Parador de Úbeda

Historic hotel in a restored palace from the 16th century. Having opened in 1930, it was among the very first Paradores. Anyone, not just hotel guests, can enter the restaurant and cafeteria. There's a pleasant patio for coffee, drinks, etc. The kitchen closes between 4PM and 8PM. During this time, they only serve drinks and cake.

Great rooms, but smokey at times, superb location, and less than ideal service. We had an absolutely awesome room, with a mostly private courtyard just outside the room. The aircon cooled the room but if you tried to set the temperature too low, the system would turn off. We noticed strong cigarette smells in the evening and morning. We suspect other patrons in adjacent rooms were smoking in their rooms. Service was average at Best. We waited over 20 minutes one afternoon before anyone showed up to take orders for drinks. Please get more staff if you don't have enough or manage the ones you do have. At breakfast it took some time for staff to recognize us as customers and seat us. Service overall was a miss. We loved the location. It was a few minute walk to and from the recommended car park.

Beautiful as this place may be, make sure you are aware of its cancellation/modification policy, as they show no interest whatsoever for the reason you might have to cancel and charge you the full amount anyway. The word greed springs to mind. Highly disappointing, more so knowing I was very interested in changing my date.