News from Little Hotels, Edition 8
Welcome to another occasional newsletter from Little Hotels. Summer is now something of a distant memory, and many of you will be battening down the hatches in the face of the forecast cold winter. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as the doom-mongers are suggesting, but if you can’t face it, you could always try a week in the Canaries or perhaps a walking holiday somewhere in southern Spain. It won’t be sizzling, but it will be a lot less “bracing” than at home.
Recent New Hotels
Mas Ferran was our first new addition since the last newsletter. It’s close to Gerona in Cataluña, and is a large typical Catalan farmhouse that has been converted to make a really lovely hotel.In the same area is El Moli, a converted mill on the banks of the river Muga. We tend not to think of rivers when visiting Spain, but at El Moli you can eat your breakfast while sitting right on the water’s edge.
Looking further down the Mediterranean, our latest addition in Valencia is Finca El Tossal, an Italianate country house just north of Alicante. Very peaceful, and very conveniently located for both the Costa Blanca coast and the inland hills.
Over on the Atlantic coast, we’ve added a new hotel on the Costa de la Luz: La Botica de Vejer. Fifteen years ago I was told that the Costa de la Luz was going to be the “next big thing”. We’re still waiting, but in the meantime you have the opportunity to really get away from the crowds and enjoy long empty sandy sunny beaches.
Here is an idea for a city break: Córdoba. Not so well-known as many cities, but the Mezquita is a stunning building and Cordoba is a city well worth a couple of days of your time. We offer the Hospedería de El Churrasco, a small hotel set right in the old quarter, with an internationally-renowned restaurant.
Additions to Little Hotels of the Canaries come along infrequently, because we only add hotels that we know to be “right”. Here’s one: Casona de Yaiza, a hotel, restaurant and art gallery on Lanzarote lying between the Timanfaya national park and the beaches of Papagayo.
A Daytrip to Lucainena
Another addition to Little Hotels of Spain is the Venta El Museo in Lucainena, near Almería. This is so near to us that Margaret and I were able to take a little trip out one day and enjoy a lunch there. We drove through the strange landscape of Karst en Yesos, past the little town of Sorbas perched on the cliffs above the gorge and on to Lucainena. This little village lying at the foot of its own mountain is an unexpected location for a stylish boutique hotel, owned by a Swiss with a perfectionist’s eye for detail. We ate in the traditional Spanish restaurant, Margaret had the local lamb fed on mountain herbs and I had grilled sole, and we enjoyed a bottle of a very fine Rioja (Hanspeter, the owner, is a wine connoisseur).After a little walk around the village we took the mountain road to Nijar, and spent a while ambling through the craft shops there. For guests staying at Venta El Museo, a morning start on the road to Nijar would give the opportunity to visit Cabo de Gata, the flamingo lakes, San José and the Cabo de Gata Natural Park. Better still, to do those places justice, it would be best to spread them over 2 or 3 days.
Cabrera
You may have noticed, if you’ve taken a look at Villas of Spain, that we have a large number of villas in one locality, namely the village of Cabrera on the edge of the Sierra Cabrera mountains, a few kilometres inland from Mojácar. The reason, of course, is because it is where we live, so we can’t give it any more sincere recommendation than that.
Cabrera is a picture-postcard village where the views are exceeded only by the amazing light that is cast across the mountains at sunset. Honestly, if I showed a photo of the hillside bathed in the orangey-red glow that appears most evenings, you would think I had doctored the picture. We have a broad range of villas on offer, ranging from little two-bedroom townhouses to a magnificent 4 bedroom detached villa perched on a rocky crag with views in every direction. We actually have many more houses available than we show on the website, so we can always accommodate people’s needs somehow.
Something New in 2006
In Spring 2006 we will be opening up a new website, which will be our first venture
outside of Spain and the Spanish islands. It will be somewhere a little exotic,
yet not too expensive, and within easy flying time from the UK. As usual, we
are concentrating on quality rather than quantity, so there is a lot of work
to do to make sure that we have a website that you can rely on. When it’s
ready to launch, YOU will be the first to know.The Pyrenees
I know I’m biased, but Spain really does have a much broader choice of holidays available than most people realise. The Pyrenees, for instance, offers two distinct seasons, neither of which fit into the stereotype of a Spanish holiday. In winter, it is a winter-sports destination. The ski-stations are open now, so why pay over-inflated prices for overcrowded slopes in the Alps when you could be enjoying something better? Privilegio de Tena is an excellent base for ski enthusiasts, and Niu Dels Falcons Xalet is a little family-run chalet that offers good accommodation, good food and good whisky (!) at down-to-earth prices.In summer, the Pyrenees becomes a mecca for walkers, and the same hotels are geared to meet the walker’s needs too. Just check a guidebook or one of the specialist websites to see how good it can be. (You might also want to consider Cantabria and Asturias, a little further to the west, along the north coast of Spain. The Picos de Europa are truly spectacular.)
Feedback
We always welcome feedback from our clients, whether it is about our website itself, hotels that we list here, or anything else such as recommendations for restaurants, places to see, walks, or any other advice that would be useful to visitors to our websites. To make this easier, we have just started a feedback page where you can place any comments that you may have. If you holidayed in Spain during 2005, we would be really pleased to see your experiences recorded there. Equally as important, you can go to the feedback page to see what other people have had to say.Wishing all of our website visitors a very happy Christmas
and a prosperous New Year. We look forward to helping you in 2006.
Happy
holidays!
Paul Melhuish
Visit our News Archive here.
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