News from Little Hotels, Edition 14

Welcome to the latest newsletter from Little Hotels. I'm especially excited about this edition because this is my opportunity to announce our newest, latest website:

Little Hotels of Morocco

Margaret has long harboured a desire to create Little Hotels of Morocco, and now we've finally done it. Morocco is an interesting and exciting tourist destination: different enough to be a little exotic, but still familiar enough to be comfortable. We're starting off small, with just a few riad hotels in the medina of Marrakech (don't those words conjure up such exciting images?) but we'll soon be adding more, wherever we find hotels that meet our well-known criteria, "Would we want to stay in this hotel?"

It probably goes without saying that each one of the Marrakech hotels is making us particularly excited, but we'll start off with a mention of Riyad Al Moussika, once the home of the Pasha of Marrakech. Today it is a gorgeous little hotel insulated from the bustle of the city behind thick walls, an oasis of tranquility where guests are pampered. Owner Giovanni has created a wonderful place of relaxation and luxury, and all for the fortunate six couples that can stay at any one time.

Recent New Hotels

Naturally Little Hotels of Morocco has been occupying our attentions recently, but still there are a couple of new hotels in Spain that I'd like to mention. They're quite a contrast, but we like them both.

La Mariposa is a down-to-earth little rural hotel in the Sierra Espuña natural park, in Murcia. This is the place for nature-lovers of all sorts, whether their interest is walking, mountain-biking, bird-watching, rock-climbing, or even wild-boar-spotting. It's an environment that is homely, child-friendly and even fairly good for disabled guests.

Travel all the way up to the shore of the Bay of Biscay and we will find Hotel Iturregi, a new building in the local country style, looking a little bit alpine, as do many houses in the Basque Country. Iturregi is owned by the same people as the Villa Soro in San Sebastian, so the quality of the interior is something special. Designer Daniel Rotaeche was chosen to give each room a distinctive feel combining modernity with the traditional style of the "Pais Vasco". It's a great place for exploring the little-known coastline and mountains of this corner of Spain.

Congratulations!

This year Hotel San Gabriel is celebrating the tenth anniversary of their opening as a little hotel. This is a historic building in the old part of Ronda, very close to the Tajo bridge. You can feel the history here.

Just one year-old is Finca Son Jorbó in Mallorca. They had a very successful first year (surely due in no small part to the charming hosts Martin and Annie) and we wish them even more success in the future. Lovely people, lovely surroundings, lovely island. What more could anyone ask for?

Guadalest

We like to think that we know Spain fairly well, but still it is a country with the capacity to surprise us. A visit to Guadalest in early March was a case in point; truly spectacular, and far exceeding our expectations. The village is tiny, and most of it sits in, on and around a massive, precipitous blade of rock which projects itself skyward.

We drove up the coast and then turned inland shortly before Benidorm. As we were passing by a sea mist rolled in, hiding most of the town and leaving just the tops of the highest towers projecting through the mist. It was beautiful, and people don't often say that about Benidorm!

To make our way inland, we followed the "high road" along the Guadalest valley, with rocky crags towering above us and the green Guadalest valley and the grey rocks of the mountains away to the right. The road climbed gently and it wasn't too far before Guadalest came into view, a cluster of white buildings fastened around a spire of rock, topped by some vestigial castle ruins. We were swept around into the plaza of the village, one spectacular view being continually replaced by another, and parked up with our hotel on one side and the great rock outcrop on the other.

We stayed at Cases Noves. What appears to be simply a large village house (it says modestly "bed & breakfast" on the side) has been turned into a hotel where an eye for detail and quality has been deftly applied throughout. Toni and Sofia have done a great job in creating their little hotel, nothing is too much trouble for happy, smiling Toni and lovely Sofia is both an excellent cook and the interior designer. Oh! and there are nice views too.

Our stroll through the village took us right up to the base of the sheer rock face, then through a gate in the rock into a village-within-a-village. We visited the Casa Orduña and then climbed to the top of the castle; magnificent but not ideal for anyone with a fear of heights. The Guadalest cemetery lies within the castle walls too: when you're buried there, you're already halfway to heaven! As we descended we stopped for refreshment in the old plaza, still with near-vertical views down onto Guadalest lake, a man-made lake that adds yet another beauty to the Guadalest valley. It would have been great to stay much longer, to drop into some of the little museums or even spend a couple of days walking in the mountains, but this was work (really!) and we had other hotels to visit.

We headed back towards the coast on the "low road", winding down through the Guadalest valley, past the motorcycle museum and finishing at the waterfalls at Fuente de Algar. Perhaps we can continue this story in the next newsletter.

No Smoking

We've noticed recently that more and more of our clients are asking for no smoking rooms or no smoking hotels. In response to this we now try to provide information on a hotel's no smoking policy in the tariff box on each hotel page. Naturally, the sort of hotels that are listed on Little Hotels generally have an interest in providing the best quality of environment possible and therefore the majority are smoke-free.

As many countries now restrict smoking in public places, this is also a good opportunity to mention the law on smoking in Spain. All restaurants over 100m2 must provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas. In our experience these are generally well-executed with no smoke permeating over to the no smoking side. Bars and smaller restaurants must designate themselves smoking or no smoking. At the moment the majority of bars allow smoking but this is gradually changing. The Spanish health minister has said that if the softly-softly approach doesn't bring about a sufficiently smoke-free environment, more restrictions will be brought in.

And Finally.....

This year bookings at Little Hotels are leaping ahead of previous years. We think this is partly due to repeat business and word-of-mouth (thank you to You: please keep up the good work!) and partly that more people are holidaying in Spain this year. Looking ahead to this summer, some hotels have plenty of availability while others have already surprised us by being nearly booked up, especially for the popular dates. The moral is clear: don't leave it to the last minute.

Happy holidays!
Paul Melhuish

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