Tudela Bardenas, Tudela

I've visited Spain more times than a matador has greased himself up to squeeze into one of those silly costumes they wear, but usually it's a question of either staying at a beach resort, or renting a villa in the hills close to a beach resort. This year, we decided to fly to Barcelona, pick up a car, and tour Northern Spain.

One of the hotels we stayed at was the TUDELA BARDENAS, in the Ebro valley town of Tudela, Navarra. The town is about halfway between Barcelona and Bilbao.

• LOCATION •

The hotel is located directly opposite a park and the Plaza del Toros on Avenida Zaragosa, the town's main thoroughfare. If you're arriving from the direction of Zaragoza, it's very simple to find - just exit the motorway at Tudela South and follow the signs for town centre. Naturally, I didn't, and I had to negotiate my way round the narrow, traffic-choked streets before stumbling across the hotel.
It's actually a 3-4 minute walk to the Plaza Major but it's along the main shopping street and it's a pleasant enough stroll.

• CHECK-IN •

Parking around the hotel is a bit of a nightmare, but we simply followed the lead of the locals and double-parked while checking in.
The reception area is very pleasant and modern, and is decorated with marble tiles and mahogany panels which gives it the look, and feel, of a much more expensive establishment. There's a small bar, which also serves snacks, leading off from the reception area. Most of the reception staff were multi-lingual but the girl who dealt with us was as conversant in English as I am in Spanish - but as we had pre-booked, it wasn't really a problem and soon all the necessary paperwork was completed.
The hotel has its own underground car park (which costs 9 euros per day) and due to the difficulty in finding a space in the street I decided to throw caution to the wind and splash out. I shouldn't have bothered. The car park was in the next street and by the time we had checked in, there were parking spaces closer to the hotel than the underground parking.

• THE ROOM •

Our room was on the first floor and was about as far from the elevator, along a twisting corridor, as was possible. All along this corridor were windows which looked onto internal courtyards and gave the corridor a lovely feeling of space and light - not so the room. We were at the back of the hotel and, being surrounded by other tall buildings, there was very little light entering the window. This had the effect of making the room feel somewhat dingy but on the plus side, with no harsh sunlight streaming in, the room felt wonderfully cool.

The room was decorated in cream and blue with alternately coloured walls, blue and white striped duvets and curtains, and parquet flooring. We had two, very large single beds with a teak headboard/cabinets which housed the phone, alarm and the controls for piped-in music.
The room was fairly large by European standards (although no more than average in North American terms) and was equipped with the usual desk and chair, a cabinet housing the cable TV (around 20 channels - CNN, BBC World, Eurosport etc.), internet connection and a decent-sized wardrobe. As I said, the lack of direct sunlight kept the room reasonably cool but just in case that wasn't enough (and it wasn't), there was a very good A/C unit which blasted out a very welcome, ice-cold breeze.
One criticism we both had of the room was the lack of a homely touch. There was one small picture on the wall and that seemed somehow crammed into a corner above the TV. This left all the other walls bare and gave the room a soulless, sterile look. A couple of cheap pictures wouldn't break the bank and I'm sure would make a huge difference.

The bathroom was again, very well proportioned, with WC, bidet, a sink with a large, well-lit mirror above, and a bath-tub which had a good shower although the shower-door was less than watertight. The bathroom floor was heated, which I always think is a great idea, but it was really far too warm for this so we turned it off and appreciated the cool, tiled floor. Although the hotel was renovated in 2000, it doesn't look like they bothered to re-grout the tiles around the bath and there was evidence of mildew - not bad, but noticeable.
There were plenty of thick, soft towels and the obligatory sachets of shampoo/shower gel and bars of soap etc. All these were housed in a little basket that also contained: complimentary toothbrush and paste; a comb; sewing kit; a razor and gel; a shoe-shine sponge; shower cap and other...well, suffice to say, upon leaving, we could hardly close our suitcase! There was also a hair-dryer but as that was firmly secured to the wall, we decided to leave it where it was!
(Of course these freebies don't seem nearly so attractive if you're a bearded, bald and toothless, wear dirty shoes and never wash.....but enough about Mrs P, on with the review!)

• FACILITIES •

The hotel has 5 function rooms and is also home to one of the top restaurants in Navarre apparently. The area around Tudela is home to a thriving market garden industry and the restaurant specializes in vegetable-based dishes, with particular emphasis on asparagus.

There's also a small cafe/bar which serves snacks throughout the day.

One of the major attractions for me about this hotel was the adjoining Bar Sixty - a Scottish pub-themed nightclub. I know what you're thinking - why would an incredibly thirsty Scotsman travel to the middle of Spain just to visit a Scottish pub? The answer's simple - in fact it's so simple, I won't embarrass you by typing it.
Inevitably, the pub was as Caledonian as a bodega in Burgos, but what it did have going for it was it's stock of over 100 (yes that's right, 100) different types of bottles of beer from around the world...MICHTY ME!

There was no swimming pool which was a pity as the weather was scorching and a quick dip would have been much appreciated.

Prices for the room were very reasonable at 59 euros for a weekend night but this rises to around 90 euros through the week.

For more information: http://www.tudelabardenas.com

Thanks for reading ©proxam2003