Palacio de la Serna

We went there for a friend’s wedding, and the venue was unbelievably beautiful.

Lovely venue, clean, and the service was really good.

Clean.

The courtyards and grounds were a real highlight for our dog. With so few guests and staff around, he could wander about, and they even let him by the pool while we threw a tennis ball for him. The hotel itself feels much more set up for weddings than for overnight guests, though, and getting around without a car seems out of the question. The location is remote, but I can see why they’d rather offer the whole palace to a private wedding party as a venue. We had trouble finding anyone at the unmanned reception. When we finally did, the staff we encountered were lovely, but there seemed to be only four people available and it was still hard to track someone down. A little tour when we arrived would have helped. The grounds are stunning and worth spending a day at, but the rooms feel worn and could use renovations to get back to four-star condition, along with another staff member on hand. Our first shower tray filled up, so they moved us to the next room straight away. It was a mezzanine room with the bathroom upstairs, and that layout caused problems. It was much hotter up there, and the air conditioning was worse than in the first room. My husband hit his head twice on the low, sloping bathroom ceiling. The shower glass leaked too, and the bathroom flooded again. The rooms and bathrooms need work. We were told on Booking.com that our 8kg dog would cost €12, but the hotel charged us €35. They should make sure the policies on the third party sites they promote match what they actually charge.