Hotel Riopar Spa

“good value for money”

Spent one night here. Good hotel in a fantastic area. The sunrise in the morning was stunning. Simple room, easy to park the car, good breakfast in the morning. Wouldn't spend two weeks here but you can walk into the main part of the town and have dinner with the locals. Most of all : peace an… more

Spent one night here. Good hotel in a fantastic area. The sunrise in the morning was stunning. Simple room, easy to park the car, good breakfast in the morning. Wouldn't spend two weeks here but you can walk into the main part of the town and have dinner with the locals. Most of all : peace and quiet and a good night's sleep.

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“A decent but simple hotel in this very laid back village”

We stayed at The Riopar Spa Hotel when touring Spain on motorbikes. This is a simple hotel but offered nice clean and spacious rooms with good shower and all room facilities. The town was as dead as a Dodo and after a rather uninspiring visit to a bar in The Square for a beer and look around, we de… more

We stayed at The Riopar Spa Hotel when touring Spain on motorbikes. This is a simple hotel but offered nice clean and spacious rooms with good shower and all room facilities. The town was as dead as a Dodo and after a rather uninspiring visit to a bar in The Square for a beer and look around, we decided to eat dinner in the hotel, This was a very basic meal of some fried chicken breast and chips but a couple of beers and a bottle of Rioja made things ok!!! Breakfast was pretty much standard Spanish fare and ok for us. All in all this is a decent hotel in a vey quiet area and it is just a little sad that this village does not realise how much it does have to offer in a stunning area.

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“Wake up Riopar”

The photograph of the hotel on booking.com gives the impression that Hotel Riopar is somehow located in beautiful, hilly woodland. The address, of course, gives it away, as it is actually located on the edge of the town. Having said that, we were given a double room on the second floor overlooking… more

The photograph of the hotel on booking.com gives the impression that Hotel Riopar is somehow located in beautiful, hilly woodland. The address, of course, gives it away, as it is actually located on the edge of the town. Having said that, we were given a double room on the second floor overlooking the hills, so I have nothing to complain about the view from the bedroom. However, if you are going to offer a room with a balcony, then for goodness sake provide a couple of chairs so that you do not have to lean on the railing to admire the view! The room itself was a good size, the double bed was comfortable, the bathroom was OK, but again no chairs in evidence anywhere. There were a couple of backless small stools tucked under a small table, but really quite useless. A small, but modern TV occupied one corner; having flicked through at least twenty channels without finding one that sported a picture you could actually see clearly, I gave up. I'm perfectly happy to stay in a hotel without a television, it certainly is not the be all and end all, but if you do go to the trouble of installing TVs in the room, then tune them in! We did not eat in the hotel for the first two nights as the massive TV in the restaurant was indeed tuned in but, for both these nights, it was blaring out a children's cartoon programme. And I really do mean blaring out! I will not review the two restaurants in Riopar that we did eventually eat at as there really is nothing to say about the culinary standards of either of them nor, I suspect, of any of the restaurants in this town. The "Italian" restaurant we went to on the first night majored in pizzas, which were just about the worst we have ever tasted. On the second night we ate on the Plaza Mayor. I ordered a steak and gave most of it to the stray cat that would not leave us alone. The staff didn't seem to be in the least bit concerned about its presence and the possible effect it may have had on the customers. On the third day we had a very forgettable lunch at a hostal just out of town so decided to call in at the hotel for a snack in the evening before putting our bags together in preparation for an early start the following day. The snack turned out to be a bowl of soup from the Menu Del Dia, which was without doubt the best tasting food we had during our three day visit. We managed to sit in the restaurant for our snack as the cartoon programme had been binned in favour of a football match - Spain versus Finland I think, but I could be wrong. The only word I can use for the quality of the breakfasts in the hotel is "boring". We settled for the standard Spanish breakfast, toast with chopped tomato on top, olive oil and salt. It is a fairly regular breakfast for us at home but I do expect something a little more innovative when on holiday. Sure there was some rather sad charcuterie that, on the first morning, looked as though it had been left uncovered on the table overnight - sort of curled up. The cheese on offer was very thin slices of that awful processed cheese that usually accompanies the jamon y queso cheese toasties that you can buy at any venta in Spain, or, indeed, in parts of Spanish speaking South America. Finding somebody on reception was difficult at times. The desk always seemed to be occupied when you didn't need help but, as if by magic, whenever you wanted something, such as directions, or checking out, there wasn't a soul to be seen. Frankly you must wonder why anybody visits Riopar. Let me tell you the good news. The Sierra de Segura and the Sierra de Alcaraz are areas of outstanding beauty. The birth of the River Mundo - el Nacimiento del Rio Mundo - is spectacular and only a few kilometers from the town. If only the town realised it was sitting on a tourist goldmine, got rid of old fogies like me off their council and brought in a young and dynamic team, it would bring life and tourist Euros to this rather sad town. We spoke to a couple of restaurateurs in restaurants that looked more than half decent. They both opened for lunch but said they could not afford to pay staff for evening openings as there were no customers; so we didn't eat in either. We asked how well they had done throughout the year and both said that trade had been terrible. The poor Spring weather and the terrible state of the Spanish economy were offered as the reasons, but it goes much deeper than that. We asked what the town did over the Christmas period but both said it was as dead as a door nail. It is so hard to believe that nothing was done during the good years to make sure this town took advantage of all the natural beauty surrounding it, and made it a top tourist attraction - decent hotels (the Hotel Riopar is the best in town), decent restaurants and first rate advertising. There are some lovely stone houses in the town, there is a tree lined road that could be beautiful, it just needs, dare I say it, a team with commercial nouse to get the job done. My advice to those who love these stunning tree covered mountains, the gorges, the ravines and all that nature has to offer is simply to just go. Maybe not Riopar itself, there are other places nearby, but frankly it doesn't really matter. Forget gastronomy, eat plainly and sleep in a clean bed in a clean room and just get out there. It is so beautiful and so grand; if you are young and hiking in the mountains, do it your way. If you want to get around by car then the Michelin regional maps, 576 and 578 are really all you need. If you are driving up from the South, then visit Ubeda on the way up. Leave Ubeda on the N322 then after about 40ks turn right on to the A6202 and take this stunning road to Tranco. From there just wend your way North to the Sierra de Alcaraz. You won't regret it.

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