Compared with other European countries, accommodation in Spain is still pretty good value. In almost any town, you’ll be able to get a no-frills double room in a pensión or small hotel for around €50, sometimes even less, especially out in the sticks. As a rule, you can expect to pay from €100 for something with a bit of boutique styling, and from €150–200 for five-star hotels, historic paradores and luxury beachfront resorts. However, the trend is bucked by Madrid and Barcelona, in particular, and some fashionable coastal and resort areas, where rooms are often appreciably more expensive in all categories.
Advance reservations are essential in major cities and resort areas at peak holiday, festival or convention times. Local festivals and annual events also tend to fill all available accommodation weeks in advance. That said, as a general rule, if you haven’t booked, all you have to do is head for the cathedral or main square of any town, which is invariably surrounded by an old quarter full of pensiones and hotels. You don’t always pay more for a central location; indeed, the newer three- and four-star properties tend to be located more on the outskirts. Families will find that most places have rooms with three or even four beds at not a great deal more than the double-room price; however, single travellers often get a comparatively bad deal, and can end up paying sixty to eighty percent of the price of a double room.
Accommodation prices are seasonal, but minimum and maximum rates should be displayed at reception. In high season on the costas, many hotels only take bookings for a minimum of a week, while some also require at least a half-board stay. However, it’s worth noting that high season isn’t always summer, in ski resorts for example, while inland cities such as Madrid tend to have cheaper prices in August, when everyone heads for the coast.
Where possible, website bookings nearly always offer the best deals, especially with the larger hotel groups that have made big inroads into Spain – it’s always worth checking NH Hoteles (nh-hotels.com), Accor (accorhotels.com) and Sol Meliá (solmelia.com) for current deals. Organizations like Bancotel (bancotel.es; deals available online or through vouchers available in Spain from travel agents and other outlets) also offer good discounted rates on accommodation.
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Private rooms and B&Bs
The cheapest beds are usually in private rooms, in someone’s house or above a bar or restaurant. The signs to look for are habitaciones (rooms) or camas (beds), or they might be touted at resort bus and train stations in summer as you arrive. The rooms should be clean, but might well be very simple and timeworn; you’ll probably share a communal bathroom.
The number of private “bed-and-breakfast” establishments (advertised as such) is on the increase, and while some are simply the traditional room in someone’s house, others – especially in the major cities – are very stylish and pricey home-from-homes.
Pensiones, hostales and hotels
Guesthouses and hotels in Spain go under various anachronistic names – pensión, fonda, residencia, hostal, etc – though only hotels and pensiones are recognized as official categories. These are all star-rated (hotels, one- to five-star; pensiones, one- or two-star), but the rating is not necessarily a guide to cost or ambience. Some smaller, boutique-style pensiones and hotels have services and facilities that belie their star rating; some four- and five-star hotels have disappointingly small rooms and an impersonal feel.
At the budget end of the scale are pensiones (marked P), fondas (F) – which traditionally had a restaurant or dining room attached – and casas de huéspedes (CH), literally an old-fashioned “guesthouse”. In all such places you can expect straightforward rooms, often with shared bathroom facilities (there’s usually a washbasin in the room), while occasionally things like heating, furniture (other than bed, chair and desk) and even external windows might be too much to hope for. On the other hand, some old-fashioned pensiones are lovingly cared for and very good value, while others have gone for a contemporary, boutique style.
Next step up, and far more common, are hostales (Hs) and hostal-residencias (HsR), which are not hostels, in any sense, but budget hotels, generally offering good, if functional, rooms, usually with private bathrooms and – in the better places – probably heating and air-conditioning. Many also have cheaper rooms available without private bathrooms. Some hostales really are excellent, with good service and up-to-date furnishings and facilities.
Fully-fledged hotels (H), meanwhile, have a star-rating dependent on things like room size and staffing levels rather than any intrinsic attraction. There’s often not much difference in price between a one-star hotel and a decent hostal, for example, and the hostal might be nicer. At three and four stars, hotel prices start to increase and you can expect soundproofing, an elevator, an English-language channel on the TV and a buffet breakfast spread. At five stars, you’re in the luxury class, with pools, gyms, jacuzzis, and prices to match, and some hotels differentiate themselves again as five-star “deluxe” or “gran classe” (GL).
You can pick up lists of local accommodation from any Spanish tourist office, and there are countless websites to look at, too, including the excellent Rusticae (rusticae.es), which highlights scores of stylish rural and urban hotels across the country.
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Paradores
Spain has over ninety superior hotels in a class of their own, called paradores (parador.es), which are often spectacular lodgings converted from castles, monasteries and other Spanish monuments (although some are purpose-built). They can be really special places to stay, sited in the most beautiful parts of the country, or in some of the most historic cities, and prices are very good when compared with the five-star hotels with which they compete. Overnight rates depend on location and popularity, and start at around €110 a night, though €150–180 is more typical. That said, a whole host of special offers and web deals (through the official website) offer discounted rates for the over 60s, the 20s to 30s, or for multi-night stays.
A popular approach is to take a fly-drive holiday based around the paradores. There is no end of routes you could choose, but good options include the area around Madrid and through the Sierra de Gredos; along the Cantabrian coast, past the Picos de Europa; or along the French–Spanish border and through the foothills of the Pyrenees. Another popular route takes you through Galicia, and on to one of the most sumptuous paradores of all in Santiago de Compostela. Three-night packages, where you stay in a different parador every night, start at €159 per person (based on two sharing, car rental not included). All the details are on the website, or contact the official parador agents, Keytel in the UK (keytel.co.uk) or Petrabax in the US (petrabax.com).
Villas, apartments and rural tourism
Most UK and European tour operators can find you a self-catering villa or apartment, usually on one of the costas or in the Balearics. They are rented by the week, and range from simple town-centre apartments to luxury coastal villas with private pools. Prices, of course, vary wildly, but the best deals are often packages, including flights and car rental, with endless villa agencies including First Choice (firstchoice.co.uk/villas) or Iglu Villas (igluvillas.com).
Casas rurales (rural houses), or casas de pagès in Catalunya, are where many Spanish holidaymakers stay. It’s a wide-ranging concept, from boutique cave dwellings to restored manor houses, many with pools and gardens. You can rent by the room, or by the property, either on a B&B basis or self-catering, depending on the accommodation. Many places also offer outdoor activities such as horseriding, walking, fishing and cycling. They are generally excellent value for money, starting at around €30 per person, even cheaper if you’re in a group or staying for longer than a night or two.
ASETUR (ecoturismorural.com), the association for rural tourism in Spain, has an excellent website where you can search thousands of properties by region, while many Spanish tourist-office websites also carry information on casas rurales. Holiday companies in your own country may also have Spanish rural properties available, or contact Spain-based agencies like Ruralia (Cantabria and Asturias; ruralia.com), Rustic Blue (Andalucía; rusticblue.com), Agroturisme (Catalunya; agroturisme.org), Casas de Gredos (casasgredos.com; Ávila and Gredos area), and Top Rural (Spain-wide; toprural.com).
