Meet Michelle Braddock and family – owners of Finca de Arrieta, a luxury selection of off-grid self-contained yurts and eco cottages set within a family-run finca in the small fishing village of Arrieta, Lanzarote.
What first inspired you to create Finca de Arrieta as a retreat?
My husband always had a dream that we could live as a family self sufficiently. Having sunshine everyday of the year and a great sea breeze, Lanzarote is a perfect destination for wind and solar power. Finca de Arrieta was originally our family home which organically grew over the years to include homes for guests. We now have added a desalination plant so also make our own water.
Have you always been in hospitality? If not, what else did / do you do?
We opened Finca de Arrieta in 2007, before that we had worked as a husband and wife team in our previous business ventures, we worked the markets selling silver jewellery and handbags! We then moved over to selling heavy plant machinery throughout Spain – these included systems used for recycling waste.
What’s the best thing about being the owner of Finca de Arrieta?
Seeing your dreams created! We love having the chance to share our eco village with other guests, we love to see children playing in the park and the fun from simple pleasures such as collecting eggs from the hen house. How wonderful that we can share the experience where couples and families have a chance to experience Off Grid living for themselves. We inspire families to think how the little things help regarding environmental efforts and it’s perfect to know we are creating such a great place for future generations.
What’s your favourite feature of the retreat/accommodation?
Our Yurts are really popular, each one has its own private outdoor kitchen and shower room, this works so well given our wonderful climate. We love the fact that we have a honesty bar and shop for all our guests to stock up from at any time. It’s interesting to see parents explain this concept to their children. Putting trust in our guests seems so natural for us, and our guests really appreciate this way of living.
What do you love about the local area?
We love that the beach is just a stone’s throw away! There is a track which you can walk down and it only takes a few minutes. At the beach you have two restaurants and a very funky Mojito bar converted form a VW camper-van. We have lived in this area for 30 years and it has hardly changed. If you want to see the “Real Lanzarote” and avoid the main tourists areas, then this is the place to visit.
What’s next for Finca de Arrieta?
Finca de Arrieta has been evolving now for 13 years, it offers 17 unique holiday homes all with wonderful features, such as; beautiful day beds, sea views, shaded hammocks, dining huts and some even include VIP airport transfers and a Toyota Hybrid car. Many of our features are from our guests’ feedback; keep coming up with ideas as we are always open to listening to them!
If you couldn’t stay at your place, where would your ideal holiday be?
For us as we are totally spoilt for beach and sunshine, we love to escape to the snow. As a family we love to ski, so Austria would be a go-to place!
Sum up Finca de Arrieta in three words.
Relax, Enjoy, Reconnect
If you were visiting, how would you spend a day at Finca de Arrieta?
I would wake up naturally to sunshine, go collect eggs for breakfast, use the yoga yurt for a morning stretch, walk over to the beach, swim out to the pier and back go for an amazing fish lunch and a glass of chilled local wine (award winning excellent wines are produced here in the volcanic soil), then wander back to the shaded day bed for a siesta, get some lengths swum in the pool. Then lastly, have a dinner delivered from Karen and watch the sun set.
Find out more about Finca de Arrieta’s luxurious yurts and eco cottages via their Host Unusual listing – and don’t forget to check out their beautiful Eco Fisherman’s Cottage too!
