Relais du Silence Hotel & Spa Etxegana

Fantastic location, good clean decor and fantastic room and importantly for us, dog friendly! However, the towels In the bathroom were very small, no bath sheets and the shower had just a ‘hanging’ position, meaning you had to hold the shower head in one hand and circumnavigate everything else you needed to do. The restaurant /food was extremely poor with no option to include vegetables; so order for lamb racks with endives and roasted garlic materialised as a very old /sheep’s rack, with small amount of flavourless eat, and literally no veg. Crispy pork with apple and ginger sauce was a cut of pork I didn’t recognise, soggy/ fatty skin and again little meat (what there was tasted good) , again absolutely no display of vegetables. Based on the dining experience, we will not visit again, which is a big shame for a lovely venue/ facility

I just got back from spending three nights. Positive: Idyllic setting, tasteful decor perhaps a bit baroque, super good bed, down-to-earth friendliness from the owner and the one I understand is the manager, but more robotic from the employees, super magnificent breakfast with top-notch products (I miss the preparation of something upon request at the moment, as the price would justify it). Negative: The bathtub, despite the hydromassage, is impractical for showering (as 90% of people will do), with no grab bar for older people!!, the showerhead only has one position, which forces you to soap up with one hand and hold it with the other, with the danger of seeing where you hold on to with the slippery floor (yes, I am an older person!!). The price of the restaurant (more or less 100 euros per couple) does not seem consistent with the minimalist quantities of the dishes; but you have no choice but to dine there if you do not want to drive the six km of curves to the road and look for a "normal" and less gourmet place, since in that area, restaurants do not exactly abound, and even less so at night. How about a heated pool for winter/summer, covered/uncovered, with mountain views? It would be perfect.

My best friend's wedding! They do not let you throw rice, you cannot throw petals. A shame ruined the surprise of the Groom's gift, the lady in charge there is a real idiot, that the volume of the music is high enough to give the gift to the groom. But who are you to decide the volume of the music? Well, the DJ who does not let me turn it up higher. We went in with the gift and not even the bride and groom noticed how low it was, it was a real shame. Then the wedding ends and a man comes out yelling at us to shut up, that it is not the time to be yelling. If you put so many obstacles in the way for everything, do not organize weddings. The luck you had is that it was my best friend's wedding, otherwise you would still be cleaning. Do not get married there, they are party poopers.