Ulasan Parador de Cardona

The castle is just beautiful. My room was great - large and comfortable, with a beautiful, updated, and well-appointed and well-functioning bathroom. The decor in most of the public areas is as you would expect in a castle - oversized, yet comfortable chairs, chests, wrought iron candelabra and old paintings. Exactly what you want in a castle hotel. There is a rooftop stone veranda off the bar on one of the upper levels, which is beautiful and offers excellent views of the area. All that being said, here are the problems I have with this Parador in particular, and other Paradors (government-owned and -run hotels) in general: It is run like, and reminds me of, the old hotels I used to stay in the Soviet Union. The beautiful outdoor area was closed for no explicable reason, and the tables all pushed to one side. The bar area had no cozy adornments and looked like a shabby Soviet cafeteria. No rugs, no wall hangings, nothing to make it warm, inviting or charming. The television (in both Paradors) didn't work. The bartender in the bar was overworked, doing two jobs from what I saw, and wasn't always at the bar to serve us. Dinner was in a magnificent vaulted room, but the food was incredibly basic and just thrown on the plate. Breakfast is not available until 8:00 am, so if you have an early departure, you can forget about breakfast or even coffee. Yes, you can't even get coffee until 8:00. It was clear that the hotel is understaffed and the ones that were working were doing double, even triple duty. I can't complain about them, I felt bad for their huge work load. They looked exhausted. Lastly, this hotel is high on a hill, and getting to and from town requires a grueling hike down and up the hill. If you are elderly or not in good shape, you will not want to stay here. We are younger and in good shape, and it was tough getting back up. Cabs were hard to get, and the hotel offers no shuttle service down the hill to the town and back up. This hotel is beautiful and has so much potential. It could be a marvelous hotel with just a few changes and a little more effort. But like the USSR, attention to detail, servicing the guests and their needs beyond their room is non-existent.