Destination Elqui Valley - The Casa Molle Villa & Golf Experience
(Tour Report April 2019)
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Casa Molle Villa & Golf - Luxury Oasis in Chile's Elqui Valley:
As my lifelong partner was soon to be celebrating a very special birthday occasion, I searched for that perfect, surprise "get-away" package that would offer her freedom from business and the usual household chores. It also had to be located in beautiful surroundings, with (almost) guaranteed sunshine and clear skies; and it should offer top notch cuisine & wines, access to fun activities and facilities, and definitely offer a luxury break that would impress with its high standards of service from welcoming staff who would diligently attend to our every needs. Enter Casa Molle Villa & Golf, sited just inland from La Serena in Chile, in the beautiful, mystical Elqui Valley! The product of owners Karim and Marisol Daire's dream, it is a converted private villa that has been transformed into a top end lodge. Equipped with everything that can be imagined to pamper guests, it first opened for the lucky few in September 2017. |
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Casa Molle Villa & Golf: Based on the Daire family's fundo, or country estate, the beautiful old villa has been converted into a welcoming lodge, with private rooms that surround the main pool and patio area, all tastefully constructed in local adobe style. Offering a wealth of sites where guests can savour tasty meals or enjoy a pre-dinner aperitif, they overlook shining infinity pools and whispering fountains that are backdropped by the towering Andes. Also equipped with its own stables, a gift shop, hot-tubs, massage and relax areas that cosset every guest, it has an events facility for weddings or other such group occasions, plus an amphitheatre of local design often used for evening events or to view the stars at night. Not to mention its kitchen garden providing super-fresh products for the resident chef, plus Karim's own contribution to the vision, Casa Molle's private golf course!
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Elqui Valley, Chile - The new Tibet? For the past two millennia, astrologists have believed that the Earth’s magnetic core was located in the Himalayas, at 30 degrees North at Lhasa in Tibet. The Dalai Lama, mystical leader of Tibetan Buddhism, established his lineage there from 1578, during the Age of Pisces. In the early 1960s, in the Age of Aquarius, reports from Chile's Elqui Valley stated that Tibetan Buddhist monks had been seen in the valley, prompting the arrival of a host of spiritual wanderers, gurus, and other mystics. In 1982, when scientists measured the Earth's magnetic forces by satellite for the first time, they found it was indeed centred on the Elqui Valley, at 30 degrees South, at exactly the opposite pole to Lhasa. So, in addition to other unique sites to be visited in the Valley, the mystical and cosmic aspects of the Valley are also to be enjoyed to the full!
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Casa Molle Access: Getting to Casa Molle is easy, some 5hrs by car north of Santiago up the Pan-American Highway, or a mere 40 minutes by air with LATAM to La Serena. On reaching La Serena one heads east into the Andes along the Elqui Valley, arriving 30 minutes later in the little township of El Molle. Here lies the beautifully restored villa, sitting in its own terrain with mature walnut trees, surrounded by beautiful flowers and cacti, whilst a clean fast-flowing stream waters the grounds. Currently, Casa Molle offers 12 deluxe rooms that can accommodate up to 30 guests, and soon another 12 luxury rooms will be available, with additional facilities that will include a heated indoor pool and more spa facilities. Karim's principle clients are those from corporate or extended family groupings, coming together to conduct team building activities or to celebrate a wedding. It is already heavily booked by groups who will observe a rare total solar eclipse, due directly overhead on 2 July 2019. But it is also a perfect hidden oasis for a romantic couple!
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Casa Molle Activities & Leisure: Visitors arriving at Casa Molle are first struck by the abundant vegetation and immaculate cactus gardens. Going on into the villa's main patio, the attractive infinity pool, sunken fire-pit, and welcoming loungers all invite the visitor to stay, relax and enjoy! The service at Casa Molle is all-inclusive and outstanding, which includes all meals, open bar, access to facilities such as horse-riding, guided walks, bicycle treks, kayaking, access to the hot-tubs and pools, stargazing, etc. Only massages and similar treatments attract a separate fee. Tours outside the complex to other sites in the Valley can also be arranged for an extra charge, such as to the Mamalucca Observatory in nearby Vicuña for a star tour, or to the Gabriela Mistral Museum also located in Vicuña, or a private tour to visit a pisco distillery and enjoy a tasting, or one of several other tours that can be enjoyed up into the Andean heights, including for sightings of condors, fishing, etc.
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Casa Molle Golf & Haute Cuisine! Finally, we cannot end any review of Casa Molle without making special mention of the golf and haute cuisine! Casa Molle's main activity is rightly focused on its lovely 3-par, 9-hole, 18 tee golf-course! Itself a dream of the owner, Karim had acres of rich earth trucked in from southern Chile to convert the rocky terrain into today's lush fairways. Lucky guests at Casa Molle can access the course at any time to enjoy its sparkling lagoon, peaceful greens and elegant Club-house, most usually only accompanied by the occasional parrot flying overhead or a pair of roaming Upland Goose! With regard to the outstanding variety and quality of its haute cuisine, from the moment of first arrival when you are presented with a delightful welcome appetizer (or bocadito in Chilean) and sparkling wine or traditional refreshing pisco sour, to the delights of resident chef Pierre Badinella's "chef's special" for every other meal, you will realise that you are in for a special treat! Put simply, it is the BEST location to visit in Elqui! Do it soon!
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