Last week we had the wonderful pleasure of heading to Granada for a 5 day conference. We stayed six nights in the beautiful city and had plenty of time to become acquainted with our hotel room and the breakfast buffet. We had chosen the Macia Real de la Alhambra because of the great rates and 4 stars, even though it is a bit outside of the "downtown" area (incidentally, I was made fun of when I used this term, "downtown", in reference to the center of the city; I was informed that Americans using the term "downtown" conjured visions of sky scrapers and high rises, not the historic and shopper-bustling streets of central Granada). In all, our stay was pleasant and comfortable, though for some reason our cleaning ladies couldn't grasp WHY we'd be using the winter-time extra wool blankets when it was only October, and kept folding them away each time they made our bed. When you come from Murcia, where summer is still in full swing, you need those extra blankets!
Review:
Hotel: Macia Real de la Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
Hotel class: 4 stars
Number of nights in hotel: 6
Method of booking: travel agent
Room #: 616
Breakfast:
Of utmost importance is that first meal of the day, to get you out of bed and out the door! Fortunately for us they started as early as 7 AM and ran until 10 AM, which was handy when we had to walk out the hotel door around 7:30 some days (and we weren't the only ones, there was usually a horde of assembled tour groups waiting when the doors opened). The breakfast is either included or an added extra, depending on your booking. They present a pretty good spread, with several cold meats, cheeses, various fresh, canned, and preserved fruits, yogurts, pastries, breads, and even some kind of mini-pancake or waffle. Juices, water, and hot drinks were also available.
My typical breakfast consisted of two slices of whole wheat bread (if you came late to breakfast, the whole wheat was usually already gone) toasted, and then drizzled in olive oil (they seriously misrepresent Spain by providing some of the worst olive oil I've ever tasted), and topped with grated tomato and a couple of slices of a hard sheep or goat cheese. This is a powerhouse and is a typical breakfast here in Spain. They had a small selection of nuts, so I'd top a canned peach or pear with a healthy sprinkling of almonds to try and complete the protein factor (I'm mostly vegetarian and don't usually consume normal dairy like yogurt). They also had plums, apples, pears, and kiwi, so I'd top the meal off with one of these. I'm a green tea drinker and while they had an okay selection of tea available, the green was rather bitter so I opted to bring my own to the table after the first day (standard practice unless I'm in Germany, where they usually have fantastic tea options).
Room:
My husband had originally booked a single, but because I came along, we asked for a double when checking in. No problem! The room was your typical nice hotel room, with two twin beds shoved together (the usual case in Europe), a desk, one comfy chair, a bathroom and closet, and a window looking toward the city center. The room was clean and in good repair. The bed was relatively comfortable (I slept well enough), and we made good use of the extra blankets. We didn't ever try to use the heating/cooling system, but just cracked the window the whole time and that kept us pretty cozy but with a fresh current in the room. The room is well soundproofed, we never heard noise from neighbors, and there wasn't much movement in the hallway. We were on the top floor, so no noise from above either.
Wifi was theoretically available and included (or "free" as they say, but this is a pet peeve of mine. It's not free, it's just covered under the costs you pay for the stay), but was tremendously slow in the evenings when we were in the room. I gave up and used data on my phone if I wanted to check an email. During the day when the large tour groups were off touring, the internet worked fast enough and I was able to access the web. So don't expect to upload all your photos of the Alhambra the night after your big tour! We were on the 6th floor, so maybe that affected us. A friend staying on the 2nd floor had no trouble making phone calls over the internet in the evenings.
Staff:
My husband did most of the interacting with people (he speaks Spanish fluently and I do not), but every instance in which I was present went fine and the staff were friendly and efficient. I did have to go down to have them print off my bus ticket for me at one point, and while the lady at the desk was initially confused by my request, she soon had it printed off for me (I just needed to email it to a hotel email address to complete this).
Location:
This is the toughest part about the hotel. It's pretty far out from the center. It's about a 35 minute walk into the historic city center along the Paseo de las Palmas (the shortest route but on a very narrow road), or a 45 minute walk at a very clipping speed along the Rio Genil to the Parque de las Ciencias (where our conference was at). On one hand, we got a good deal of exercise in last week with that 2 mile walk every morning (and the Rio Genil makes a lovely waking companion), but on the other hand, I could have done with the extra half hour of sleep. If you're exhausted at the end of a day of sightseeing, you might just spring for the taxi (about 7 euros from city center).
If you have your own car, the parking garage is a tad on the expensive side. We found street side parking fortuitously upon arriving, but availability was very scarce, so we didn't move the car again until we left. If you're just coming for one day to go see the Alhambra, the hotel is extremely well situated to head right up the road that leads directly to the Alhambra and you avoid all the city congestion (there are buses as well, though I never took one). The parking garages downtown are a nightmare (very, very tight), so I don't recommend trying to drive in to the city (if you do, stick with the public garages, which have a few more centimeters of wiggle room than the private ones).
Final thoughts:
A great hotel at a great price in a great city! It's not anything particularly special, but it's clean, comfortable, and well run, and if you don't mind the location, it will provide a great home base for your trip to Granada. If we go back to Granada just for leisure, I think I'd prefer to stay somewhere closer to the center in a more historic-feeling hotel. But that's just my personal preference. With a car and a tight budget for 6 nights, this worked out well.
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| Sunset view from the room |
