We have just returned from our Villa holiday at Capistrano Blue Cinco in Nerja, Spain. We have booked accommodation with James Villas on several occasions and usually take a remote villa in the hills with a pool. These do tend to be a bit old fashioned inside so this time we wanted to opt for a more modern villa with contemporary lines and thought Capistrano Blue would fit the bill. There are some positives to the villa, yes, it is more modern with contemporary furnishings, Netflix and YouTube on the TV was a plus and the air conditioning worked well. This I’m afraid is the extent of the plus features. The villa is a two-storey villa but there is no mention of the several steps up to the villas. Not a welcome start when carrying heavy cases. There is no welcome booklet giving information about the villa – WiFi Network and password, where bins are, taxi numbers, local restaurants and places of interest etc. As described, it is “Bright and open plan, the welcoming ground floor living area has large windows letting in lots of natural light”. Yes, it does as there are only net curtains on the windows meaning the strong sunlight streams in and you can’t even sit at the dining table in comfort or watch TV without wearing sunglasses. The kitchen is poorly equipped with cheap utensils, not even a tin opener. The kitchen cupboards are so high even my husband at 6’1” found it a struggle to reach the crockery on the top shelf. Toilet roll is the cheapest quality. “The bedrooms on the first floor are all furnished to a high standard” I would say basic. The bed is very hard and the sheets don’t even fit. Apart from the mirrors in the bathrooms there is no dressing or full-length mirror. There was no ladder for the pool. At 4’8” it was impossible to use the pool on my own as I couldn’t get out. My husband had to lift me out and at 69 I wouldn’t expect him to lift me out of a pool every time. No sun umbrellas next to the loungers as stated in the description The sprinkler system went off at 12:30 when we were sunbathing soaking us and the washing we had drying on the clothes horse There was a trip hazard outside the side door. This I would say is the more serious of all the faults. I found this when I did trip over it and nearly landed on the grass. If I had been walking in the other direction it could have been down the metal staircase and on to the slabs next to the pool causing serious injury or worse. The above four issues were reported on the Saturday we arrived. I had to call again on Monday afternoon and two men did come on Monday evening about 9pm with the umbrellas. They also brought some extra artificial grass to fit round the pool. We didn’t mention this but they obviously knew it was unfinished. They adjusted the timer for the sprinkler (but it did go off again at 12.30 a couple of days later). They said they would be back the next day to fit the pool ladder. As for the trip hazard, they acknowledged it was a safety issue and that the ground should be level but just shrugged their shoulders as there was nothing they could do. At the very least there should be some trip hazard tape on the area. They did come the next evening, after 7pm, with the pool ladder so it was Wednesday before I could use the pool. On a positive note, the Customer Service team were very supportive in trying to resolve our issues. As this was our first holiday abroad in over two years, we wanted something a little special and opted for a Signature Villa. Of the six Capistrano Blue Villas, Cinco is the only Signature villa however looking back over the descriptions of all the other 3 bed villas, they are exactly the same with the same features. According to James Villas “Signature villas each have at least one wow factor feature that will really make your holiday. Large portable or built-in barbecue, at least one of the following - amazing views, stunning location, landscaped grounds and gardens” We didn’t see any of the above that made this a signature villa. The landscaped garden was a patch of grass with one plant or artificial grass around the pool. We had views of the sea in the distance over the tops of the graffitied rubble and building work and the large portable barbecue was a rusty metal box that could just about grill two burgers. The maintenance support did come to check the pool on Friday but this was unannounced when he just appeared when we were sunbathing. A little warning or a knock on the door would have been courteous. On the whole this was a very disappointing experience for our first trip abroad after Covid and certainly our worst with James Villas. I have written to James Villa with my complaints and I’m currently waiting on a response.