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It’s time the world discovered there’s more to Spain than Barcelona and Madrid: Spain’s third city is heating up, with travelers from the UK in particular discovering Valencia in record numbers, and budget airlines scrambling to establish routes from all over Europe.
New hotels are appearing all the time, and one of the most noteworthy, to our eye, is the Hotel Palau del Mar, from the new nationwide Hospes group. Two 19th-century Palacete buildings have been stitched together and transformed into Valencia’s first five-star luxury boutique.
The style is utterly modern luxury, with stunning interiors in monochrome white fabrics and rich dark woods, with flat-screen televisions on the walls and sprawling bathrooms behind sliding doors. At just sixty-six rooms, oriented about central courtyards, the Palau del Mar is intimate, and quiet too, feeling less like a city hotel and more like a resort, complete with basement spa, offering a steam room and sauna in addition to an eye-popping plunge pool, set into a backdrop of dark stone.
Some stylish hotels feel a bit flimsy, but this is substantive luxury through and through, without any of the Regency furnishings or antique fabrics that usually serve as signifiers of the high life.
As for the city itself, you’re positioned at the edge of the historic city center, as near the old market as to the new designer shops. The new City of Arts and Sciences complex ensures that architecture freaks will come to see Valencia as Santiago Calatrava’s city, in much the same way that Barcelona is Gaudí’s town, or Bilbao in some small sense Gehry’s. And if you’re here to see some cutting-edge design, the Palau de la Mar may be the only hotel that measures up—there would be something inauthentic about walking over one of Calatrava’s bridges, only to check into a dismal chain hotel.
Pillows!! Big and ever so comfy
The solid feel of the place. Lots of designery hotels feel so flimsy in places and, while there were a 1 or 2 quality problems in the room, it felt like it had a bit of soul which is lacking many places at the moment
Restaurant has a fantastic breakfast
I Disliked
Bathroom was deconstructed, I guess you could say...
The toilet/bidet were in a little cupboard just near the door and the shower bath etc were round the corner next to the bed. Made the space feel a little smaller than it should have been.
A great location within walking distance of so many great places to eat and things to do/see. The price was perfect and the rooms were beautiful, not to mention the level of service was amazing. I'll definitely stay here the next time I'm in Valencia.
I Disliked
They should really be more vocal about the hotel restruant as it serves an incredible dinner for a reasonable price.
Our room was as described: bright, well appointed, quiet (except for the fireworks at fallas which no amount of double-glazing would shut out). The location was very central and handy. The staff were gracious, all spoke great english (particularly in comparison to the rest of the city) and seemed genuinely concerned that we had an enjoyable stay. Korres products in bath were a nice touch. The breakfasts were very good - huge selection of all sorts of things. 100 euros plus (which was what we paid, on a promotion) sounds like it is more than the general going rate for decent accomodation in the city - but in Paris or London you would be paying 3x that for the amenity.
I Disliked
The 'pool', whilst architectural and nice enough to look at, is about 2m wide by 8m long - it is not really for swimming and it is, admittedly, in the basement.
Bar snacks/ room service and spa treatments were all very very expensive.
We had a degustation dinner in the restaurant - about 3 of the 6 dishes were very good and 3 were very average. We still had a lovely time and enjoyed ourselves but the restaurant is possibly not the 'absolute must' that some suggest.
Also, the tv was pretty small - too small to watch from the bed, for example.
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