Hotel la Realda

“Almost perfect”

A small, quiet hotel in a village as interesting for its history and architecture as neighbouring Albarracín. Our room, La Ermita, was clean, comfortable and beautifully furnished with Spanish period pieces - a welcome change from standard hotels, lacking character. All staff were friendly and help… more

A small, quiet hotel in a village as interesting for its history and architecture as neighbouring Albarracín. Our room, La Ermita, was clean, comfortable and beautifully furnished with Spanish period pieces - a welcome change from standard hotels, lacking character. All staff were friendly and helpful - as indeed were all the locals of the village - and the bar staff provided us with a very reasonable vegetarian meal, at short notice. Breakfast was basic and very cheap, but then we'd only requested fresh fruit and yoghurt. A tip for parking:- Predictably, for a medieval village, the streets are extremely narrow and GPS instructions don't always take into account the sharp inclines from the main road. The best way to reach the hotel is to turn into the Visitors' Area for the Roman Aqueduct and follow that, much wider road, until the archway before the hotel, where there is room for parking. The Visitors' Centre is just before the village, if approaching from Teruel and obviously, at the end of the village, if travelling from Albarracín. It was a very pleasant two-night stay and we would love to have marked it higher, but there were three negative aspects we couldn't ignore. Our room was only accessible via the lift and yet there were no instructions displayed, with regard to fire procedures. The bathroom arrangement is admittedly a very clever use of space - the wash basin is an integral part of the room; the toilet, to the left of it, in one of the eaves; the bath/shower behind stable doors, in the other, to the right. However, apart from not allowing a great deal of privacy, showering was not an easy experience. The stable doors acted almost as a shower screen on top of the bath and there was no upright attachment for the shower head. We are small people and we found the area cramped, so this room would certainly be difficult for tall or large guests. Finally, a question of security - we were given one key, which would open both the main front door and the door to our room. If all other guests were given similar keys, ie. the main front door being the common denominator, how can the contents of each room be safe? We would be happy to be corrected, if we have assumed wrongly.

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“One of those life memories”

The town of Albarracin is absolutely stunning with its walled old town perched high up a hillside. However, we decided to stay at Gea de Albarracin, a tiny village some 10kms from the town. The experience is for pioneers only!!! The village lies below the road to the le as you travel from Teruel an… more

The town of Albarracin is absolutely stunning with its walled old town perched high up a hillside. However, we decided to stay at Gea de Albarracin, a tiny village some 10kms from the town. The experience is for pioneers only!!! The village lies below the road to the le as you travel from Teruel and the highway. It is quite a challenge finding the road down to the village as the first option we found was so steep we wondered whether the hire car would make it! After a briefing from some locals we worked out the route down. We were then confronted with the narrowest of lanes, leading not into the village but to a courtyard adjacent to the main through ways. We pulled our cases down the street, which is just about wide enough to fit a small car but no more. We found La Realda our Hotel of choice only to be told that our accomodation was not in the main block but down another street in a converted apartment. The cases got another trip under their belt and we found what turned out to be a fantastic one bedroom suite with lounge and wonderful old Spanish furniture, mosaics and drapes. We loved it. Each time we went out it was an adventure. Driving was a challenge and fun if you chose to make the most of it. The village itself isn't very big and easy to wander around to take in the incredibly old historic buildings and fascinating people who live in such a place. Great experience, but not for the comfort hunters this one! Whether you view the location as excellent or poor depends upon your attitude to experiencing something very different. We're glad we did and have therefore made another memory.

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