Castillo Hotel

Hotel Castillo is a perfectly fine hotel conveniently tucked in next to the highway at Olaberria. It has plenty of parking and has easy on/off access to the highway once you find it. Castillo could use a sign or two as we missed it coming from both directions. the many bushes and trees that surround the property have grown to such an extent that they cover all the signs and parking lot entrances. Very pretty, but not efficient. Our room (118) was quite large, quiet, and comfortable. The bed was terrific, and I appreciate the choice of pillows. Bathroom was very nice. The hotel has a dining room and separate bar which attracts locals on their way home from work. Breakfast buffet in the bar area was simple but adequate. Not wanting to drive into the center of any more small towns, we opted for dinner at the hotel. It was perfectly fine -- nothing extraordinary, but good, plentiful, and inexpensive. Can't always want five-star, and sometimes simple is just what one needs.

Firstly, this hotel is about a mile outside the town of Beasain, so you are a bit trapped there without a car, and right next to a motorway, so more a motel than hotel, with lots of road noise. Building site (more demolition site) views from our windows. The rooms were okay on the first floor - refurbished and absolutely fine, but the second floor room two guys had was a nightmare of low ceilings and bumped heads. It looks like the hotel is being upgraded - reception and the 1st floor rooms are good, but the rest of the hotel is still in need of dragging out of the 1960s. Breakfast was included, but very poor - watery juice, appalling coffee (I limited myself to one cup it was so poor), and generally the bottom end of a continental breakfast. All in a transport cafe type environment. Evening meal was cheap (13E for the menu), but average with dreadful service from a waitress who seemed to want to be anywhere but there. No idea if she spoke any English, as she seemed mainly to grunt when we asked for anything (always in Spanish). She needs sacking. Our cycles were kept an unused dining room, which was not locked. Wifi was free, but poor pretty much everywhere - four separate networks that dropped out regularly..

Pros - walkable distance to 2 nice villages and several industrial businesses - clean, fairly spacious, modern rooms (ikea type styling) - I paid €51 b&b which I considered to be good value - helpful staff Cons - breakfast selection is very poor - wifi speed is slow -rooms sometimes noisy at night from nearby foundry There are other hotels in the area that are probably better but this one is ok