OYO Hostal Rio Ara-NEW

The rooms feel worn and there’s no air conditioning, so a refresh of the decor could take this from a good 4/5 to a 5/5. Still, the service is excellent, and there’s a little shop across the road. The setting is the big draw: the place sits above a white-water river, with a terrace beneath the mountains. Location, location, location.

Try for a room at the back, where you can open the window without traffic noise. The terrace and good food are nice, and the staff are very friendly. It’s close to the mountains and river, where you can cool off in the fresh, shallow water, at least in early August.

We carried our trays out to the terrace after getting lunch around 2 pm. It was a self-service buffet with quite a few choices, and the food tasted home-cooked and was perfectly acceptable. A plate plus a drink, beer or soft drink, cost 10 euros; coffee was another 1.5 euros. Good value overall.

Two tiny tostás with tomato from little plastic pots, plus two coffees, cost 8€, and part of our order was forgotten, perhaps just as well. The staff seemed remarkably uninterested: one stared blankly while I ordered, and the other worked the till with her head in her hand. This was easily the worst stop we made in the region. You’d be hard pushed to find a worse, pricier breakfast anywhere in Spain.