Hotel del Oso — Hotel in Camaleño

Goldilocks would have forsaken her porridge to eat this bear’s food and stay at this bear's hotel!

And you can see that by the reviews – no-one has given it even an average rating. Everyone loves it.

Beautifully sited in a gorge with towering peaks all around, by a little river and just 10 minutes by car from the cable car at Fuente De.

It’s not a Five Star Luxury hotel, so there’s no pillow menu nor minibar in the rooms, which are just a tad cramped – no room for any chairs, for example, just some upholstered stools that slip under the sort of dressing table.

But they have pulled out all the stops to make your stay as comfortable as possible, with good quality bedding, all embroidered with their emblem of a bear, good quality mattress, lovely quilts and curtains, and modernised bathrooms with hairdryer and more than one piece of soap.

There are also plenty of sockets for all your gadgets to be re-charged, but do see WARNING 3 below.

The hotel sort of started in the 60’s, when the parents of the four sisters who currently run it had a small grocers shop across the road, with a bar attached. They expanded into a restaurant, and then ten rooms. In 1980 they opened the purpose-built current hotel, with 33 rooms now all en-suite. The former guest-house, just across the (not busy) road, is now the Annexe with 17 rooms and its own guest lounge. Used only in the summer season and at busy bank-holiday weekends, the annexe is more peaceful than the main hotel, and less than a minute away.

But even on busy weekends, the place is pretty peaceful overall. The road through the village is a dead-end in 6 km, so there’s not an awful lot of traffic. Mostly what you hear is birds and cowbells, plus the gurgle of the little river right under your windows.

The very big PLUS of this hotel is the quality of the staff. Even when rushed off their feet – the restaurant was packed one Saturday evening – they are friendly, smiling, helpful, always wanting to get everything perfect for you.

The restaurant here at the hotel is good in every way. Service, food, value, atmosphere – you cannot fault it. As a result it can be booked up at high season and bank holiday weekends, so remember to reserve your table when you book your room at peak times.

The food is, basically, good home cooking just like your mother or grandmother cooked. Assuming, of course, that she was Spanish! My husband, whose mother and grandmother were indeed Spanish, adored it all.

So good home cooking here in the north means hearty – VERY hearty – vegetable stews for a start. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this means vegetarian by the way – the chickpea or bean stews are chock full of pork-based products. They give the recipe for some of them on their website, but I had to replace some ingredients with gammon steaks as Waitrose was plumb out of both pigs’ ears and pigs’ snouts :-)

Mine wasn’t as tasty as theirs, mind you.

After the first course (there are other things besides those hearty stews), there’s a choice of fish – grilled or fried – or meat, ditto And you round it off with a wonderful home-made dessert.

WARNING: the restaurant serves extremely generous portions of this good solid food.

Extremely generous.

Extremely!

Our second night, I didn’t order a meal at all – I told the waitress that I would eat off my husband’s plate, and she very happily brought me a plate and cutlery to do that. Even so, between the two of us, we couldn’t eat it all. The first night was embarrassing, there was so much left over.

Do NOT order any food ever for children – I reckon that four children and two adults could eat two meals ordered for just the adults.

The star menu item, the Cocido lebaniego (chick pea stew with blood sausage, chorizo, and pig's ear and snout) is only available at lunch time. One serving will serve at least 3 adults. We got four large platefuls out of it - we were greedy, there were just two of us. But it is so delicious.

Don't plan on lunch here and a nice long hike afterwards. You'll be lucky to manage to stagger to your...

A superb hotel with excellent service and fantastic cuisine. Very authentic style and relaxed and easy feel to everything. The rooms are very well presented, clean and comfortable. The staff are very friendly and helpful and smiled at my terrible Spanish! Excellent and extensive breakfast. The set menu is absolutely fantastic but I recommend trying their full menu. The wine list is full of superb selections and the staff made perfect recommendations. The location is perfect to investigate this mountainous region and trips to Fuente De, Mogrojevo and Bulnes are within reach. The hotel has huge amounts of charm, lovely swimming pool and three gorgeous dogs lounging in the excellent grounds. Beautiful gardens where you can see gorgeous butterflies, damsel flies, lizards and even martens! I have stayed here three times and my heart...

A superb hotel with excellent service and fantastic cuisine. Very authentic style and relaxed and easy feel to everything. The rooms are very well presented, clean and comfortable. The staff are very friendly and helpful and smiled at my terrible Spanish! Excellent and extensive breakfast. The set menu is absolutely fantastic but I recommend trying their full menu. The wine list is full of superb selections and the staff made perfect recommendations. The location is perfect to investigate this mountainous region and trips to Fuente De, Mogrojevo and Bulnes are within reach. The hotel has huge amounts of charm, lovely swimming pool and three gorgeous dogs lounging in the excellent grounds. Beautiful gardens where you can see gorgeous butterflies, damsel flies, lizards and even martens! I have stayed here three times and my heart...