Hotel Convento Aracena & Spa

A beautiful old convent tastefully refurbished into a quality village centre hotel. The staff are all very friendly and can’t do enough to help. The rooms are large and well equipped and it even has a free mini bar. The grounds are well maintained with a good size pool and a large comfortable relaxing area. The restaurant food is excellent and very good value for what you get. I recommend the “Iberian Suprise” A shout out to front of house, Pablo who was polite, efficient and attentive at all times. The breakfast choice is vast and cooked options are available. Parking for motorcycles is easy, and secured within a garage. For motorcycles it is free! A highly recommended hotel for motorcyclists.

Best thing about this hotel is the great bar staff. Welcoming and relaxed. Odd public areas. Was hired out as a function one night. Room comfortable, but needed a major hoover! Spa extra. Breakfast was grumpy. Nice fruits and coffee was good. Lots of buffet choice. Still very cool in May so better to sit inside.

Really comfortable rooms. Great bathroom. Lovely pool! Everything was great. Food truly excellent. One of our evening meals was really exceptional. The staff in reception were so helpful in sending on glasses that we left behind, they went to quite a bit of effort to send them on to us at another hotel in another region, very grateful for this as glasses are so expensive! We loved the atmosphere and the sitting room. The gardens were beautifully done, and the setting for the pool,was really very lovely. It was quiet there, lovely little town too. Enjoyed the caves and a vermouth in the main square!

Interesting reading some of the comments. First – Car Parking. With some preparation which you surely must do coming to a small town like Aracena we knew exactly where the car park was. A good SatNav (not Google Maps on a phone) and a quick glance at Google Earth before you start shows exactly where the car park is (at the rear). Admittedly we stopped at the front to ask them to let us in when we got around. We found any staff we came across very helpful (I forget the lady’s name on Reception). We have no quibbles about the food either for breakfast or in the restaurant. We saw very few people staying here on our one night. The room was comfortable with a good shower. Toiletries were good quality. The room we had was to the rear and overlooked the pool area and the hills beyond. The bed was comfortable and large. Everything was very clean. No complaints. I would note that this hotel is high up in the town so any visits require a little stamina and of course the Castle is even higher up (do very early). We stayed here to visit the Caves in the morning (10.30 descend) and the hotel allowed us to remain parked in the garage until we returned (they even opened the bar for us to get cold drinks on our return near 12 noon. The conversion from Convent to Hotel has allowed some interesting construction/opening up – eg the Reception/Bar/Lounge Area. Quite impressive.

Very friendly and beautiful place. Kind staff. Simple but good food and extensive breakfast. Only the spa was impossible to book. The church turned into a sitting room is a stunning place. I would certainly book here again for a nice walk in the Sierra de Aracena.

I wrote a mail with a lot of negative remarks and a proposal to compensate the problems we had during our stay. But the direction / reception do not take the remarks serious. The only answer I got, is : "We will do it better next time" But that is not a compensation for a lot of money I paid to get minor service.