Posada Los Calderones

The rooom and the bathroom was really spacious and good, but a little damp. We arrived around four in the afternoon and the room was not yet ready and the staff was very stressed. It was not a friendly welcome. We did not know that we had to order breakfast before we arrived, it was not possible to buy breakfast if it was not prebooked. Very inconvenient and we did not hadde and information on beforehand. Otherwise the location was good. We had a room on the ground floor facing the street, but some of the other rooms must have some nice wievs.

The location is very good, close to the centre of Santillana, which is mainly pedestrianised, literally a short stroll away. Parking was fairly easy on an adjacent plot, although I’m not entirely sure that all the people using this car park were actually residents. It got very full. First impressions were really promising, from the outside it looks like a charming conversion of an old building. Once inside, the lounge and entrance backed up this impression of tasteful decor and the feeling of a lovely, cosy rural Posada. We weren’t expecting luxury at all but were expecting decent hospitality and a simple, comfortable hotel. It’s an annex to the Hospederia Santillana, where the 'no breakfast' and unreceptive reception is. Where do I start? Well, our first impressions were wrong. We opened the door to the first room (we’d booked two) and the reek of cigarette smoke was quite revolting. We opened the windows to air the room and although the beds were made it didn’t seem like housekeeping had bothered with anything else. The place was dusty, the bin wasn’t emptied and there were no towels. Later when we came back after our meal, it had taken about four hours of airing to get the cigarette smell out so we left it at that. However, my kids (whose twin room this was) complained next morning that their bed linen had smelled of cigarette smoke, so it was clear that apart from making the bed, precious little other housekeeping had been done. OK, none. In any case the smell of the drains from the bathroom had blotted out the cigarette smell. So bathroom door was shut and windows left open, we were out for most of that day anyway and surely it would have gone away? That clearly helped as there was only a faint whiff of it later – but the smell was back next day so clearly it wasn’t a temporary problem. The rooms themselves were a decent size and décor was ok. But it was all style and no substance. Firstly there was barely any furniture, only a wardrobe, no other drawers. If you were travelling light and only on an overnight or short stop then that’s fine but if you’ve got more than an overnight bag then you’ll have to live out of your suitcase. Particularly as the wardrobe in our room was so musty and damp we could risk putting any clothes in it anyway. No surfaces to speak of in the room and none in the bathroom apart from round the sink. So best to live out of your washbag then. Out of the four staff we came across, one was helpful and friendly and three were somewhere between unhelpful and dismissive, with one even refusing to acknowledge our smiles and ‘Hola’ in the morning. If you don’t speak Spanish, then you’re stuck. Miss Helpful tried to communicate using Google translate but the others weren’t interested, the more we said we didn’t understand, the faster they spoke Spanish at us, as if repeating things faster and louder would suddenly make things clearer. As we were only staying there for two nights and we couldn’t communicate any of our complaints or requests (or that was the easiest way for them to ignore us), we didn’t bother trying after the first couple of attempts. Breakfast was a bit bizarre. I was sure the annex was 'room only' and I was right as far as we were concerned although other people staying in the annex seemed to be having breakfast. I asked if we could eat breakfast there – or rather have breakfast there and pay for it, if so how much was the cost? I was given a map with somewhere else marked on it, so we went there and told there was no breakfast for us. Clearly not even an option to add breakfast as a paid for option. WiFi was provided by the adjoining Hospederia and instead of ‘’ WiFi is available in all areas and is free of charge’’ it is NOT available in ANY areas of the annex whatsoever. The only connection was standing by the Hospederia reception side window. These are basics of having a comfortable stay and getting fair value for what you pay. The crunch question is do you get a good nights sleep, even if there are load of gripes about the services, housekeeping and amenities? That can often make up for other things. But not in this case, we had two poor nights’ sleep here. The internal construction is so shoddy that you can not only hear everything from adjoining rooms but also see light coming through where the plasterboard (or was it just paper tissue) joins joists. It really was like something out of a Carry On film – a room below us with snoring and farting, next door where you could literally hear them turning over in their sleep (lumpy, old, uncomfortable beds with creaky headboards) and the other adjacent room where the occupants decided to watch TV and have family debates early in the morning. The area is fairly quiet as it’s pretty rural and surrounded by farmland. But not on the first night as three dogs barked off and on through the night and were still at it when debate family adjacent turned on their TV! Did I mention the lumpy, old beds? Added to the wafer-thin pillow designed to ensure your head is at an awkward angle - in case the noise doesn’t disturb your sleep they'll get you that way. All in all, a very poor hotel. My wife summed it up when she said that this was basically a glorified hostel styled to look a bit more boutiquey and if you were paying hostel prices you’d be happy with it. But we weren’t paying hostel prices, this was a family holiday, where we were not expecting luxury as I wrote earlier but were hoping for basics and comfort. It didn't spoil our trip. We were only here for two nights and our other experiences around the region and Santillana Del Mar more than made up for this hiccup.

We eventually found the hotel but it was worth the effort. It was quiet. We virtually took over the annexe. The bedrooms were excellent clean airy and all with good views. We walked down the cobblestones through a lovely quaint square of shops and eating houses through to the main road with more restaurants. It is really is a tourist hot spot but just a delight