Freelance Holidays is offering 5% off high-season villa rentals if you book before the end of this month.

With lots of flights, plenty to do and a long tradition of villa rental, no island is easier to visit.

We showed them the castle we'd booked our first night, because the Rome flight arrived a day before the villa rental began.

Rentvillas.com, a five-year-old California-based company, features European villa rentals.

Pollensa in the north is popular with British visitors for villa rentals.

During that period, villa rentals can drop as much as 40 percent to 50 percent, villa brokers say.

Some Caribbean islands, for example, impose taxes as steep as 17 percent on villa rentals.

A week's stay in a Thalassa Villa with private pool, based on five sharing, costs from £3,125 to £8,550, for villa rental only.

Vacation rentals and villa rentals are arranged either direct with the owner or through an agency, usually via the internet.

Ronda is a hub for outdoor activities, and many villa rentals offer a host of on-site activities.