Hotel Spa Termes Carlemany — Hotel in Escaldes-Engordany

Although not quite central, it's not too far down the hill to the main shopping area and the restaurants - ten minutes at most. The hotel itself is well appointed and has hidden extras which make the very competitive pricing even more of a bargain. After a fairly long but exhilarating drive from Perpignan, we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon by the swimming pool. This is one hundred yards up the road from the Hotel but free to use by guests. The dramatic mountains provide a reminder that you are over three thousand foot above sea level, having sat round a few pools over the years, this is way up there in terms of the view. The hotel also has a natural hot spring spa in the basement which is free to use, a great way to start our day before a sumptuous continental breakfast in the dining room overlooking the cascading river. Is it only Spanish hotels that provide cava for breakfast? We were unable to resist and felt decadent enjoying our mimosas alongside scrambled egg, chorizo, ratatouille and various patisseries. There is parking attached to hotel, next door to the swimming pool. If you do bring a car however, a word of warning. We were told at reception that we could park the car in the "reserved area" outside hotel to offload our luggage. For perhaps first time in my life I will accept it probably was my fault that I mistook the reserved area for a bus stop. After checking in and leaving Karen an Ellie to go up to the room, I returned to find a serious looking hombre in a high viz vest checking out my car and about to tow it away. He spoke no English. I speak pigeon Spanish. I appealed to his better nature. He did not have one. I had to follow him to the police station where his colleague spoke a little more English. She smiled. We talked some more. My hopes were raised that common sense might prevail. All I managed was to fill the gap in her English vocabulary with the word for "fine" . She made me pay the forty eight euro fine but did tell me I got a 20% discount. Perhaps she felt sorry for me after all. |On reflection I was wondering what would happen if a Spanish guy parked illegally in England. I think we all know the answer. At least I got a captivating Catalan smile as I handed...

Room was small but nice and clean with it's own balcony, en suite bathroom, safe and fridge. Parking had been described as free but in fact costs €15/day. We were told to check in after a specific time (2pm I think) but our room wasnt ready for us so we had to wait (somehow I doubt the hotel would be understanding if we were late to check out). The pool doesnt appear to belong to the hotel as it was crowded with people who were not hotel guests, it is also 100m up the hill along the main road. The restaurant was very quiet, the food was fine. Breakfast was continental but excellent options including fresh honeycomb. Access to basement spa was cheap (€2) but must be booked in advance. Unfortunately when we showed up for our second spa booking at 6pm no one was there to let us in like they had been the day before, other guests were also waiting. We waited 10 minutes then decided to return to our rooms and come back at half past, still no one was there, so we went to the reception upstairs and the receptionist astoundingly blamed us for not coming to him sooner, he then told us it was too late for us to enter, we insisted that we had paid and we wanted to enter or have our money back, he rolled his eyes and stormed downstairs to begrudgingly let us in, muttering obscenities under his breath. He told us we could only have half an hour because the next hour was fully booked and he would come down to make sure we had left. In the end we stayed an hour anyway, we let in the next guests at 7pm since no one was there to let them in and the spa was not crowded. Other guests told us they had had unpleasant interactions with the same member of staff. The hotel still gets 2 stars as the rest of the staff were lovely and the room was good and the facilities fine once you managed to...

We spent one night in Andorra during a trip mainly to see Barcelona. I chose this hotel because it was a good price, has a spa area and offered parking. The half-board option was also convenient so we wouldn't have to spend extra time deciding on a restaurant for dinner. It worked out really well! Check-in was a breeze and we learned upon check-in that our reservation included time in the hot tub in the spa area. We were expecting to have to pay extra for that, so it was a welcome surprise. Our room was spacious enough for one night and included all the amenities we needed (shampoo, soap, etc). The room faced a rushing stream which was perfect white noise during our sleep. We normally use a white noise app on our phone, but it was not needed this time. The bed and pillows were perfectly comfortable. ||||The spa area was nice and we enjoying hanging out in the hot tub after walking around the town for a bit. ||||Our reservation included half board. Dinner was from a fixed menu, but there were some good options to choose from and our meal was tasty. The server was not super friendly, but efficient. ||||Breakfast had good options and variety and we were fueled up perfectly for our drive back to Barcelona for the rest of our trip.||||Parking is available for an extra fee in a lot down the street...