Little Hotels - Newsletter Edition 5

News from Little Hotels, Edition 5

It’s been rather a long time since the last newsletter. We have been so busy, and we have to sincerely thank all you people for that. Little Hotels has been in operation for just over a year and we have been stunned by the response to it: lots of interest, lots of bookings and lots of nice comments from our clients.

Summer Holidays

I hope that most people will have booked their summer holidays by now. If not, you need to hurry to get the hotel and dates you want in July and August. If we can't provide your first choice, we will try very hard to come up with a suitable alternative, so it is always helpful if you tell us when enquiring what degree of flexibility you have.

If you are thinking of a late summer holiday, say in September, you still have plenty of choice and there are some pretty important advantages too. First of all, you will miss the August rush when all the Spanish take their holidays and so many British with children are here too. In September the weather will be a little bit cooler (just a little bit) and the sea will be warmer as it has had another month of summer to warm up. The days will be getting shorter, and that will mean more chance to sit outside under the moon and stars to enjoy balmy open-air dining. I like September.

Walking and Cycling in Spain

Frankly, high summer is too hot for walking or cycling holidays in most of Spain. If the summer is your only chance

though, we have some hotels up in the Pyrenees that will be perfect: Privilegio de Tena, Torre del Remei or Niu Dels Falcons Xalet. Otherwise, October and November are the best months for walking and cycling and we have a few hotels that specialise in this type of holiday. Mas Fontanelles lies at the foot of the Sierra de Fontanella, surrounded by mountains and pine woods. Another hotel set behind the Costa Blanca is Els Frares, where you can take guided walks as well as doing your own thing. If you would like to try the Canaries, Hotel Las Calas on Gran Canaria is in prime walking country too. For lots of other ideas, use the search facility on our websites and type in “walking” or “cycling”.

In the La Rioja region, Villa de Abalos is offering cycling weekends that are ideal for less-committed cyclists, or a gentle start for those who want to make a whole week of it.

Recent New Hotels

We never stop adding hotels to our lists. Here are a few we've put on recently:
Conde de Pinofiel, Antequera, Andalucia. A restored palace house right in the heart of Antequera. Once it was the home of the Count of Pinofiel.
Hotel Rector, in Salamanca. In a city famed for its magnificent architecture and buildings, the Hotel Rector is one of those very buildings.
Cortijo Águila Real, just outside Seville, is an aristocratic country house sitting atop a hill with views of the city in the distance. The perfect place to combine a city break in Seville with lovely countryside and some utterly peaceful “R & R”.
Finca Son Fogueró is a lovely little Bohemian hideaway in the heart of Mallorca. Run by an actress and her artist husband, we can only describe the atmosphere as “unique”. It is no surprise that the hotel is a magnet for celebrities from the worlds of art, film and television.
It's quite difficult to find little hotels of character near the beaches of the Costa del Sol, so we're very pleased to add Posada La Plaza, near Nerja. It's very good value too.
Likewise, for those who prefer the Costa Dorada, La Masieta is quite close to the beaches yet comfortably far from the high-rise.

Villas of Spain

News hot off the press: we have just launched a new website called Villas of Spain. There are only a few places on it at the moment because it is so important that we choose the right properties. These are houses, cottages and villas in the same vein as our little hotels: charming, individual, good-value.

The Rain in Spain…..

When clients phone us, they often ask “How is the weather there?” Well you probably know that Spain had the worst winter for 20/30/40/50 years, depending on who you believe. The spin-off has been more water has soaked into the ground and the mountains have been a picture. Every week it seems a different plant comes into flower, so we have had hillsides of green, blue and the most brilliant yellows. The tortoises have been a little bit late waking up but a couple of weeks ago they all seemed to want to cross the road at the same time. Several times, I've had to stop, get out and move them to the side of the road. Millions of years of evolution have given them a successful way of dealing with most threats, but unfortunately it doesn't work so well with cars. The weather now is lovely sunshine and clear blue skies nearly every day. I think it will stay like this for the next five months or so.

You Say the Nicest Things

“You have put together a terrific website. You are to be commended when there is so much rubbish out there.”
Modesty prevents me from quoting any more, but we have been really gratified by the positive responses so many of you have sent us. One lady was on her computer within 2 hours of getting home, to tell us how much she had enjoyed her holiday. In our first year of operation we have had only one complaint, so we must be doing something right!

Car Hire and Airport Parking

We want to give our clients the most complete holiday package that we can, so we now have car hire and UK airport car parking available straight from our website. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by claiming they're the “best”, the “cheapest” and so on. However we did research our partners carefully and we are confident that they offer a quality service and their prices are on a par with anything else you will find.

Something Out-of-the-Ordinary

I don't know how many thousands of hotels there are in Spain, but most of them will never feature on a Little Hotels website because they're too big, too impersonal or too something. Even amongst our own selected hotels though, there are a few that stand out:
With room names like Sultan Boabdil's Chamber and The Horse Thief's Hideout, you just know that Amanhavis is going to be pleasingly eccentric.
When you dine at the Cartuja de Cazalla, you join owner Carmen in her home. Afterwards feel free to stay for the "tertulia", a chat around the table sharing knowledge and ideas.
I'll try to remember to mention some others next time.

Happy holidays!

Paul Melhuish

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