Valdepalacios (Relais & Châteaux)

Relais & Châteaux is one of my favourite hotel brands, being the marketing organisations I trust the most in finding authentic hotel experiences with great food. Valdepalacios is a 5-star hotel with a membership of Relais & Châteuax, located near Oropesa, around 170 kilometres southwest of Madrid. I recently stayed here for a night and really enjoyed the experience.

I received a warm welcome upon my arrival, and one of the staff gave me a site inspection of the huge property and its surroundings. I stayed in a beautiful room with a comfortable bed, jacuzzi tub, separate sitting area, double sink, TV and complimentary Wi-Fi access.

Regarding facilities, I enjoyed their spa facilities, where I spent some time in their sauna. There is also a nice indoor swimming pool which is especially good for this cold time of the year, but they also have an outdoor pool for the warmer periods of the year. Overall I really enjoyed this property. It’s a proper 5-star experience and offers more than many Relais & Châteaux hotels, of which many are more ‘a restaurant with rooms’ than an actual hotel. Would very much like to revisit this beautiful property and can of course highly recommend it.

Update after the stay: I went back to the property some weeks later to try their Michelin-starred restaurant that was closed on the evening I was staying there. During my stay, I tried their other restaurant which was good, but not a gastronomic experience. Instead, their Michelin-starred restaurant, Tierra, was a great experience upon my return to the beautiful property. It had great food and a high level of attention to detail. The attentive service was appreciated and I also enjoyed the fact that they use partly local ingredients, some even from the property itself. The first eight photos below are from Tierra, the Michelin-starred restaurant.