Hotel Millan

The receptionists were very nice, and this is a standard big hotel with a spacious room and a balcony. The floor seemed quite clean, though one chair was very dirty and the other was okay. The bathroom was awful: there was unflushed toilet paper, used shampoo and soap left by the previous guest, and it hadn’t been cleaned. The wifi didn’t work, and there was no socket by the bed. The buffet breakfast was awful for me, with no eggs or hot food, just processed cold cuts and cheese, plus lots of bread and cakes that I don’t eat. The Camino agency booked it for me since it’s my first Camino.

The rooms are big and the receptionist was nice. That’s all the good I can say about the hotel. We were there for one night on the Camino and arrived around 3pm. Because a party was happening in the restaurant, dinner wasn’t available until 8pm. We had a beer in the cafe first, but the server was rushing us because her shift was ending. We went into town for food, only to find that the entire town closes at 4:30pm. No restaurants or grocery stores were open until 8, so we got food from the gas station across the street. The front desk wouldn’t give us plates or cutlery when we brought it back. The room was stifling hot, so we opened the window. Flies came in, along with loud music and talking from the party. The party ended at 7, but the hotel was still extremely noisy. We could hear everything, including someone using the bathroom in the next room, and the doors slammed like a bomb going off. Breakfast was another problem. Thirty minutes after it started, the basket had only hard, stale bread, and the plates for sliced bread were empty. When we asked for more, they’d run out. After a long day of walking, do yourself a favour and book somewhere else.

Everything was clean, and the bar looked nice. The €15 menu del dia was alright, but for our party of five they gave us just one bottle of wine. The neighboring table had one person and he got a whole bottle to himself. When we asked for another, the waiter said it would cost €8. That’s insane when we could literally buy a bottle at the grocery store across the street for 1.5 €.

After walking over 600km on the Camino Portuguese, I was really glad to be welcomed so warmly by the lovely receptionist. My room was bright, clean, and lovely. But I got absolutely no sleep because locals were playing pop music on very loud speakers until 5am. I thought I’d just been unlucky, then met fellow walkers a few days later who’d stayed at this hotel on a different day and had the same problem. I was meant to stay again two weeks later, but cancelled because the thought of another sleepless night put me off returning.