Hotel Venta de Etxalar

Second stay here. Spotlessly clean modern rooms. Food is served every day, very reasonable prices. Easy parking.

The doors are heavy and the floors wooden, so it can be noisy when people are moving around. The aircon could be better.

What a wonderful and peaceful place in the Basque countryside. Exceptionally well kept up. It was a place that gave one a relaxed sigh.

I really liked the large comfortable bed and reception staff were very friendly and helpful.I enjoyed having some outdoor space on the large balcony too and the suite i had was very spacious and clean. The shower was good and there was plenty of pressure and hot water. I really liked the authentic stone walls and wooden beams of the public areas. The decor was traditional and welcoming. They also have lots of tourist maps and leaflets on things to do locally which you can take . The food in the restaurant for dinner was generally very good and I had delicious steaks perfectly cooked, over two nights when I stayed. The hotel is easy to find and is just off à main road but my room was still very quiet at night.

The room had a very new corporate feel compared to the beautiful traditional hotel with stone walls and colourful furnishings in public areas. There was no fridge, no welcome bottle of water and the safe did not work. In the sitting room area especially, it was not very welcoming to sit and read as there was not even a table lamp to soften the atmosphere, only the bright ceiling lights that were either fully on or fully off. The restaurant for dinner was more like a cafeteria ( it was called that over the door) and I am not sure why the other dining area was not used at night as it looked much more traditional and comfortable. Staff in the cafeteria, serving food and drink etc. were kept busy and all of them were much less friendly than the other hotel staff such as cleaners and receptionists. Teaching them how to smile would be a good start and I don’t mean that unkindly . I really tried my best to be pleasant with them both in broken Spanish , French and English, when all else failed, but it didn’t really help.

Staff and parking. Old historical building.

Wedding at the hotel very noisy. We were allocated rooms right above the event could’ve been moved to the other side of the hotel? Also the fire alarm went off early morning no staff knew what to do.