Six days. Five overnight stays in five cities in Spain. Lunch in Paris. Stopover in Barcelona. Then Córdoba, Seville, Granada and Málaga. An Andalusia Whirlwind Tour where we visit the Mezquita and the Alhambra. We’re touring Andalusia in October 2023 to follow the trend of travelling to hot spots outside summer, as we did with Italy in 2022.

Our penultimate stop would be in Granada where we selected the Hotel Catalonia, another small Spanish hotel group. From the outside it looked like a “meh”diocre Mercure from the 1980’s, but once inside our impression changed completely as it looked like a very up to date boutique hotel.

Just like the Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver it was a hotel frequented by tour groups as a tour bus arrived at the same time as us at the hotel. Luckily we were first at the check-in desk. Unfortunately due to our early arrival the room wasn’t ready yet but we could drop off our bags for our visit of the Alhambra.

After visiting the Alhambra and touring a bit of Granada we returned back to the hotel to get our room keys. There we received the good news that we were upgraded to a junior suite. It was quite spacious with a big king size bed at one end of the room, while there was a desk at the opposite side and a small seating corner with the TV in the middle.

Tea and coffee facilities where provided as well as a fully stocked (payable) minibar. In line with the excellent service we received at Spanish hotels so far our bags where brought up to our room and we were presented with a fruit plate and a complimentary bottle of mineral water.

The bathroom waws also a spacious affair divided in three parts. Centrally we had the sink area with all the amenities (once again including items like a shoehorn and toothbrushes, offering the complete array seems to be a Spanish thing?).

to the left there was a walk-in wardrobe  and to the right we found the toilet and very spacious shower (with even a stool for the less mobile people, possibly due to the often geriatric tour groups frequenting the hotel) behind a separate door.

The hotel offered a complimentary rooftop pool and sun loungers which also had a bar service available. On the ground floor the hotel had the gym and spa.

The spa offered both a range of treatments and also a spa suite with an indoor pool with different kinds of jets, a sauna, steam room and experience showers. Of course there were also some loungers to relax as well as complimentary cold and hot tea.

The entrance to the spa suite was €15 per person for hotel guests with a time limit of 1 hour. You were given a swimming cap and slippers to enter the premises. Of course we tried it out but found it a bit underwhelming, we had better spa experiences in the past and it didn’t compare to the Palazzo Montemartini spa in Rome. If we would be staying multiple nights at the hotel we probably would book the spa only once. As there was a strict no phone and photography rule we do not have any photos of the facility.

In the morning we enjoyed a breakfast at hotel. It was provided in the hotel basement in a surprisingly spacious breakfast area. The buffet was large enough to offer all basic items you could need, but it still paled in comparison to the buffet at Eurostars Palace in Cordoba.

Timothy found the buffet even underwhelming while I still thought of it as good. They did however have almost no offer in sweet items. But they did offer a small vegan corner, in which they had some fun with naming the items.

All in all Hotel Catalonia in Granada exceeded our expectations (which seems to be a theme in our Spanish hotel visits) and we will certainly consider this small hotel group for future stays again.

2023 Andalusia Whirlwind Tour

1. PRELUDE | Visiting Gibraltar in 2013.
2. REVIEW | Eurostar Amsterdam – Antwerp – Brussels – Paris in 2023.
3. PARIS | Restaurant Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon.
4. REVIEW | SNCF TGV inOui from Paris-Gare-de-Lyon to Barcelona-Sants.
5. REVIEW | Hotel Barcelo Sants.
6. INTERMEZZO | Spain saw a surge of Belgians visiting in the first quarter of 2024.
7. SPAIN | Renfe Sala Club or Club Lounge at Adif stations.
8. REVIEW | Renfe AVE in Premium from Barcelona-Sants to Córdoba.
9. SPAIN | The Mezquita or Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba.
10. CÓRDOBA | The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos or Castle of the Christian Monarchs.
11. REVIEW | Hotel Eurostars Palace Córdoba.
12. ANDALUSIA | Half a day in Córdoba.
13. TRAINS IN SPAIN | Iryo in Infinita class from Córdoba to Seville.
14. ANDALUSIA | Real Alcázar of Seville.
15. ANDALUSIA | Seville Cathedral or Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla.
16. REVIEW | Hotel Posada del Lucero in Seville.
17. ANDALUSIA | Half a day in Seville ft. Plaza de España and Las Setas or Metropol Parasol.
18. TRAINS IN SPAIN | Renfe Avant regional ‘local’ train on high speed lines.
19. GRANADA | The Alhambra and the Generalife.