El Cortijo De Los Mimbrales

It takes a moment to work out where you've arrived, but then you find the cosy comfort of the little houses and a lovely pool area hidden away like a paradise!

The room itself was pleasant and spacious, with a fireplace, period furniture and a small terrace outside. But it had no air conditioning, just a ceiling fan. There's no hotel bar or restaurant, which is a shame when the nearest town is about 4 km away. Breakfast is unattended, so if something runs out at the buffet, you have to wait for someone to show up and ask. When we arrived, reception was closed; we had to call the number on the door and wait for the receptionist to come check us in. The website calls this a 4-star hotel, and I honestly wonder how. I don't want to be too harsh, but plenty of the negative points have already appeared in reviews before mine. I'm generally easy to please, but I wouldn't recommend staying here.

The setting is quiet, set back from the main road, so you can barely hear outside noise. We didn't have time to try the restaurant, even for breakfast, so I can't say how the food is. Value for money was good, and we'd gladly return. This is a fairly large property in the countryside between El Rocío and Matalascañas, with several villas, shared areas and its own parking. The staff were attentive and friendly. The villas were very clean, bright and spacious, and the temperature was comfortable during our summer visit. The rooms are like old houses with high ceilings, so there's no air conditioning; a ceiling fan was enough to keep things comfortable. The one thing I'd change is the fan noise. There are a couple of great pools, especially the one that looks like a renovated old pool in the middle of a big garden.

The room had a Moroccan-colonial mix and was really nice, cool and well equipped with air conditioning and a fan. The rustic setting was kept in good shape. The lights were dim, though there were plenty of them. The pool was small and there was no lawn ☹️. Breakfast was pretty basic. Reception gave us one breakfast time, but they closed half an hour earlier and handled it very unprofessionally. A shame, since that was the only thing that went wrong for us.