Casa Olea is a six-room, centrally-located B&B if you are visiting Andalucia. We were originally…read moregoing to hotel hop while in Andalucia and so glad we found Casa Olea. Instead, we stay 5 nights and had a genuinely unique experience for several reasons. Number 1: The B&B proprietors and the location of the B&B were exactly what we wanted. Tim, Claire and their adorable dog Ruby provided the perfect balance of privacy and attentiveness. Many B&B's struggle at providing that balance but they have mastered it. Casa Olea is nestled among olive trees just outside the little town of Zamoranos. Its location is very serene and a wonderful setting for some rest and relaxation by their pool or just walking along the quiet dirt road. Ruby greats you as you drive up to Casa Olea....almost feels like you are coming home. Every morning before we would head out, Tim would have maps of the towns we were going to visit. He gave us parking tips, driving directions, restaurant recommendations...anything we asked and it all helped tremendously as we set out for the day. All of Tim's recommendations were spot on. Number 2: The food at Casa Olea was excellent. Breakfast is included in the room rate and was a nice start to the morning. It consisted of cereals, greek yogurt, pastries, fresh fruit, ham, cheeses, and this wonderful tomato/garlic relish. Juices, milk, tea, coffee are also available. The spread is plenty to start your day of touring. Casa Olea also has dinner available for an additional cost and it is well worth the money. Each morning you choose from two starters and two main courses. This was often a difficult task because everything that Claire cooks is absolutely delicious. Claire is generally in the kitchen making all of the delicious food but comes out to great the guests. Also, if you have dietary restrictions (vegetarian), Claire has wonderful meals to accommodate you. Tim makes sure everyone has what they need whether its hot tea after a tiring day touring the sights or a perfect red wine from the region to a soothing after dinner drink of Pedro Ximenez to finish the night off perfectly. Number 3: The guests at Casa Olea allowed us to meet very interesting people form around the world. During our visit we had folks fro Spain ,Ireland and Florida which provided a rich experience in discussing everything to world politics to food recipes. All guests typically stayed at Casa Olea for dinner therefore providing a wonderful opportunity to get to know each guest even better. Towards the end of our stay, we had dinner "Family Style"....one large table with everyone seated. Very enjoyable. I can go on and on about our stay and as you can see from my review as well as others that Casa Olea is a perfect place to stay. Tim and Claire really have done a great job in making every stay a pleasure and an experience you will not forget. I highly recommend staying here! One request of future guests.....bring back maps of the cities you visit to replenish Tim's map stash.

Casa Mentesa is a beautiful home for rent right outside of La Guardia Spain (near Jaen). It has 5…read morebedrooms and four bathrooms and can very comfortably sleep 10 people. It includes a swimming pool, full kitchen, and both inside and outside eating areas. The location is about 10 minutes outside of La Guardia and was a great home base for visiting both Jaen and also the beautiful Sierras de Cazorla region.

For clarity, I found this lodging on Orbitz.com, and have seen it called "hotel" and "alojamiento"…read more(accommodation), but the owner says it's not a hotel, so I guess it's like a B&B, but not like an AirBnB (because hotels and AirBnBs--and even most hostels--offer self-check-in). I'd have been happy to give a higher star rating if it hadn't been for the initial exchange with the proprietor at this "accommodation". We had a really full itinerary this trip and Semana Santa not only books up every hotel in every town across the country, but it doubles and triples typical room prices. We paid a high premium to stay here, probably the highest they make all year. That said, I could not find lodging to fit our needs for a triple room in Granada for the Saturday night before Easter, so we ended up super far away in Alcalá la Real. Fine; I saw it as another adventure and more to see. But the drive to get there (at the time of evening on the holiday weekend night we were traveling) was 1h40min from where we'd been sightseeing that day. During our dinner, trying to relax with friends, I kept getting texts from Mirador Tierra de Frontera asking when we would arrive. I had already told them it would be late, but coordinating two families with young kids is not always predictable, and Spanish restaurants don't open until 8-9pm, and routinely take 2+ hours to serve a meal. The soonest any traveler relying on restaurants could finish dinner is 10pm, and the inevitable travel time put us there very late, as I had explained. I received a text saying, "Ok. Please try not to be later than that. We are not a hotel and don't have reception 24 hours," which felt a bit scolding and like a term they should have listed somewhere (I looked over all of my info and the reason I had texted earlier in the day was because there was no check-in info). I ran the text past my friends who live in Spain, and they felt it was unreasonable for lodging standards in their experience living in Spain the past 2 years (with much experience prior). Vacationers are typically the lodging clients; vacationers do vacation things, like travel around sightseeing, and eat dinner out because they're on vacation. It's odd for a place of lodging to not accommodate basic travel scenarios. From there, the pace of restaurant service did not go fast enough to accommodate the "accommodation" owner's timeframe, so we ended up having to leave dinner early and get part of my husband's fixed-course dinner "a llevar" (to go), and cut the night short with the friends we had traveled so far to see! This is ridiculous to me, and no hotel guest should ever be inconvenienced in this way. We tolerated the rude treatment only because we well knew there were no other lodging options due to Semana Santa, and we didn't want the disgruntled owner locking us out for the night! Upon arrival, the owner was pleasant (as though nothing happened after I told him we cut our meal short to get there for him). The room was a triple with private bath (some of their rooms have stared baths). The room was tasteful and probably the cleanest hotel I've ever seen! It was surgical clean! Immaculate. The small dining table was nice to have, mini fridge was handy, bathroom was spacious with great water pressure, a nice tub, and endless hot water. Our view allowed us to see Fortaleza de la Mota, the focal point of the city. The carpentry woodwork through the house was newer but very skilled and just beautiful. There is much care in the Microcervecería, with a developed brand and entire microbrewery shop down in the common areas (large lounge and kitchen). They are welcoming and tastefully planned for guests to enjoy. There is also a large patio with outdoor seating. We returned our key via self-checkout. Why can't this be the process for check-in? All other lodging we visited this trip had procedures in place for self-check-in if they didn't offer 24h desk service, and all other lodging was nothing but accommodating and understanding about whenever we needed to arrive. Why the hassle? Why ruin our dinner out with friends we traveled over 6000km to visit?