![]() You may assume that a stay in a parador would be expensive, but for the most part, you would be (happily) wrong: the majority of paradors in the network are rated 3* and 4*. The Civil War and the Second World War certainly shifted the government's priorities, but the network continued to grow afterwards, including 40 paradors by the early 1960s.īy the end of the 2010s, which was the decade of the tourism and travel boom in Spain, there have been 83 paradors in total! As of today, the number is 94, and each Spanish autonomous region (except for the Balearic Islands) counts at least one parador on its territory. ![]() In the following five years, the network of paradors expanded to Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca), Oropesa (Toledo), Úbeda (Jaén), and Mérida (Badajos). The picturesque corner of the Sierra de Gredos mountain range hosted the inauguration of the first parador in 1928 the spot was personally chosen by King of Spain Alfonso XIII. ![]() The project was named Paradores, back then a humble nickname, as it signified a simple place to stay akin to a motel. The idea came from a Spanish civil servant charged with elevating rural tourism at the beginning of the 20th century a private sector entrepreneur, of course, wouldn't have access to many square feet of culturally and historically significant heritage buildings. It is pleasantly surprising, then, to discover an already a hundred-years-old concept of sparing travellers such an anguish by turning monasteries, castles and palaces in picturesque places into beautiful hotels set against the backdrop of local natural beauty, steps away from restaurants specializing in traditional local cuisine. When the need for security (or laziness) strikes and I find myself ordering a generic "European" dish at a hotel restaurant, I quietly despise myself, imagining a small guest house somewhere nearby where the owner is grilling freshly shot game over an open fire for her guests, infiltrating the nearby homes with aromatic smoke. We book hotels and rent apartments not to stay in them 24/7, but to get out and explore new places, local customs and cuisine, discover museums and beautiful city views. ![]() If it happens to be a luxurious 5-star hotel or a two-bedroom apartment rental, justifications like that are rarely needed, but the sentiment is still the same. "Who cares, I'm only going to sleep here," - this is my usual thought upon discovering the minuscule size of my hotel room. ![]()
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