Hotel Spa Balfagon

If you're traveling the A-7 this is an hours drive off route, at least, but the route alone is a driving experience worth it alone. Located at an UNESCO-like location on top of a hill of sorts, this place has a population of around 700 people (last I checked wikipedia), with this hotel appearing almost like a royal castle. My wife, girl of 9 and I chose the Family suite, which definitely is one of the nicest "room" we've stayed. Entrance area, 2 rooms with double beds, and a bathroom, all in quality customfitted dark wooden beam details. The bathroom alone is an experience. Lots of free parking spaces, generally good service, clean and top notch quality dinner and breakfast. The one thing that retracted that 5th star was the breakfast chef, who answered sarcastically and seemed annoyed with existing. Of course I'm not sure neither we nor the chef had consumed the sufficient amount of caffeine yet, but it's not something I experience often - either way it put a bad taste in my mouth and was a topic for a few days after leaving.

This restaurant is in the hotel spa. We had high hopes for the lunch but left disappointed. There were three choices of meals and we chose the Menu del dia. Although the service was good, the food wasn’t as expected. The fish was lukewarm, the brown sauce that was on it was salty and didn’t taste good at all. Thankfully, the pork dish was tasty. The desserts were nice and the red wine that came with the meal was okay. The lunch was expensive for the quality of the food.

Hotel Balfagon seems strangely oversized compared to Cantavieja itself (worth a visit by the way, especially the huge church). It’s an eclectic sort of place style-wise. The staff aren’t particularly ‘warm’ and it’s a business like affair (you have to pay €9 to use the pool for example - which was a highlight I must say). The A/C was a little underpowered but I had no complaints about the food, so that kind of sums it up really - a mixed bag but acceptable if you’re passing through.