Monastery of Valvanera, La Rioja, Spain

5Mikewgarden 5:00 PM Oct 6, 2016

Lovely place
The monastery itself is not hugely interesting but the surrounding countryside is lovely. We had a picnic lunch by the river in lovely surroundings. I hear it gets very crowded in summer especially at weekends, but today being a Friday and also into October, it was very quiet

1Shreivissa 5:00 PM Nov 9, 2018

Very disappointing and pathetic service
We had a wonderful week traveling around spain and our last stop was La Rioja. We had a beautiful guest house booked but canceled it on route after my boyfriend found this monastery on booking.com. We had been driving for 4.5 hours and were extremely tired but as it was our last stop we drove the extra 30 minutes to get something really special. The road was ridiculously long and windy (It honestly felt like it would never end!) but when we arrived it was worth the car sickness because it was quite spectacular! From the outside.. We were happy to hear there was a restaurant because we couldn’t face driving all the way back down that windy road for dinner. Our room was a complete shock. Appalling. Nothing more than 2 - 30 year old wooden single beds after we had asked for a double not a painting on the wall never mind a tv. The photos on the website are a complete lie!!! We went down to politely ask if we could have another room as we were expecting more from what we saw on the site and the receptionist couldn’t care less. She didn’t even look up at us once and told us if we wanted to leave we could! After we had cancelled our hotel and driven for over 4 hours !! Dinner was a set meal, which was pretty disgusting. Fish gills in a watery sauce and soggy artichokes. Stale bread and single glassware for corked wine and tap water. The surroundings and building from the outside is beautiful but this place need a lesson in service and hospitality. They should not be running this as a hotel business.