The Mountains Hotel

Pretty on the outside.. we moved to The Mountains after we decided to extend our stay in Sierra Nevada and wish we hadn’t. The outside looks amazing and very inviting, fabulous location right in town, great hotel access from the parking lot, ski locker by the main gondola…the lobby is gorgeous and the winding staircase takes you down to a beautiful lounge area and that’s where it stops!! The lounge is cold, wind coming through the windows including snow and water dripping from the ceiling! No staff to get drinks, rude staff on reception. The rooms are obviously the last part of this hotel to be renovated. They are all old, mould in the corners of the room, bad condensation on the windows, they have added water and amenities like shampoo etc but it doesn’t shy away from the cold dampness of the rooms. We had dinner in the restaurant which was lovely, and an extensive breakfast buffet but be prepared to be kept away by listening to every noise throughout the night and especially from the outsourced apres ski bar!! I can see this hotel being really beautiful once all the renovations are completed but I think will be another overpriced hotel advertising to the younger crowd rather than families and out price us.

This hotel does not live up to standards due to three things: 1) WIFI is REALLY bad, you cannot surf most of the time 2) Breakfast scrambled eggs were cold both breakfast we were there, even when we were the first guests at breakfast 3) The receptionist, the man, was a bit arrogant and did also let us wait for approx 15 minutes when he was chatting with another guest about vacations etc. However, it was a woman in the reception that was totally the opposite. I have traveled the world all my life and stayed att many hotels. Despite that I rate this lady among the better ones I have met. She was the definition of what the best receptionist should be like. Long hair and glasses. Fantastic. She is the reason why I still give the hotel a 2-grade. Unfortunately she was not in the reception the whole time. The hotel itself was good, reception and open spaces nice but the rooms need some renovation I guess.

Terrible experience- beautiful decor. The reception were so slow and unaccommodating. No signs in the underground car park to show you how to get to the hotel. We paid €430 for one night! To stay in Here and it felt like a youth hostal. Our rooms were worse than basic and they placed us (a family) under beso restaurant with NO sound proof. At 5pm in the afternoon we felt like we were in a nightclub and had to ask to be moved which they did but that whole process took 3 hours of our time given we were only there for one night total waste. On the evening all the communal Chairs were taking up so unless we left or went back to our rooms there was no were to go we ended up sitting at the reception… besó menu is overpriced and NO healthy options. There should be a in-between bar / food snack service between the buffet and beso as it slides from one scale to another. In a nutshell - do not waste your money unless you want to pose as there are other much better options .

Noisy, noisy, noisy. We had read reviews that this place was noisy but no way was I expecting this. We were on the -2 level, below the restaurants and lounge area. It is impossible to get to sleep whilst people are moving chairs, tables and trolley above you. On weekends this can go to the early hours, only to be repeated again at 6am when they get the restaurant ready for breakfast. Add to this the paper thin walls and doors and you can hear the neighbors in the bathroom next door. People walking outside the room as if there wasn't a wall there. Room are extremely small and badly designed, not only is there next to no light, you can't open the wardrobe doors as the bed are in the way. The lounge area is very nice to hang around in when not skiing but service here is a bit hit and miss if you want a drink or tapas as the staff cant be found when you need them. It is the only area where you get anything decent wifi wise as it is next to useless in the room. This is not a four star experience. which is a pity because the potential is there. Location right on Plaza Andalucia is perfect.

Hotel Ziryab is in a great location for skiing, being 100m from the main lifts and just as close to lots of bars and restaurants. The service was friendly and the rooms were clean and comfortable. The hotel decor is outdated but functional. Breakfast offered a wide choice but you had to set a 30 minute time slot when you checked in and everything was served with paper plates and throw away cutlery. The worst aspect of the visit was that the rooms had very little noise proofing. We could hear people talking in the corridor and in other rooms but the worst was the breakfast trolleys moving around at 7 am on the floor above us, which were very loud. The prices were fair and access to the car park was very good.

Day 1: The room is not very big. The furniture is very old. Day 2: There is no restaurant or bar in the hotel. Big problem Day 3: There is an older man smoking in our bathroom (***). The man ran off, laughing, saying "Todo bien, (all good)" Not recommendable