The Casa Pardal Coliving Experience
Calm, community-driven, full of heart
Here at Casa Pardal, days unfold gently and the work still gets done. Experience a natural pace, the balance that you’ve been longing for. No productivity maxxing or full activity calendar. The space you need to focus on what’s important to you while still having fun in community.
Get lost in your project, spend time walking through the trails that surround the coliving, letting your mind and body relax between bouts of focus, and by day’s end you’ll have a table of friends to share dinner and stories.
Embrace a slower way of life
Work happens whenever works for you, sometimes outside if the weather is right. Lunches may run long, especially with a little vermut and some reading in the sun after your meal. Someone is always making coffee. Dinners are a time to reconnect with other colivers. Nobody is organizing your day for you, and that is the point.
The week has a shape, not a schedule. Yoga twice a week if you want to join. Three communal meals a week around a long table. Bread-making on the days James is baking. Hiking or paying a visit to a near by town if the group is up for it. The rest is yours.
A place to ease into rural living
Casa Pardal sits in working farmland, just over an hour from Barcelona but a long way from manicured. Most days the air smells of grass and wild herbs. When the wind turns, you will occasionally get a whiff of real agriculture. It passes.
You will hear dogs and tractors in the distance. See fields, tree groves, and distant mountains on clear mornings. This is countryside people actually farm.
Each season here reads differently.
Spring is mild, flowering, and the hills echo with bird song. Most green season of the year.
Summer is hot and dry, but the cool stone house is a refreshing escape. So is the backyard pool. Mornings are the work window, afternoons slow to a crawl.
Autumn is harvest and wine, warm afternoons, cool nights.
Winter is cold mornings, bright middays, long quiet evenings. We try and mitigate the cold during this season with central heating on in timed cycles, a wood stove in the main living room, heating bedrooms when you want them, thick blankets on every bed.
You should pack warm layers for all seasons as it can get cool at night.
Community life & shared household rhythms
Casa Pardal holds 4-12 people at a time. Most are here to strike a balance between work and rest. No forced icebreakers. No name tag lanyards. By day three you know everyone’s name and what they are about, because the group is small enough for a deeper connection.
At the start of the week, we decide together on group activities, taking into consideration what you’d like to do, as well as what everyone else has in mind. Go for epic hikes around Montserrat, bike to the nearby towns to grab a menú del dia, play boardgames, join a painting workshop, or simply walk the trails around at night and take in the stars together.
Living here means sharing the house, not being served by it. One night a week, if you’re up for it, you cook for the group. Everyone cleans up after themselves. The kitchen resets at the end of the day because each person does a small part of it. It’s not a hotel. Everyone participates, and that’s what makes it a community.
Community meals
We try to do 3 shared meals per week, mostly dinners but sometimes a lunch on the weekends. We believe that food brings people together.
Laundry
Laundry is available to everyone free of charge. To organise yourself better and be conscious, we propose one laundry per week per guest.
Trips & groceries
We organize weekly trips to town for groceries and Saturday market days. It’s a chance to stock up, explore, and enjoy the rhythm of local life together.
Kitchen responsibilities
We all share responsibility for keeping the kitchen clean and welcoming. After cooking, please wash and put away all pots and utensils to leave space for others. Each coliver has their own box and shelf for storing dry food.
Cleaning
A cleaning team refreshes common areas and shared bathrooms every two weeks, with fresh linens and towels provided if needed. Colivers are responsible for cleaning their own rooms and keeping shared spaces tidy during their stay.
We're truly pet friendly
Most colivings say they are pet-friendly, then tell you the dog has to stay in your bedroom. That is not the case here.
Dogs are welcome in the common spaces, the garden, in the dining room when the group is eating, and out on walks with whoever is heading out for one. We have a dog of our own (Neli), so the house has been set up knowing other dogs would come through it.
- It’s +€5/day to bring your pet
- There is almost always a dog in the house. If you or someone travelling with you has a serious dog allergy, this is probably not the right stay.
- Our backyard is fenced. Off-leash works for many of the dogs that stay here. There are lots of beautiful trails around for you to go on nice walks together.
- The nearest vet is in Calaf, about ten minutes away.
If you are arriving with a dog, tell us before you book. We like to know their size, temperament, and how they do around other dogs.
What to do around Casa Pardal
Surrounded by farms and nature, there’s not a ton of new cafés to try or nightlife to crash. But you’d be surprised by all the things you can get up to in rural Catalonia!
Explore the beauty beyond our walls.
Take in Catalonia’s mountain views, charming villages, and peaceful trails, which are perfect for slow adventures and spontaneous escapes.
Here is what there is, within 90 minutes of our front door —
Our values: sustainability, collaboration, and simple living.
Who thrives here (and who won't)
Casa Pardal is not for everyone. It is not for guests who need a packed social calendar, a bar within walking distance, or a stay measured in nights rather than weeks.
It’s for those wanting to get off the beaten path, escape the rapid pace of the city, and have downtime and unstructured days.
It is also for the the things that make life worth living. The dinners where the wine goes around twice and turns into late night conversations. The Saturday someone proposes a trip to a local festival and three of you make the quest. The kind of friendship that only happens when you live with people for a few weeks, share a kitchen, and end up trading recipes on the way out. Most guests leave with more than they came for.
It’s for those that want a peaceful atmosphere to reconnect with themselves and others, refocus on what’s important to them, and to reimagine what life could be like.
If that sounds like you, please join us! We’re looking forward to meeting you and creating something special together.
What our past guests say about us
"The place is full of creativity and conviviality."
“I truly enjoyed my time at Casa Pardal this summer! Monica and James are wonderful hosts, genuine and fun to be around. I’m a total fan of Monica’s yoga classes and James’s focaccia. From painting to beautiful runs, wood carving, sardinada, Greek dinners, creative writing, tarot reading, and wine tasting, the place is full of creativity and conviviality. And their adorable dog, Nelly, adds so much cuteness to it all.”
– Natalia
"More like a shared experience than just a place to stay."
“I stayed here for 5 weeks from April to May and absolutely loved the time. The location is special – a beautiful old villa with real character, surrounded by nature and great walks right on the doorstep. Each room has it’s own charm and is full of personality. Monica and James are fantastic hosts – always creating a sense of community and making things happen, whether that’s cultural trips, days out in nature, fitness session at the house or just bringing people together throughout the week. It felt more like a shared experience than just a place to stay. Thanks for everything guys – can’t wait to return and see you all again!”
– Richard
"Genuine people who made my stay truly authentic."
“I spent three weeks in this wonderful place and left with unforgettable memories. From strolling through the weekly market in Calaf to hiking at Boixadors Castle or Montserrat. Monica and James are extraordinary hosts—genuine people who made my stay truly authentic.”
– Elena
"It felt just like home."
“I spent an amazing time here. The place is welcoming, it felt just like home. It’s well situated, only one hour from Barcelona and the mountains. Wonderful hikes to do and lots of nice villages to see. Thank you for those incredible memories!”
– Alex
"An absolute gem for remote working and recharing!"
“An absolute gem for remote work and recharging! This coliving/coworking space is set in a beautiful old castle in the middle of nature, surrounded by wheat fields, with fast Wi-Fi and great workspaces that make it easy to stay productive. Weekly yoga and a communal dinner, fresh eggs from their own chickens, and bread-making add even more wow to the place! What really makes the place special though is Monica and James. They’ve created a warm, welcoming space with so much care and attention to detail. It’s the perfect escape from the city—calm, community-driven, and full of heart. Do yourself a favour and stop by, you won’t regret it!”
– Anne