El Chate

We stayed at El Chate while visiting Ordesa to climb Monte Perdido. The facilities and location were great, with a restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, a pool, and a volleyball net. It’s a 25 minute drive to the bus pickup point for the start of the Monte Perdido route. Highly recommended. 👏🏻

The camp’s history is hard to forget. General Franco visited the reeducation camp "El Chate" in July 1964, was appalled by the conditions, and shut it down on the spot. The surviving prisoners were pardoned over the following months. The site reopened as a tourist campsite in 1965, but many things still bring its dark past to mind. The military style tents offer almost no comfort after a long hike. There are no power outlets, and trying to sleep on a tiny, filthy mattress is nearly impossible. Phone service and internet are absent, too, as if the place still connects to its time as a prison camp. Hygiene feels stuck at the camp’s 1964 standard. Finding a clean toilet is a matter of luck in wash buildings that look like nineteenth-century mortuaries. And about 95% of the moths in the Huesca region seem to live at El Chate. The whole stay is harsh. The prices might appeal if you’re on a tight budget, but keep in mind you’re paying for punishment that General Franco considered inhuman.

The breakfast, bar, and location are good, and it’s very good value if you don’t mind basic bathrooms. Just avoid the small tents.

The staff were really, really friendly, but I thought €60 for the room was far too much. It was tiny, with bugs, a broken wardrobe, cobwebs everywhere, and badly painted walls with streaks. The spring bed was awful, it smelled bad, and there was barely enough room to sit down in the bathroom. Heating was switched off at 11 pm. There was no TV or cell phone signal, and the Wi-Fi worked only now and then. For €60, I’d expect more, especially since that’s what a 3-star city hotel costs. Dinner didn’t help: €14 for nachos that were basically a potato from the nacho with cheese sauce and guacamole, no ground beef or anything. Service was slow despite there being just 3 tables. I think they were completely booked and gave us the last room, the one they don’t usually rent, tucked in the corner by the entrance where you can hear everything. The window was at floor level, so you couldn’t open it without everyone seeing in. There were practically no views. Luckily, we were just passing through and only used it to sleep. Almost forgot, the bathroom ceiling was upside down because you could see the letters 😅