20 May Hotel Arunda – Decent hotel in Ronda
Ronda. I think the Roman Bridge from this little town is one of the most famous sights in the world.
I spent three nights in Ronda and even though I could have stayed there less I am happy with my selections.
Hotel Arunda 2, because yes there is a Hotel Arunda also in Ronda, is easily reached from the train station.
Situated at Calle de José María Castelló Madrid, 10 the hotel can be reached in a simple way. Upon exiting the train station you turn right and walk for about 300 meters and at the roundabout you turn left for 100 meters. And that’s it.
This is not your typical standalone building so you’ll need to pay attention to a sign and keep your eyes open since it has a small yard/parking entrance in front and from the outside you can’t really tell there is a hotel there unless you look carefully.
The staff is very OK even though I had a rather limited interaction with them. From all the hotels I was accommodated in, I think that the staff here spoke the least English but since I understand Spanish and they were eager to help and patient we managed to get along just fine.
The room was bigger than the rooms I got at Nochela Sevilla and Hotel Gonzales and the bed was large. My first large bed in Andalucia, a real pleasure to stretch and sleep in after resting on smaller beds.
The room was clean and room service was present. The first moment I entered the room a strong detergent smell hit me but I opened the door and got rid of it by evening.
The bathroom was big and decent looking. It was in no way as clean or new as the bathroom from Hotel Gonzales but it was decent and towels were supplied each day.
Blankets were in handy since this place too, including the bath was not heated.
Since Ronda is not large, its attractions are close to the hotel so you can easily reach Puente Nuevo in about 800 meters, Plaza de Toros in 500 meters or La Casa del Rey Moro in 1 kilometer.
All things considered I think a 3 out of 5 stars is OK for this place. It is a simple 2 star hotel that you can use in your travels.
Ronda is not a large town. Most people will not spend much time here but I think that if you rent a car Ronda can be the perfect place to start trips to Setenil de las Bodegas, Gaucin, Marbella and why not, Gibraltar.
Here, to my shame, I wasted a whole day due to the fact that I didn’t read a few things about some places nearby so that’s how I ended up spending 2:30 hours near a train station in Gaucin.
It was Sunday, Easter Sunday and I should have thought that transport will be a problem but I said I wanted to see Gaucin and hoped on a train in the morning.
But to my surprise the Gaucin train station is situated 15 kilometers away from the town of Gaucin so when I got there I looked right, I looked left and saw no bus. And no taxi.
And that is because buses run regularly during the week (no more than 3-4 rides per day) but they do not operate during the weekend.
I got some help from a local who was working at the train station and got 2 taxi numbers but it was Easter Sunday so one number was closed and one driver did not speak English.
Due to the fact that the taxi would have arrived with the meter on I was looking at 50-60 eur just to reach Gaucin but without knowing if I could use a taxi riding back since it was a day of celebrating and not of work.
So I did a fast calculation and decided to save about 100 eur and visit Gaucin in the future along with Marbella and Gibraltar and stopped at a terrace outside where I spent the next two hours surrounded by locals who were enjoying their breakfast during this Holy Day.
I ordered a traditional breakfast (to my surprise I ordered exactly what the locals were eating) and spent the next hours relaxing in the sun, sipping from coffee with milk and eating pastry.
Homemade pastry was brought at a big table where over 10-12 people sat and for as long as they stayed there they managed to laugh, talk, play with the kids the entire time, making it a really lovely experience.
So, after years and years of travel, I made a mistake. I did not check everything. It happens. While I am a bit sorry I couldn’t see Gaucin I spent a great morning just relaxing, enjoying the sun, watching people go on about their lives and so on.
So I guess all for the better!
Join me on my next post where I will talk about eating tapas in Cadiz, Jerez and Cordoba!
PS: You might have noticed that I did not write anything about breakfast until now even though this is my 3rd hotel review from Andalucia.
The reason is simple: I really don’t know if breakfast was available at any of these places. Since I almost never eat until noon or later I pay less attention to this matter.
However, I am pretty certain that no breakfast was served here or at Nochela Sevilla.
Next on the blog a post about eating tapas in Ronda.