the ´mesas rurales´ (diners) that we organise twice a week here at Refugio Marnes, loves nature and animals, working on the land and going out. Willem is Dutch as well and worked in healthcare for many years, loves nature, dogs, farm work, is interested in everything that has to do with the energy transition and related technologies. Both love to share their project with their guests and make them at ease, and show them the beauty of the Costa Blanca and Spain.

Refugio Marnes is situated in the Alicante Mountains, just behind the Costa Blanca and an 8 km curvy road leads up to the estate. According to the World Health Organization this area is blessed with the healthiest climate in Europe. An average 17°C in January is lovely, and even in winter the temperatures during the day often reach 20° in the sun. The “biological” winter only lasts 3 months in our region, and spring starts with the spectacular flowering of the almond trees, providing a sea of blossoms, in February. The flowering season for all plants continues until July. There is a second period of flowering and growth after the first rainfall in autumn. The ‘Sierra de Bernia’ is a small mountain range that spreads about 20 km inland in the Costa Blanca. This area is not touched by mass-tourism and now mainly a nature reserve. Here you can find an enormous richness of fauna: wild boar, genet, martens, barbarby sheep, ermines and weasels. Several reptiles and a wide variety of small birds, owls, falcons, buzzards and even eagles co-exist. Flora: next to the olive and almond trees, are carobs and prickly pears (cactus). Whilst the area is dominated by big pines, the more origin