Hotel de Francia y París — Hotel in Cádiz

The hotel is a good choice if you wish to be located at the centre of the historic quarter of Cadiz. The hotel is housed in a converted convent (the church is still attached to the hotel) in a lovely square. I stopped in January for 3 nights, and it is an excellent winter location, because the square provides protection from the seasonal Atlantic winds. Nonetheless, the seafront is just a five to ten minutes’ walk.||||At the back of the hotel is the excellent Cadiz museum with a comprehensive collections of archaeological artefacts from Cadiz’ Phoenician and Roman past, and some great examples of Baroque religious art from Spanish (and Andalusian) masters such as Zubaran and Murillo. In a side street across from the hotel square, you will find the externally unassuming Oratorio De La Santa Cueva, an 18th century church with fantastic ceilings painted with religious scenes by the Spanish master, Goya. The Austrian composer, Haydn, composed a choral work in dedication of the church’s consecration. ||||My hotel room had all the facilities that one would expect at this price point, including a walk-in shower, air-conditioning and good heating for the winter evenings. The room had a window with shutters that overlooked the hotel’s central courtyard/atrium which is covered with a circular roof. This made the room perfectly quiet. Nonetheless, thankfully, the window is still subject to the elements with sunlight flooding down from the open skies above. The room is newly furnished and decorated in the ubiquitous and bland international style. While perfectly functional, it is a shame that the room didn’t reflect the unique history and culture of the hotel and its location. ||||I cannot really vouch for the hotel facilities, because I eat out; the adjacent streets are full of good, reasonably priced bars, café and restaurants. The hotel has a coffee shop over-looking the square. I would happily recommend the hotel for its reasonable rooms rates and location, particularly if you don’t want a bland beach front hotel that are located some distance from the historic...

We stayed here for 3 nights and chose it because terrace rooms were available. It turned out to be in a great location fronting San Francisco plaza and a short walk from everything in the old town. The reception staff weren’t very helpful, they went through the motions of giving us our keycard, air con remote and pointing out the lifts. The room on the 5th floor was effectively a suite with the bedroom in a separate area and a large central area with sofa, desk, fridge & kettle. The terrace was accessed by a single door with a shutter on the other side which took some juggling. We had to have the shutter down when we were not in the room because otherwise the door could be pushed open from the outside, even though it seemed to be locked. The terrace was huge with loungers & chairs but no cushions. There was also significant noise from the roof top machinery on the other side of our bamboo screen. We had a lovely view across the city with the cathedral on one side and the cruise ship harbour on the other. ||Breakfast was included in our booking and is where the hotel lets its guests down. There’s a huge lounge which we never saw in use. The foyer is also large and under-utilised and then there’s the cramped, inadequate breakfast room / store room for hotel guests adjoining a street front cafe serviced by the same staff for non-residents. There is room for around 10 guests in the store room and that’s with a lot of shuffling around of chairs and shoulder shrugging. The continental offering is just about ok due to nice fresh bread & decent Serrano ham. Coffee is ordered at the street front cafe which is staffed by one amazing lady making breakfast for non residents, filling / emptying the dishwasher, filling the orange juice machine and making all the coffee orders … there is quite a wait for coffee, a machine in the residents pen would destress guests and the overworked cafe lady. ||The hotel exceeded our expectations, the room & location were both excellent. Breakfast arrangements & reception staff...

This hotel is extremely well located in a small, lively plaza within the old city and easy walking distance from all attractions. It is also very good value for money as long as you are happy with a room that lacks charm and individuality but has all the basic amenities, like comfortable beds and an excellent shower, right. 'Frills' may be an electric kettle and small fridge which mean that hot drink making (in our case with tea bags we had brought from home and local milk kept in the fridge) possible. Rooms are a good size too, clean and freshly painted (no smell). We asked for a quiet room, realising that those overlooking the plaza were likely to be noisy, and were given 407 which was very quiet indeed, but rather hot as at the top of the building and with only a small window looking on to internal, but un-peopled, courtyard. Temperature outside in mid-March during the day was around 22F but it rarely fell below 15F at night. A/C not yet switched on centrally.|One disappointment was the breakfast which was lack-lustre and poor quality. It was included in our room deal so we stayed in but others may not wish to. The meal was taken in the cafe or back-room adjacent to the cafe, on the ground floor of the hotel. Cafe open to non-residents as well. |Cadiz is a wonderful place to visit. Staying at this hotel is a very good value way...