Parador de Calahorra

Our seventh parador on this road trip. Everything about it says Parador Quality. Excellent food, wine, customer service and lovely staff.

A classic for us en route from Catalunya to Valladolid. Perfect place for lunch. Easy access from AP-68 and good free parking. Very classical while elegant with rich an tasty Riojanan cuisine in a calm setting and attentive service. Good value for money and beats any highway gas station restaurant with poor quality and expensive. Done this already several times and always a pleasure. Paradores are such a safe choice when looking for good classical region food in elegant historical buildings.

We stayed one night in a standard room. Its location is incredible, near almost all sights worth visiting on foot. The parador has a parking which is not very big, so if you arrive late evening or at night you might not have space to park your car. The standard room was ample and appropriately furnished. The floor in the room is wooden and you hear it creaking while walking on certain parts of the room. This can be a problem at night if you are staying on the second or first floor and the people in the room above yours start walking around at night. We had lunch and breakfast at the parador. We were a bit disappointed with our lunch. The grilled lamb chops we ordered were over grilled and parts of it were burnt. The rest of the food was very good. The breakfast was as in all paradors, ample choice and quality fresh food. The staff is excellent. The people working in the restaurant, bar and reception are very helpful and highly professional. On the whole it's worth staying at this parador and most probably we might return one day, but we will definitely not ask for grilled lamb chops.