Thursday 7 January 2010

EL ESPINAR HOTEL

If there is a place lost in the middle of nowhere, that is El Espinar Hotel, in Segovia province. It is less than 1 hour's drive to Madrid, and even less to Segovia and Ávila, two very touristic towns North of Madrid.

It is definitely, a place to go to by car, unless you want a nice walk from the railway station or the bus station.

The hotel is situated by the road N-VI, from Madrid to La Coruña. It is actually located inside an Industrial Estate with a few buildings, a bit separated from everywhere.The rooms are fairly good, for a 3 star hotel. As the hotel was built in 2008, it still shows it is new. The good thing is that you don't have problems to find a parking space. Plenty of it outside the hotel.

It has two floors, and the receptionist wanted us to walk, so she gave us the top floor, furthest room she could find, at the end of the corridor. One, would have thought that it was the last room left... Far away from reality. We were actually the only ones in the hotel. Good thing... Wireless connection was available throughout the hotel and was free of charge.

The room was really cold. (It was about freezing outside) and he heater started when we put it on. One of those cases that when you leave the room, you need to take the key out, and the heater stops...

The bathroom we got had a shower, no bath. For me, that was a very positive point... but I know that there are people who love having a bath. Other rooms do have a bath... The hotel supplies soap and shampoo, and little more.

Bed is comfortable, and that extra blanket is always welcome if you don't leave the air heater on. I personally, don't like to sleep with a fan on... Noise is always a problem and the moving air makes your throat funny the next day... So, for me, the blanket was the best option. Although, I must say that getting out of bed without the heating, was... a bit of a challenge. I wan, of course...

Breakfast... was not included in our rate, but we were informed that it was just 5 Euro per person. So we tried it... just one day. It was very poor. They didn't even bother to get the cook early in the morning. It was prepared the night before, and bread was slightly stale, and hardly any choice. All prefabricated and packed... nothing fresh. Even coffee was in a thermos. I have to say that we were there just over New Years, so maybe at a different time, they may look after breakfast better... However... You cannot find that many times a breakfast just for 5 Euro. Only down the road, in nearby San Rafael, still on the road, there was a "Churrería" where you could have a nice breakfast too...

The hotel did meet our needs. It allowed us to move around the different places we wanted to visit... and it certainly was a quiet place to relax after a hard and tiring touristic day.

HOTEL EL ESPINAR
Crta. N-VI P.K 66,
40400
El Espinar
, (Segovia)
España
Tel: 921 18 32 32
Fax: 921 18 25 31
email: recepcion@hotelelespinar.es