Pensión Blanquita

The rooms cost €65 each, which is far too much for what you get. We won’t return. There’s no lift, the beds are small, and seven or eight double rooms share two bathrooms. Both nights, at 6:00 AM, there was banging and lots of noise at the doors. The bedroom had no small lamp, the radiator didn’t work, and the wardrobe had no shelves or drawers. There weren’t any hangers in the bedroom or bathroom, or even a couple of glasses. The bathroom sink had a soap bottle with only about two centimetres of soap left. Cleanliness was generally okay.

The price was the lowest we found, about €100 less than the other places we considered, and those also had shared bathrooms. For us it turned out to be very good, and much better than we expected from the reviews. The triple room was pleasant and very clean, with comfortable beds. We were worried about being cold, but the room, hallways, and bathrooms were all comfortable. The two large bathrooms were very clean at any time of day. I’m not sure whether two are enough, and I don’t think every room was occupied, but we had no trouble, even over the December bank holiday weekend. They cleaned our room daily. It’s a straight walk of about 15-20 minutes to the city centre. Driving was convenient, since the paid parking zone starts right at the beginning and there are lots of spaces. There were plenty of cars, but over our three days we found spots for two right outside and another about two minutes away after a small detour. It was a long weekend, so that was a big plus. There’s a bar across the street with good prices that opens early for breakfast. The one downside was just two electrical outlets in a three-bed room.

The noise from other guests was unbearable, and we couldn’t sleep at all. The linens were dirty, and the bathroom was filthy, with no soap or toiletries. It looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned all day. The outlets were in unusable places, and the facilities were very poor for the price. There are much better hostels in the city centre for that amount. The area also seemed unsafe. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The worst part of the Camino de Santiago, by far. Check-in was at the bar next door, but the person showing us the room looked annoyed and seemed to just dump us there without care. There was no soundproofing at all: I heard intimate sounds from the next room, plus footsteps in the hall and stairwell. You needed a key to get out through the front door, which made it feel like a prison. The place felt gloomy, and because there was a roof outside my assigned room’s window, I could clearly hear a cat walking and meowing. The shared bathroom was unpleasant, and there were so many bugs I couldn’t sleep properly.