Hotel

In the old castle.

Room

We had booked a suite without being able to get in tough with the pousada directly to find out about it or to tell them our preferences (reservations are central). Two days ahead of our visit, I received an email from the pousada to give us information about parking and activities during our stay. I replied to this email to ask them if it would be possible for us to get the suite in the tower, which they confirmed. When we checked in, I found out that there are actually three such tower suites and that we did not get the best one as I had though. Ours were in the 2nd tower and had two floors, one (top floor) where the wooden traditional double bed (hard and not very wide) was, downstairs pretty modern and simple furniture and just about space enough for a sofa, a TV and the extra bed for our son plus a small bathroom. Adding our luggage it was really full. Still special to stay in the tower, but not as good as I had hoped for. There was noisy air condition upstairs – which we definitely needed to put on as it was even warmer inside than outside. We paid 260 euros incl. breakfast.

Pool, Spa, Gym

None

Food

We had a very nice dinner in the evening with a great view (make sure you ask for one of their best tables, not all of them has the great view). Live cooking at the table for some dishes, very good service and wine recommendation and the best pousada-food that we had. Also breakfast was good.

Service

All pousadas have a competition going on where guests nominate the employees that they find should be the employee of the month. I believe that the winner each month receive a double salary. I do not know what the service was before they started this, but remember from a previous stay at (also government run) paradores in Spain, that there was basically nothing like service minded employees, but must say that we received a much better service at the pousadas than we had expected, maybe as a result of this little competition. At the reception they would give us information about sights to see, someone would carry our suitcases to the room (which included lots of steps up to the tower!), everyone would be asking if there was anything they could do for us, chat with us, recommend special things etc. Really very very good. Of course not like a 5 star hotel, there are not enough employees in the pousadas to deliver such a service, but very friendly, personal and willing to do the best for us kind of service which we highly appreciated.

Others

Obidos is a nice white village inside a well preserved city wall. Nice to walk around in the village and at the wall. Quite some tourists.