Most holiday prices tell you a number and trust you not to ask too many questions. What's in it? What's waiting to be added at the end? A hosted week at Casa Agara — an 18th-century casona in the green Cabuérniga valley of Cantabria, deep in Green Spain — is priced the other way round. Here is a plain list of what your money covers, and, just as honestly, what it doesn't.

What does the price actually cover?

Your place in the house and half board. That means a bedroom in a proper stone casona inside the Saja-Besaya nature reserve, then breakfast every morning and a home-cooked dinner every evening — much of it from vegetables grown in the garden a few steps from the kitchen. It also means the thing the word "hosted" is doing: Rob and María run the house themselves, with Chispa the dog somewhere underfoot, so you are looked after rather than checked in. You are a guest in a home, not a booking reference in a hotel.

The part people don't quite believe: the drinks

The house wine, beer and spirits are poured all day, on the house. No wristband, no tab building quietly in the background, no maths at the end of the week that undoes the relaxed feeling you came for. A glass before dinner isn't a line on a bill; it's just part of the evening. Most all-inclusive holidays fence the drinks behind a package or a bar with opening hours. Here they're simply included, which is rarer than it should be and worth saying plainly.

Is there a single supplement?

Not a forced one — and since this is exactly where solo pricing usually stings, it's worth being precise. You will not be charged a compulsory extra for arriving on your own. Instead you choose. You can twin-share, matched with a same-sex room-mate at no extra charge; if no match is found for your dates, the room supplement is covered for you rather than passed on. Or, if you'd rather have a room entirely to yourself, that's there for an optional, clearly-priced supplement. It's your call, not a penalty. The exact terms depend on the week and the room, so your hosts confirm them plainly before you commit to anything.

What sits outside the price?

The honest bit. Lunch isn't included, and that's deliberate — you'll usually be out on a walk or a beach in the middle of the day, free to please yourself. The optional activities are extra too: riding, cycling, a yoga session, a painting day, a spot of fishing, all arranged to suit you rather than bundled in whether you want them or not. Culture days cost what you choose to spend — Santillana del Mar is about twenty minutes away, Comillas has Gaudí's El Capricho, and the Altamira caves show their Neocueva replica, which you'll need to book ahead. Getting here is on you as well, unless you tie it into a package: the house sits about an hour from Santander airport, with direct UK flights from Stansted, Manchester and Edinburgh. Beyond that it's the small change of any holiday — a coffee in the village, a souvenir, the odd taxi.

What if you bring your own group instead?

There's a second way to stay, and it's priced differently. Bring your own people — a family reunion, a walking club, a milestone birthday — and you can take the whole catered house exclusively, up to twenty-four of you across its twelve bedrooms. The principle is the same: half board and the house drinks are in, the hosting is in, and the extras are yours. What changes is that you're booking the house rather than a place at the table, so the sums work per group rather than per person. Ask, and we'll set out whichever suits you.

How do you get an exact figure for your week?

By asking, rather than guessing from a page like this one. Prices shift by week and by how you'd like to travel, so the sensible thing is to tell your hosts the dates you're eyeing and whether you'd twin-share or take your own room. They'll give you the real number for that week — with no compulsory single supplement hidden in the small print and no drinks bill waiting at the end of it. Scheduled per-person weeks are booked through Spice Escapes, Casa Agara's booking partner and a UK operator with more than forty-five years of hosted holidays behind them; their ATOL (number 9046) covers the flight-inclusive packages, so a trip booked with flights carries that protection.

That's the whole picture: your room, your food, your drinks, and country walks straight from the door, with only the extras left to you.

Ask us for the honest breakdown on your dates, or see the Green Spain weeks on Spice Escapes →.