Hotel Amenal

It wasn't a great stay. The room had no heating, and the only thing keeping it warm was a heavy blanket in the cupboard. I wish I'd chosen the Bella Amenal, where I was originally booked. It's owned by the same person, and may have had some heating.

The heat was unbearable: it was 98 degrees F outside and just as hot inside my room, which had no air conditioning. I opened the large ground-level window facing the parking lot to cool it down, but flies came in and landed on me all night. With the faulty lock and key, I was afraid to lock the door in case I got trapped inside. As a woman traveling alone, an unlocked door and wide-open window made me worry about my safety. Getting into the room was a repeated struggle. My digital pass key and regular metal key both failed. Staff didn't believe me at check-in, when I got my luggage, or after dinner. I asked to switch rooms and was refused. They eventually got the door open using their pass key or repeated force with my key, and each time the wait person had to leave the restaurant building and go to the separate hotel building. I asked whether they were temporarily short-staffed, but was told it's always like this. Check-in at the bar was a nightmare too. The line was long, every check-in seemed to start from scratch, and the woman didn't speak English and kept making mistakes. There were no signs showing breakfast or dinner hours or the Wi-Fi details, so she had to explain everything in Spanish to each English-speaking guest and couldn't answer questions. This was the worst night of my entire Camino del Norte, over 800 km. The hotel should be removed from booking agencies until it can show it's made improvements.

I only ate dinner here, so I can't comment on the rooms. The food was good but not great. The mussels and sauce were cold and tasted canned, and bread cost an extra euro. My chiacharrones were more like pulled pork, which wasn't what I expected, but they were amazing. It was busy with only one waitress, yet the service was amazing.

There was hot water, at least. After a long day's walk, though, the rooms felt unclean and old, without basic appliances, and dinner was mediocre. The dessert tasted like it had been sitting at the bottom of a freezer. It really feels like you get what you pay for, so I'd spend the extra euros and keep walking a few more kilometers. The worker was no help when our group came in and seemed frustrated for no apparent reason, as if they didn't know how to check guests in. Getting keys was a mess too. Other pilgrims couldn't open their doors, and my roommate and I were the only ones on the entire first floor who could open ours. Someone eventually came to open the other doors, but left even more annoyed with the guests.