Shepherd's Rest — Hotel in Oria

My family and I spent 3 weeks at Serendipia (Shepherd’s Rest) during July & August 2023. The experience itself was far from restful. I do not recommend Shepherd’s Rest as a Worldschooling experience.

I’m writing my review here because both locations are marketed under the Shepherd’s Rest brand. Also when booking you’re offered accommodation at either location.

Firstly, we found the marketing for the accommodations, the activities, experiences and the services offered by the host, to be misleading.

The marketing gives the impression of so much to do but a) the places to explore are far away and b) the land at Serendipia isn’t suitable for children to explore safely. The hosts did not warn families that we would be arriving to a building site with drilling noises and dust, work people coming in and out, building materials and scaffolding in the yard. There is no excuse for not communicating this important information. The ‘apartments’ as advertised, are sections of the shared house, with shared kitchens. Their website says they have fully equipped kitchens NOT “you will have 1 hob and 1 oven between two families”.

Portraying themselves as a “full time Worldschooling community” is also misleading to me. People are coming and going all the time. Some stay for a week, others for 2 and some for longer. In our 3 week stay several families came and left.

I found the hosts to be not responsive in a timely manner, even on small matters such as providing fans for the families.

Upon arrival in the hot summer, the host supplied a rental car with no air-conditioning. We had asked about the heat before booking our stay and they had assured us that it was “cooler here in the mountains with a breeze”. It was suffocatingly hot. Sleeping was difficult.

During the first week, we had to persist for days with our request for a better car. The hosts didn’t proactively communicate with us.

The marketing gives THE IMPRESSION that you can be swimming in rivers or lakes within easy reach, right? Wrong.

The river they advertise in Castril was about 1 hour 25 minutes drive. Factor in fuel costs. One of the lakes is about 1 hour away. Beaches are also about 1 hour away (we knew this). The choice of local restaurants is very limited. We only had 3 worthwhile outings when we were there.

In my view, you NEED a car at Serendipia. The free village swimming pool is a 1 HOUR walk/10 minute drive from Serendipia in the desert-like environment. Most of the families here travel 20-25 minutes by car to big supermarkets.

In Serendipia they didn’t provide enough fans – even when they bought some. We had to move fans from room to room.

They also advertised a summer school from 10-2 which was not ready or functioning, and when they cobbled up one together it fell far short of what the marketing had painted it to be.

The building for the summer school was incomplete. Again, OH - if you have the good fortune of living in the apartment next to the “ summer school shed” you can hear everything going on in the summer school while you’re desperately trying to relax.

The 12 acres of beautiful olive and almond groves is a joke. I’m used to hiking and I would not describe the land as “fun for you to explore.” There were no paths and your legs would get scratches from the weeds and shrubs.

There were mosquitoes, and we suspect bed bugs as well, given how a couple of children, including mine, were bitten. But oh - it was the fault of the families for filling up a small raised swimming pool which became a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The parents were desperate for activities to do with the children. The hosts saw this but didn’t warn of any issues. The children had to be very creative to occupy themselves and this is a good thing if you intentionally book onto a survival boot camp.

This review isn’t a personal attack. As a worldschooler I would really love to see more hubs being established and flourishing, but marketing needs to be honest – not a clever play with words...

We are a family, a couple with three children, and we stayed at Shepherd's Rest from 4.7.23 to 1.9.23. I am an architect by profession and my wife is a Doctor.

Shepherd’s Rest is a complex containing 4 housing units including the housing unit for the host family.

There is a second complex known as Serendipia, recently acquired by the hosts and being adapted this season, in which there are 4 housing units sharing two kitchens and a common sitting/dining room.

In the last two years we have been traveling the world and meeting many people and many hosts, but this was much the dirtiest place we have ever stayed.

As for the second structure known as Serendipia, it is quite isolated and a ten minute drive from Shepherd’s Rest and the village. It is a 240 year old farmhouse standing alone in a desolate and dusty agricultural area without reasonable infrastructure and I would consider it not suitable for housing families with children – during our visit the place was a health hazard with several dangerous issues. Andalucia is hot in the summer, the houses are not air conditioned, the buildings are not insulated, the public space is not shaded and the yard maintenance is poor, and this makes a family’s stay there a significant challenge conditioning, and during the day people in both complexes seemed to me tired and frustrated. The parents did their best to be positive in order for the children to have a good time.

The community activity, if it takes place, is often initiated by the families, with the hosts having limited practical involvement. Most of the shared meals, the trips and the afternoon activities were organized by the visiting families. In my opinion, the hosts treat these events as a platform to support their marketing but don’t make it clear that many of these events are arranged and led by the visiting families.

I can regretfully say that the hosts use their website and social media to advertise the place under the Worldschooling brand, and present it as a community, but to me this seems a cynical marketing act that did not correspond to reality, resulting in disappointment for many visitors this summer.

I'll sum it up like this:

The infrastructure is poor.

The place was full of mosquitoes and there were scratching dogs.

The place was extremely unsafe; our friends received electric shocks from their showers, others were bitten to the point of bleeding, etc..

The space (Serendipia) was boring, with little for visiting children to do.

There was little established “community” except transitional friendships created by the lovely visiting families, and there was almost no structured educational activity despite the hosts having promised a summer school from 10-2pm.

We stayed there for about two months despite these difficulties because we were waiting for temporary residency papers, and it is a requirement of the Spanish immigration system that we stay in our initial registration address until the documents arrive.

A number of guests decided to shorten their stays due to the very difficult living conditions, the heat and itching and exhaustion, the lack of compatibility between the advertised structured educational activity and the reality, and out of concern for their health and the health of their children.

The website shows many attractive places to visit, but does not make it clear that these are almost all at least an hour’s drive away.

The positive reviews currently on their website were far from the reality that many of the families experienced during this 2023 summer.

The hosts portray themselves as receptive to feedback but when they are given it they become defensive. For example, they were well aware of the pool that became a breeding ground for mosquitoes being filled with water but did not warn the families of the risks, neither did they offer chlorine or any other advice. When it became a problem all they said was “it wasn’t us...

Oria is a charming town, with a community of friendly locals who work hard to maintain its beauty.

While Serendipia & Shepherds Rest has the potential to be a wonderful part of the community, it falls short in several ways.

One of the most notable issues is the lack of investment in the assembly itself, which appears to be a business idea rather than a genuine attempt to foster a sense of community. The pictures that are shared of the home are not the reality in which you arrive. The homes are both a project in the making.

The apartments inside the home, are not up to standards of living or suitable for people to work, and thrive. Families who book in advance are asked to pay for expenses, such as rent, to keep the place running, up front. Nevertheless, this model does not translate into a safe environment for children, and families who visit will be disappointed by the run-down state of the schoolhouse, the apartments themselves, and the presence of waste all around the home.

The home is not set up to be equipped for four families to live, and the outside is not set up for kids to play safely. Our room was downstairs and the only one with a lock. When we arrived the couches were filthy, and the floor was covered with ants. Our daughter received multiple bug bites that resemble bed bug bites.

In addition, the marketing strategy for Serendipia & Shepherds Rest is misleading. The use of words like "rural" and "rustic" in their shoddy marketing strategies create an impression of a wholesome community in the Spanish countryside, when the reality is far from it. Families who visit are required to make the experience worthwhile on their own, and after a few weeks, it becomes apparent that the negatives outweigh the positives.

If there were someone down at Serendipia, daily to help clean up, create fun new tasks for the kids, even teach a little Spanish lesson, would go a long way as the parents are left and expected to entertain and clean up after the kids constantly.

The gathering efforts set up at Shepherds Rest result in a weekly dinner. Which has its positive attributes, mostly feeling involved with the other home considering the negative living quarters down at Serendipia which is easily a 10 min drive away. My family, for instance, had initially planned to stay for two months but left after just three weeks, feeling unsafe and traumatized. We gave this place an honest chance and I wish there were many things we would have known before arriving. We were told we could stay here without a car, in which, was a terrible idea. We had to rely on the hosts or other family members staying at the house with us to give us a ride to the grocer or to town. Overall it was an exhausting experience we went out of our way for.

It is important to note that this review is not intended to discredit the business idea. Instead, I hope to see progress in the coming years, with the hosts taking responsibility for the current state of affairs, responding better to feedback, and creating a better environment for families who visit. Ultimately, a genuine sense of community can only be fostered through transparency, accountability, and a willingness to learn from past mistakes.

((I'm aware anything but the positive reviews get reported to Google, where they become no longer visible to the public, this is my attempt to help families not get caught in the mess my family...