라 보바디야, 어 로열 하이드웨이 호텔(La Bobadilla, a Royal Hideaway Hotel)

Beautiful location. Uniformly delightful staff who really do care and were exceptionally  helpful throughout.  A lovely, expansive pool area.  Caters very well for families which is rare in high end hotels, and is much appreciated (decent kids menu, various activities like tennis and biking all with kids equipment, staff great with kids etc) V good breakfasts.  Didn’t feel like the hotel was constantly trying to fleece you (eg not outrageous wine prices.)  It wasn’t perfect though. We were told the smart main restaurant was fully booked for our entire two day stay on arrival (we were not warned of this or invited to book in advance). There is no sandwich menu at the pool so you have to use the formal restaurant for lunch which added €120+ to the bill each day. As others have said the rooms need updating (not just the cheaper ones - we had a junior suite that was spacious but full of dark furniture and aged sofas).  I also slightly wished I’d saved some money and stayed somewhere more “real Spain”  than a posh hideaway with lots of wealthy Brits, but of course that's not the hotel’s fault!  Overall it was a nice experience even if perhaps not quite as exceptional as we had hoped.

The lobby is beautiful and the staff are great. But the cheaper rooms (a.k.a. non-suites) are small, dark and full of dark wooden furniture. There are some very lovely rooms here, if I see the website, but hey not all of us are willing to pay up for the most expensive suites. My other beef here is that for a luxury hotel, their non-Michelin star restaurant is very commonplace with very average food.

This property is literally an experience and not a hotel. First, the property makes it look like a small mountain village. However, the hotel is organized in one contiguous structure that architecturally looks like separate buildings, softening the scale of the property. Everything was exceptional with our experience, and the property is in impeccable condition. The one bedroom suite was spacious and perfectly quiet day and night. The fitness facility, spa, and all of the restaurants have exceptional service, and quality. Although we were there only for two nights, and did not have time to take advantage of a lot of the recreation possibilities, I was able to enjoy the pools each day where the lounge chairs are generally generously spaced with good shade. It’s an appropriate environment for either couples or families as there’s adequate spacing at the three pools for all types of families. You must have dinner on site at Finca, which is their Michelin star restaurant as its a remarkable experience to have the appetizer courses in the chapel, and then the actual dinner in the dining room. The presentations are intriguing, entertaining, and unique. We left wanting to stay another night or two, and we just hope to be back in the region to visit again!

La Bobadilla is simply awesome. The location while remote, is spectacular, surrounded by mountains and olive groves as far as the eye can see. The property is immense, it has a network of hiking and biking trails within its grounds. The yellow trail was our favourite with beautiful views of the Sierras, a very nice and active way to spend a few hours. The property itself is stunning and very traditional, it was once a private estate. it resembles a small andalusian town. The meals we enjoyed at this resort were among the best we had in Spain, service was impeccable. While not cheap, it was good value for the money given the quality. The suite we had was beautiful, very high end, with a terrace with expansive views of the country side. This place is truly an oasis, the driveway from the road to the hotel is 3 kms long... This is a destination in itself we will never forget, and would go back in a heartbeat!

Just came back from a wonderful 5 night stay. We traveled as a family with 2 young children after a couple of nights in Granada. It is luxury from the moment you arrive! The staff are welcoming and really helpful. We stayed in one of the 2 bed suites which was incredible, lots of space, so comfortable and a huge circular bath which led out onto the terrace. The pools were great, really clean and quiet and good for young children. It was reasonably cold but that was the time of year! We had access to a private hot tub and balinese bed with our suite which was a really nice touch. Pool bar was good and had nice selection of cocktails(!) and children’s drinks. The grounds were immaculate at all times and we enjoyed strolling around them. We tried a few activities such as tennis and bike riding, this was easy to organise. You can use the spa with indoor pool for children twice a day which we did a couple of times. There is a small play area and a little lake with turtles which the children were fascinated by. Food - the breakfast was wonderful, we ate in El Cortijo a couple of times, the food is nice and we also made use of the room service which meant was handy with the children at times. You will need a car if you want to explore more of the area as it’s very remote and it isn’t cheap but it’s very much worth it. We’d love to come back.

Great hotel in a lovely location - feels a million miles from the Costa Del Sol - but is only a 45 min drive up into the hills. Very quiet and surrounded by olive trees with an excellent pool. Didn’t get to try the Michelin starred restaurant but will return!

We’re coming to the end of a lovely stay at La Bobadilla, a really delightful hotel. (We tagged a couple of nights here onto the end of our Granada and Seville holiday, to relax in the countryside). The reception staff, breakfast servers, porters and housekeeping team are friendly and super helpful. Especially as we can’t speak Spanish! The team at La Finca were incredibly professional and warm. The hotel buildings are old Spanish style and really picturesque - we had no idea how new it was. The chapel and reception areas are stunning. Our room furniture/bathroom fixtures were quite dated but we didn’t care as we don’t spend any time in the room. The picture I saw online had much newer decor, so I imagine they’re in the midst of upgrades. Food: we really enjoyed the tasting menu at La Finca. It felt like theatre as much as dinner and made for an excellent evening. Breakfast was varied, delicious and served in a lovely space which, though it was huge, felt very relaxed. The grounds and views are beautiful and the hikes around the hills were great. (Note: the trail signs are not super clear. We went the wrong way a few times but honestly it was good to work off the breakfast). It was fun to meet some donkeys at the end of the trails. We didn’t use the pool as the weather was a little too cool in late October, but it looked stunning. Visitors may want to note - the tip system was confusing to us initially as we’re used to seeing an extra line for adding a tip at the end of food and drinks bills given to us to sign. On the first day we’d spent about 60 euros on some snacks and noticed a 6 euro item for ‘servicio de pan y aperitivo’ on the bill. There was no line or space left where you’d naturally add a tip so we assumed this item was the service charge, and signed off on it. Then that evening we had dinner at la finca and couldn’t find a line to add the tip, and no item that looked like a service charge. Went in confusion to reception to ask how to tip, and they told us we either need to write it down somewhere on the bill, or tip in cash using their envelopes. We duly tipped the la finca staff. I have a couple of minor (constructive I hope) criticisms, very easy to fix. On day 2 in the main restaurant we had lunch and some bread and olive oil was brought along to the table. We assumed this was free and left most of it as the bread was dry and poor quality. We were puzzled to see the 6 euro charge again on the bill, then finally worked it out: it was for the bread and oil. (Looked on the menu and this is oddly described as ‘bread and amuse bouche.’) But we hadn’t even received any bread on day 1. So that wasn’t great. Anyway, all this scrutiny of the bill led me to notice that they’d charged us 36 euros for a shrimp paella dish, when we’d actually had the 25 euro pork paella. We had to go back and query it. The staff fixed it and were friendly enough, but we had to stand around for quite a while waiting for them to return, and no apolo

This has been an outstanding experience. La Bobadilla has a breath-taking landscape, delicious food and the warmest staff. Thank you Cristina, Frederic and every single member of the staff for making me feel so at home.

What a big surprise, we expected it to be lovely, it turned out wonderful. The architecture, fixtures and elegance stand out. This is a relaxing place to stay. Everything from breakfast to the wonderful pool area are top notch.