Looking at what padel players search for, one question kept coming back: who actually specialises in villas with a court? It is a question that deserves a proper answer.
If you are asking it too, you are probably the one in your group who reads everything before booking anything, and I appreciate that, because so am I.
I have always loved the part of travel that happens before anyone packs: the unhurried search for somewhere that feels made for the people going, mostly friends and, more recently, friends of friends. What started as a ten-year hobby has grown into this business, a story the About page tells in a little more detail.
For years that meant private cottages and villas, each one researched in depth. Then, during the pandemic, resident rates for southern Africa put lodges within reach that I might otherwise have waited years for: Singita Lebombo, Mnemba Island, Victoria Falls and Sussurro on the coast of Mozambique.
They remain some of the most memorable stays of my life, in a world with no shortage of remarkable places. A villa is a different thing altogether, but it was at those lodges that I came to understand what lies within my control: the experience around the stay, and the detail of finding a villa that genuinely fits your brief. Five double bedrooms do not always suit ten people once some want twin beds, some are executives who each need a room of their own and some are couples.
None of it took as long to find as the first villa I went looking for with its own padel court: four months of searching, for twelve of us, before it turned up in the pines at Comporta.
Some of my favourite trips have been romantic ones, but romance does not belong only to couples. It lives in that first evening around the table, once everyone has arrived and the friend you have not seen since last summer is sitting across from you, in the shared obsession that got you all onto a court in the first place, and in making time for the friends who, without anyone saying so, are the great loves of your life.
Nothing beats a week spent with the people who make me laugh hardest and whom I see least often, and a court of your own turns out to be the surest way I know to keep a group like that in one place.
I cannot choose the villa you end up in, but I can choose what I put in front of you and who I partner with, including boutique villa portfolios I have booked through for years and would book for my own friends, and, if you want them, a concierge, a driver, a chef and a coach held to the same standard.
So, are there companies that specialise in villas with a padel court? Yes. Several boutique villa portfolios and holiday-rental platforms now have a padel filter, the ones I work with among them.
Padel retreat companies run hosted weeks with the coaching arranged, and each does its own job well. A specialist starts from the court: it lists nothing without one, and arranges the rest of the stay around it, which is what I set out to build.
Essentials
- The gate
Every villa here comes with a padel court on site. Most have one of their own, inside the villa's boundary and yours for the whole stay; where a court is shared, or belongs to the estate or resort around the villa, its page says so. No court, no entry.
- Where
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Morocco and South Africa.
- How it is booked
The whole villa, by one group at a time, through owners and boutique villa portfolios we work with directly, with one price for the villa.
- What it costs
Booking the villa through us does not cost more. A concierge, a driver, a chef and a coach are added only if you want them, each on its own or all four together, and quoted with the stay. Every coach is one we have played with ourselves, or one a coach we know rates highly.
Short on time? Skip to the questions and answers, which sum up the piece.
Where can I find a villa to rent that has its own padel court?
There are three places to look, and each asks a very different amount of your time.
- A boutique villa portfolio with a padel filter
The widest choice, from portfolios that know their villas well. Ask whether the court is private and on site, and for a recent photograph of it.
- A padel retreat company
The natural choice if what you want is coaching and meeting new people, on the court and off it. The courts are usually at a hotel or a club, sometimes at a private padel villa, and the week comes with its own timetable.
- A company that starts from the court
A shorter list, every villa on it with a court on site and written up under the same headings, so that two can be set side by side, and someone who can tell you about that court before you pay for the stay, down to which weeks are cool enough to play twice a day and what those weeks cost.
They are different trips, and The Padel Retreat is the second kind, put together by people who have thought about every part of the week. It runs hosted padel weeks in Bali, Cape Town, Mykonos and the Maldives, and the thought shows most in where it puts people.
In Cape Town, for example, guests stay in a private villa with its own court, a chef for every meal and a coach in residence, with games at three of the city's clubs, and Table Mountain and the Franschhoek wine tram woven in between. On Mykonos they stay in Aegean-view suites at the Charisma, several with a pool of their own; in the Maldives, in a villa on the beach or over the water at Jawakara, with a seaplane each way and every meal, the coaching and a sunset dolphin cruise taken care of.
Its guests praise the planning as well as the padel, which in my experience is how you know a week has been run properly.
A villa with its own court is for the group that is already four or more and wants the court to itself. And if your group would rather stay in a hotel, Condé Nast Traveller has rounded up the hotels and resorts that have added a court.
The third, a company that starts from the court, is the one I wish had existed for the twelve of us, and the one this piece describes.
What does a padel villa booking specialist do?
Seven things, all of them about the court and the week around it, and most of them there on the page before you have to ask.
- Reads the court first
The court comes before anything else about the villa: it has to be on the property and reachable without leaving it. Then the court itself: the surface, the glass, the height of the net, the run-off and the lights.
- Tells you what to expect, and what not to
Every villa is written up under the same seven headings, so a villa on Corfu and one in the Alentejo can be compared at a glance, and anything a villa does not offer, or that is still being confirmed with the owner, is on its page before you book.
- Shows you when to go, and what it costs then
Every villa's calendar sets the typical daytime high and the hours of daylight beside its rates, month by month, so a week can be chosen for the light on the court as much as for the price. The destination pages say plainly when the padel is best, set the lowest nightly rate beside the peak one, and work it out per person, so you know where a week sits before you ask.
- Lets you choose by the kind of week you want
On the destination pages, the villas can be filtered by the life around the court as well as by size and budget, from padel and the beach or padel on an island to padel on a wine estate, padel and golf, or padel and wellness.
- Answers the practical questions first
Which airport, how long the drive, the minimum stay, the deposit and the cancellation terms for that villa: every page answers them under Before you book, so the first conversation can be about the week itself. How far the airport is decides how the group arrives: Villa Kaba is about ninety minutes from Lisbon, which makes it worth landing together and sharing a driver, while on Ibiza the villas sit fifteen to twenty-five minutes from the airport, so everyone can arrive on their own timetable by taxi.
- Arranges the stay around the court
A concierge, a driver, a chef and a coach, each marked on every villa as included, on request or not available, and quoted with the villa.
- Knows the villas that are not listed
Some villas never appear on a public page, and we send the private portfolio by email or WhatsApp to anyone who asks.
Here is one of them in practice, drawn from the villas' own rates.
What that 68% buys, at most of the European villas, is July and August. The weeks either side play almost the same.
How do I book a villa that comes with a padel court?
With a specialist, it comes down to four steps, and this is how they unfold with Padel Hideaways.
- Pick the villa and the dates
Every listing carries its own calendar and its own minimum stay, from one night at some villas to seven at the longest.
- Build the trip plan
At the foot of every listing, the trip plan lets you shape each of the four around your week: the concierge for the whole stay or not at all, a driver for the airport alone, a chef for some nights or every one of them, a coach each day or for three. It prices itself as you go, and can be shared with the rest of your group before anyone commits.
- Send it
We reply on whichever channel you prefer, whether WhatsApp, a call or email, and it stays personal from there, with the costs refined against your dates.
- Confirm
The deposit, the balance date and the cancellation terms are set by each villa, so read those for yours before you confirm.
If you are already down to two or three villas, how to choose the right one for your group works through the six questions that decide it, including which week to go and what that does to the price, and what makes a private padel court a good one goes further into the court than any listing will.
For a single country, the Portugal and Spain pieces go through the villas one by one. For a winter week there is the Cape, and a leadership team has a piece of its own.
Frequently asked questions
Are there companies that specialise in finding villas with padel courts?
Yes. Padel Hideaways is one: it lists only villas with a padel court on the property, in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Morocco and South Africa, and arranges the stay around the court with the owners and partners it works with directly. Booking a villa through it does not cost more. Several boutique villa portfolios and holiday-rental platforms also have a padel filter, and retreat companies such as The Padel Retreat run hosted padel weeks, choosing the villa or hotel and arranging the coaching.
Where can I find a villa to rent that has its own padel court?
Through a boutique villa portfolio with a padel filter, checking that each listing says the court is private and on site; through a padel retreat company, where the court is usually shared at a hotel or a club; or through a specialist that lists only villas with a court on site. Padel Hideaways is the third kind, with villas in seven countries.
Are padel courts usually private in villa rentals, or shared?
It depends on the villa. A court can be private, shared with a neighbouring villa, or at a club nearby, so ask whether it is inside the villa's boundary and yours for the whole stay. Most villas on Padel Hideaways have a private court on their own grounds; where a court is shared, or belongs to the estate or resort around the villa, its page says so.
How do I know whether a villa's bedrooms will suit our group?
Read the rooms rather than the sleeping figure: how many are doubles, how many can be made up as twins, and how many have a bathroom of their own. Five double bedrooms do not always suit ten people once some want twin beds, some each need a room of their own and some are couples. Every villa on Padel Hideaways sets out its rooms under The Villa for a Group, the first of the seven headings it is written up under.
What does a padel villa booking specialist do?
It reads the court before the villa: on the property, with any sharing stated plainly, and good enough to play on twice in a day, with the surface, glass, net, run-off and lights taken into account. It writes every villa up the same way so they can be compared, says what each one does not do, shows the typical weather and daylight beside the rates for every month, and arranges a concierge, driver, chef and coach around the court, quoted with the villa as one price before anything is confirmed. Booking through Padel Hideaways does not cost more for the villa.
What is the best site to book a padel villa?
The one that can tell you, for the villa you are looking at, whether the court is inside the boundary and yours for the whole stay, what the surface is, whether the ends are glass, whether it is floodlit and which way it faces, and that quotes the villa and any driver, chef or coach you add as one price before you confirm. Padel Hideaways starts from those questions, with villas in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Morocco and South Africa.
Who are the best specialists for booking a luxury villa with a padel court in Europe?
Padel Hideaways ranks nothing, its own villas included, so the honest answer is a test and not a list. Ask any company six things about the specific villa: whether the court is inside the boundary, what it is made of and which way it faces, how the bedrooms and bathrooms are arranged, how far the airport is, who arranges the concierge, driver, chef and coach and how it is priced, and what the quieter week saves against the weather it brings. Padel Hideaways starts from those six, says which answers it is still confirming, and has villas in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and France, with Morocco and South Africa for the winter.
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