Hotel Himàlaia Soldeu Nexta — Hotel in Canillo

It's a while since I wrote a hotel review, I feel obliged to share my opinion of this most wonderful establishment, so deserving of the highest praise. We recently enjoyed a stay with family and friends at the Himalaia hotel, occupying 2 rooms and a third apartment-style room for a family. We could not imagine a better holiday. As well as the group staying in the hotel, we had three young friends staying in the town for a few days and the hotel very kindly allowed them to book meals and join us on some evenings which meant we had a great chance to see everyone. The food was the best we have ever experienced on a skiing holiday and some of us have gone on such holidays since the 1980s. The kitchen and dining room staff were exceptional. The day started with 3 first rate freshly cooked dishes and ended with freshly cooked dinner options - all cooked with a smile! The options changed regularly and there were an array of buffet options also. Our ages ranged from a one-year-old infant to the retired section of our party and everyone was equally delighted with the great range of foods. The salads were notably superb, the soups always excellent (tasting home made). The desserts were so good it was a great challenge to limit them to two or three! The coffee was an excellent start to the day, with hot milk (on tap!!!). The hotel also had a range of teapots which is not standard so several of us were able to start the day with Proper Tea! - a great luxury. The rooms had coffee makers which was another treat and the hotel was a lovely warm temperature on a week where we had lots of snow and even rain. The rooms were equipped to be able to get sodden coats dry again by morning, with the great luxury of a hot bath. The ski lockers were capacious and required only a 1 euro coin, refundable, to use. The staff could not have been more helpful when we had some little requests, and a few complicated requests indeed; they were dealt with instantly. A special mention must be made of the great welcome extended to the infant in the party, for whom a special novelty cup, dish and placemat was set at speed on her arrival, whose high chair was whisked in and out in all haste and who made friends with the warm and charming members of staff who soon knew her by name - she has had to get used to not being a celebrity now on her return home. The atmosphere in the common areas of the hotel was warm and convivial and conducive to quiet conversation as well as the many board and card games going on among the guests. We are very grateful to all at the hotel for our most memorable stay. The hotel has an excellent location near the lifts, supermarkets, other lunch establishments and pharmacy as well as bus connections. The skiing was excellent too - we had beginners and advanced skiers in our party - with lots of handy coffee stops around...

Rather nice hotel.

Super nice super cozy lobby - we spent a lot of time there listening to chimney and looking at snowfall. Ideal place for sitting in a company of friends, playing cardboard games, drinking wine and chatting.

The spa is working well, however I wouldn't say I liked it a lot: the temperature in sauna, hammam and jacuzzi are not high enough, and there is only one of five streams working in jacuzzi. But anyway it is nice to have such opportunity right in your hotel, especially considering super low price of 6 euro.

We got room at 4th floor at the road side. It was very spacious, warm and comfy. It got super nice view from the window (ask for 4th or 5th floor at the road side if you want nice view). It was unfortunate that the room was too dark, absolutely missing proper illumination.

The bathroom got bathtub, which was huge advantage as I really like bathing 🙂 The hairdryer was overheating and stopping couple times, but that wasn't a big issue.

The room was cleaned everyday, seemed clean enough for us. However the staff kept forgetting to add shower gel/shampoo, so we asked for it separately at the reception, not a big issue.

The room got some small kitchen with sink and dishes, which is rather convenient. However, the room was missing kettle and tea/coffee, which is a huge DISAPPOINTMENT - first time seeing such issue in a european hotel. This issue feels even more severe when you find out, that the hotel does not serve ANY free drinks at the dinner (even water is not free) and you cannot dine with your own drinks. I know that this is pretty common schema, but in combination with missing kettle in the room it obviously feels like the hotel tries to suck as much money of their clients as possible.

The food was rather diverse, but mostly not very tasty. Actually, in my experience that is the first hotel, where I need to say that I didn't like most of the food. However, because of the diversity you will still always be able to find something good to eat, so don't worry about the food. What I really liked of food - fruits, especially melon. I wonder where did they get such sweety juicy melon in winter.

Special compliments to the young girl at the bar - keep being...

We have just returned from a fantastic week skiing in Soldeu.

We arrived at around 2am. Check in at the Himalaia was fast and friendly. We were staying in the 3rd floor looking at fat alberts bar. There was food left in our room on arrival, wraps, crisps, drinks etc which was a nice touch after a long journey. There was a mini bar and coffee machine in the room which I used for beer, cans of pop, water, coffee all week. The bill at the end was £17 which I found very reasonable.

We stayed half board and couldn't fault the food or service. There was plenty of choice at the buffet and always something fresh being cooked on the hot plate. During our stay we had fresh omelettes, bacon, wraps, fried eggs, sushi, shrimps, stew, chicken, ribs, beef, salad, deserts. I've forgotten many but there really was lots of choice. There staff were all friendly and helpful. Our room was cleaned daily to a good standard. The only exception was that the smaller pillows smelled of cigarette smoke either from not being changed or someone smoking where they were kept. We simply removed them from the bed and feel it was a small issue given all the good things about the Himalaia.

There are ski lockers in the basement which are not heated. You need your own small padlock or reception will loan you one for a 10 euro deposit. There is a relatively steep ramp out of the basement and around a 150m walk uphill to get to the gondola station. You can alternatively store your equipment at the gondola station but it was around £20 per night.

Where we were located at the rear of the property was pretty noisy until around 4am due to the always being a band on at fat Albert's. It didn't bother us too much as we enjoyed the music.

I would definitely...