Villa of the Week: Casas Elilula, Preá, Brazil

We’ve all been on holidays where we have an urge to live there, perhaps even looking up property prices on real estate – no confessing here. For the owners of Casas Elilula in Preá, northern Brazil, that’s just what they did, as on a remote, wind-scoured stretch of beach, they turned a once-fantasy into reality.

After visiting for several years and taking to the area's climate and preponderance for kitesurfing, an idea sparked by their youngest daughter – a teenager at the time – set them in motion. In 2017, they took the step to buy a one-hectare plot on the beach and transform it into something of their own making. Today, the property sprawls on Preá’s white powdery sand as a set of three high-end, lustrous timber casas – standing majestically with a vast, enticing swimming pool and lush open wilderness running through its core.

Not a hotel, not an Airbnb, the villa, as co-owner Christine Pasquier points out, sits somewhere in between, accommodating up to 20 guests across 10 en-suite bedrooms – available to rent individually or as a whole. Light-touch housekeeping and round-the-clock security help to keep things orderly and safe, but the property runs completely self-catered, with options to dial up the service depending on your needs.

A Villa with Soul

The mastermind behind the design was London-based architect and eldest daughter, Elisa Commanay, who worked creatively with Romain Conti-Granteral to bring the family vision to life. Leaning heavily on an indoor-outdoor concept, the clean structures that underpin the villas are entwined with their natural environment and extend onto the serene beach.

Boundaries between habitation and nature are elegantly blurred throughout, from the living rooms and bedrooms where up to three walls retract into a fully open-air spaces to outdoor en-suite showers, giving guests a taste of the wild. Each thatched roof casa opens out onto wrap-around decking, surrounded by tropical trees and wild shrubbery. Generous spaces flow from one to the next through open corridors – maze-like in their construct – with blossoming foliage and swaying trees providing a sense of enclosure.

That openness extends to the personality within, where thoughtful touches include shelves lined with curated books in various languages – a gesture, Pasquier says, toward welcoming guests from every corner of the world. And in such a remote, carefree setting, she tells me, they, like many others in the area, leave their doors wide open without a second thought.

Rather than the anonymity of a hotel – or an Airbnb – this is a personal villa the family built with their own tastes in mind. The art across the walls was commissioned by Elisa and Romain from artist friends, with one even visiting the site to paint the beach and surrounding landscapes there and then. In the property’s initial development, the pair also founded the Elilula Collective, a platform where their artist peers could contribute ideas and creations.

With a love for the surrounding environment, the family has sought to immerse itself completely and work within nature's remit rather than against it. Fortunately, the area's weather plays into their hands – particularly from June to February – when coastal winds bring natural ventilation, replacing the usual need for air conditioning, and sunny conditions allow the property to power itself entirely through a solar farm.

Their reverence for nature is everywhere apparent, as water filtration banishes the need for plastic, while much of the wood and furnishings is either traced to São Paulo, where it was upcycled from, or crafted from local artisans with Amazonian materials.

The Casas

Each house features white hammocks and four-poster bed netting, which you may find fluttering in the breeze, as well as hemp-woven rugs on the floors and wooden-string lampshades casting a warm glow – leaving a finish that’s both sophisticated and rustic. Although super-comfortable, there is a sense of camping in the wild while being ensconced in design-conscious luxury – evidenced by bold vases and timber ornaments dotted throughout. It’s combined with a highly functional urban workspace feel, with wooden rotary fans and polished desk spaces – work from paradise, anyone?

The largest of three, Casa Eli sits across two storeys, its vast outdoor table overlooking the sea and serving as the social heart of the property, when taken as a whole. Casa La arranges four bungalows around a central kitchen and living space, each with its own private garden – gates between them opening or closing to suit the group's dynamic and formation. More compact in scale, Casa Lu offers a sweeping terrace and tree-lined seclusion, head-on to the pool, making it a natural draw for younger guests.

Each casa comes with a well-equipped kitchen and laundry room. Bathrooms are replenished with sustainable Brazilian amenities – Amantikir and Kalyda among them – while multi-room Sonos speakers are able to amplify through each house, the pool and the kitchen.

The Experience

The beach is the draw. It stretches endlessly in both directions, with the entrance to Jericoacoara National Park – its dunes, mangroves and jewel-blue lagoons – also on the doorstep. While kitesurfing often presides, days can also be filled with horse riding on the shoreline or quad biking across the dune landscapes.

Formerly a quiet fishing village, Preá has evolved into a lively destination for those in the know. The family's favourite dinner spots include Quintal do Denis, Balcon, Risoteria Bella Mar and Restaurante Vila Preá – though the full picture arrives via a 180-page address book sent to guests on booking, which began as their personal list of trusted contacts.

Through the black book, guests can engage with chefs from local cooks to higher-end Brazilian, Argentinian and Colombian chefs, as well as drivers, nannies, massage therapists, an osteopath and the nearby L'Occitane spa. The addresses extend to the quirky too, with Pasquier herself recently experiencing a yoga session followed by sound healing on floating mats in the pool. There’s also a number for a local concierge, should you wish to leave the decision making for another time.

For groups seeking a full private-resort experience, hiring a chef and gathering round the big table at Casa Eli does the job entirely. The supermarket is a short walk along the beach or a five-minute ride away and will, Pasquier informs me, deliver your shopping back so you needn't carry it – a perk, she says, that is a Brazilian thing. For those who simply want to escape a more chaotic life back home and fall asleep to the sound of the waves, as well as the gusts, Casas Elilula suits that too. The point, above all, is the freedom to make it your own.

Prices for a three-night stay start at £865 (Casa Lu, 4 guests), £1,750 (Casa La, 8 guests), and £2,365 (Casa Eli, 8 guests), with the entire property (20 guests) from £4,970.

Book at casaselilula.com