Name: Villa Lena
Address: ul. Jure Kaštelana, 23211, Pakoštane, Croatia, Pakostane, Pakostane, Pakostane, 23211, Croatia
Rating: 9

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Pakostane Beach

Letrika Beach

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Kozarica Beach

Pine Public Beach

Pilatusa Beach

Private Beach of "Relax Camp"

Zadar Airport

Villa Lena

Pakostane

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Fabulous apartment, really nicely decorated and well stocked . Fantastic balcony overlooking the sea and islands beyond . 
The bed was super comfy and all linen spotlessly clean . 
The location is great , just a 5 minute walk to the restaurants and the beach . 
David and his wife were lovely hosts giving great recommendations and even took us to the airport . 
Highly recommend this apartment in lovely Pakoštane !

Fabulous apartment in lovely seaside town

I was delighted with my one night stay at Villa Lena whilst solo motorcycle touring in Croatia.  The room was large, with a refrigerator and beverage making facilities. 
There was also a balcony. The bathroom was very good too, with hot water and a decent shower. Towels were also provided. The bed was comfortable and I enjoyed a quiet and restful sleep.

Overall the decor and cleanliness of the room was first class. It was abundantly clear that the owners take a great deal of pride in their combined home/business.  

Small supermarket, shops, restaurant and bars and the harbour were no more than a couple of minutes walk and, certainly in the evening that I was thereabouts, appeared to be frequented by retirees rather than noisy youngsters. This suited me because I was able to choose from a broad range of budgets for dinner.

Parking was off street at the front of the building. I don't know how this would work at the height of the season because the bottom of the building was a bank and shop which, naturally, were not open on a Sunday when I arrived nor when I left, early, on a Monday morning.

I would be happy to come back and experience a more detailed holiday in the area, perhaps early or later in the season, using Villa Lena as a very nice base from which to radiate.

Lovely room and good location for nearby harbour and village

We enjoyed our overnight stay at Villa Lena which is well situated in the square of the village Pakostane.  David welcomed us and gave us directions where to go for a meal and basic surroundings.  The room was clean and comfortable, shower gel could have been provided.  It was a relaxing stop and we enjoyed the experience of another Croatian town.

A delightful overnight stay.

We spent two wonderful October weeks in the apartment "Arta", which is on the second floor of the premise. The spacious flat (which was actually somewhat oversized for just a couple with its two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but we chose it for the bath tub;) has a lovely super-long balcony with three places to sit: a table with four chairs on one end, two deck chairs with a low table in the middle and a small outdoor couch (sits two) with another low table on the other end. Being on the top floor, I suppose this apartment has the best view - it overlooks the Pakostane shore area and some of the tiny islands nearby.
The flat itself is stylishly furnished and has all the mod cons such as microwave, dish washer, etc. The kitchen itself could be a little more widely stocked, but the lack of cereal bowls was the only (tiny) drawback we could find. Everything was meticulously clean, there was plenty of wardrobe space and both bathrooms left nothing to be desired. 
The master bedroom is separated from its bathroom with a glass brick screen only, which adds a stylish element to it but - important for those who are sensitive to noise - may disturb one who tries to sleep while the other one is bathing. We didn't mind at all - and another important note on that: the toilet has its own separate room, so no need to worry about any unpleasant smells! ;)
The proprietors live on the same floor and were very friendly and helpful. On the bottom floor of the house, there's a small supermarket and a branch bank, none of which caused any disturbance noise-wise (as one of the former reviewers stated). On the contrary, the supermarket opens seven days a week, from Mondays through to Saturdays, it opens from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (7-12 a.m. on Sundays), so we enjoyed never having to worry about food supplies, and having a branch bank on hand was appreciated, too.
We arrived mid-October, which is way outside the holiday season, so everything was very quiet and devoid of tourist masses (which was the way we wanted it). If you're out for nightlife and a great choice of bars and restaurants, you need to choose a different time for travelling or a more urban location. Pakostane is a lovely little town with lots of little bars, restaurants and tourist activity providers, but in October, most of them have already closed down. If you're there during high season, there will be many, many pleasure places at your disposal...and not only in Pakostane but all along the Adriatic coast. In October, you still get a choice of bars and restaurants in the evening and on weekends, but if you want to go out for lunch on a weekday, you have to go to Biograd, which isn't very far. 
That being said, Pakostane still is a great location for an autumn holiday! Easy to reach, it makes a great platform to reach many interesting places. We went to Zadar, Split, Trogir and Sibenik for example, visited both the Krka and the Paklenica national parks, the Velebit mountains and the island of Pag, and we enjoyed hiking along the Vransko jezero lake, which is a bird reserve and not far from Pakostane at all. 
The October weather was just as we liked it, warm enough to actually swim in the sea (at least for the first nine days), but not too hot for hiking and sight-seeing. In the second week of our stay, we got caught by the Bura, a cold wind from the mountains, which rendered swimming impossible but made for great photos due to its extremely clear skies and strong sunlight.
So overall I can honestly say: if you're going to Dalmatia and are looking for an upscale accommodation and a convenient starting place for many excursions, go for the Villa Lena!

A great place for a holiday!

Easy to find.Close to the center of a small Mediterranean town. Tree sand beach is posible to visit without car.Interior is modern and luxurus design. Balconies overlook the sea.Perfect for a longer stay.Young,cheerful and sociable wil help in different languages to choose activities inthe area.

Excellent Accommodation

Now, I’m sorry, because it really doesn’t give me any pleasure at all to give bad reviews, but given that I spent weeks researching Croatia, to find a lovely, comfortable apartment and a nice area in which to stay, and given that my final views were based exclusively on what I found on the Internet (including Trip Advisor, whose glowing reviews I am now having increasing difficulty believing...), I really have to speak out here, to set the record straight.

According to the Villa Lena website, these apartments are “luxurious”, “de luxe” and “charming”, to use but some of the adjectives found there. The photos of the apartments look absolutely wonderful, with their artfully placed glasses of wine, plants and flowers, with (in Apartment Justina), an apparently beautiful sea view and large terrace. They look (and are) new, modern, bright and spacious. However, these are the only adjectives that should be used for these apartments. I shall talk about Apartment Justina in particular, as that is the one I stayed in. 

Now, instead of the beautiful sea view you see from the balcony in the photo, what you actually get is a view of houses and half-built houses, next to the Villa Lena apartment block, on what is effectively a building site (I had workmen in front of the terrace all day long, and they could even see into my bedroom!). Instead of the lovely table and chairs you can see in the photo, what you actually get is a white plastic table and hard white plastic chairs - no cushions at all. Not what I call ‘de luxe’. The ‘sea view’ is actually only at the narrow end of the balcony and at a great distance (not as it seems in the photo), in front of which you can see some really ugly wasteland, parked cars and a kind of funfair for children. The apartments are above a bank and a supermarket, so it is best to keep the windows closed and A/C on if you want some peace and quiet (this is not mentioned on the website, I believe). Luxury? Not in my book....

The apartment itself: there were indeed two bedrooms and two very nice, modern bathrooms. The kitchen/living room was indeed spacious, with plenty of light. However (and this, in my view, is VERY serious), the apartment is advertised as having air conditioning, when in actual fact it only has air conditioning in the living room. Since the apartment is big, the cool air never actually reaches the bedrooms (or hardly at all, and only when placing fans in strategic positions and leaving the damn A/C on all night). So, if you come here in the summer (as most people do), you will certainly have a hard time sleeping in the heat (and if you leave the windows open and like reading in bed with the light on, you will find your room full of mosquitoes, as there are no mosquito nets). If you come here in June, as I did, you will have an even harder time sleeping as there are no blinds or blackout curtains on the windows in the main bedroom! So at 4 a.m. you will be naturally woken up by daylight - that is, if you manage to sleep at all due to the heat.

If you fly with a well-known European low-cost airline, as I (unfortunately) did, be warned that you should bring everything but the kitchen sink to stay in this apartment. There is no hairdryer (though the owner of the apartment lent me one when I asked), no iron or ironing board (again, I was lent one when I asked) and no washing machine or microwave. There is only a small and cheap filter-style coffee machine (so no espresso machine or moka for all you espresso or cappuccino lovers out there), no cheese grater (though, again, we were given one when we asked) and the cutlery is not great - there are no sharp knives for cutting cheese or peeling fruit, for example. There are no attractive cups or large mugs for your morning milky coffee, just small cheap things of the kind you can get free in bars or from coffee companies. There are also no cloths for cleaning up or for cleaning the floor if it gets dirty. You have to buy everything, basically, even if you are only there for a week and can’t take the stuff back home with you. 
The satellite TV is geared mainly to German speakers, with mostly German channels. No Italian channels at all, and just a few French and English international news channels (plus some obscure Algerian and Arabic channels). That’s about it.

The living area of the apartment is uncomfortable, with hard wooden chairs at the dining table (no cushions), and not enough cushions on the sofa. The ‘outdoor sofa’ in synthetic rattan could not be used comfortably, as it was partially broken and was placed near the air-conditioning outlet, which let out hot air all the time.

The beds were not particularly comfortable, especially the pillows, which were small and hard.

If I had to define this apartment, I would say ‘modern but spartan’. That is just not good enough for a ‘luxury’ holiday apartment. 

Every year I rent apartments for my summer holiday and this is the first time I have been so disappointed. So far I have always been lucky and found websites that tell the truth, so that 'what you see is what you get'. Not in this case. 

I expect my holiday apartment to be comfortable, functional and practical, with everything I need for a comfortable holiday, without having to go out and buy things I will then have to leave behind (apart from food and drink, of course). I also expect to be able to have a dark and cool bedroom and expect the apartment to be fully equipped, without having to ask for things every day. And all this I expect in any holiday apartment, let alone one that advertises itself as ‘de luxe’!!

After my week here, I spent a week in another holiday apartment further down the coast (for the same price), which was splendid, and had absolutely everything I needed, with an amazing sea view (nothing between our large terrace and the sea but a small garden and car-free promenade). Everything was new and good-quality and there was A/C in very room, a power shower and wonderful blinds on the windows - exactly as it should be. I intend to write a separate review on that apartment.

I would also add that although the owner advertises (or advertised - under the heading ‘New!’) excursions to various places of interest, and gives the prices, when we were there, those excursions were not actually available. In the end, we did manage to persuade him to take us to the Kornati national park in a boat, with some of his other tenants, but the price in the end was more expensive than that advertised on his site. So again, misleading advertising!

I did inform the owner of my views before leaving, since I do try to be fair and wanted to give him a chance to make improvements, if he wants. Given my legitimate dissatisfaction and expectations that were not met, I also asked him for a discount (which was, unfortunately, not granted, even though there were only two of us in this 2-bedroom/2-bathroom apartment and even though I hadn’t managed to get any sleep all week). 

So it’s a big thumbs down from me. I just wish people could be more honest on their websites.

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