Hostal De La Gavina

We were looking for a special place to rest and relax for our wedding anniversary. We were so happy that we chose Hostal de la Gavina. The location is stunning. Our room was very comfortable with a modern bathroom and AC. The decor throughout the hotel has an authentic elegant timeless feel. This is no cookie cutter hotel. We loved the restaurants and tried them all. The Candlestick was amazing. Creative and top notch food (and we love dining out around the world) This was a fantastic experience all around.

A beautiful hotel, beautifully furnished and overlooking a beautiful bay. The service is impeccable ( almost too impeccable - my breakfast things were twice cleared away before I had finished) and the staff friendly and efficient. The gardens are a treat. The bed was very comfortable and the breakfast first class. It would be difficult to improve the breakfast choices on offer, including a chef directly available to cook eggs as preferred. There are flaws however. In the evenings your choice of restaurant is either the very expensive gourmet restaurant, or the all day outdoor terrace restaurant which has a very limited menu for a full meal. Some of the prices are silly. Why does a smart hotel think it is ok to charge 14 euros for a small bag of crisps? Most importantly the hotel, unusually for a five star, is child and dog friendly. If you have children or a dog that’s fine, but if not you will have to tolerate barking hounds, in my case living in the next room and waking me up, and noisy, sometimes badly behaved, children - especially around the (lovely) pool area, and in one example playing beach ball in the breakfast room. And then there are the tour groups of loud Americans. If you are hoping for an atmosphere of quiet refinement you will be seriously disappointed. A busy five star hotel with a three star clientele!

We stayed for a week in two classic rooms with terrace and overall very much enjoyed the beautiful location and quite spectacular scenery around the hotel surroundings. This is a historic hotel so it comes with some caveats as especially the rooms are also somewhat historic in terms of upkeep. We had several issues with the rooms that needed fixing, eg the toilet and bidet, AC and the TV. Whilst it was all fixed after some back and forth these issues could have easily been avoided by properly checking the working conditions before you let people check in. Also no option to work in the room as no proper desk and lack of power outlets. Overall the rooms are in need of an update. Breakfast and service at breakfast were very good. For dinner less so, there is a lack of trained service personnel which lead to long wait times and incorrect orders in the regular restaurant (el Barco). For their premium restaurant, Candlelight, both food and service were good and in line with the expectations for the price point. I want to say special thanks to Mrs Montserrat who is the true gem of the hotel and made sure the shortcomings described were taken care of and ensure our stay was pleasant overall.