Spanish state-owned chain of luxury hotels called Paradores, is running a sale: 65 or 75 EUR per night until 25th of July. Normally these rooms are 110-140 EUR per night. The hotels are located at former castles, monasteries and palaces.

What is a parador?

Word parador is derived from Spanish ‘parar’ which means to stop, halt or stay. I think the best analogy in English would be an inn. The chain was founded in 1928 by the then king of Spain Alfonso XIII, to promote Spanish tourism. It worked well and paradores are still very highly regarded, posh properties. Currently there are over 90 paradors across mainland Spain and Canary Islands. There is also one in Portugal and a few in North Africa – at Spanish cities. Each parador has a gourmet restaurant, some has spas, swimming pools. Not all paradors are old – there are newly built paradors too.

I recently stayed at Parador de Vic-Sau, with fantastic view over a lake. I will share this story in details in the other post. Here is what the view from my room’s window was like.

Booking conditions

You can book until midnight 25th of July for stays between 26/07/2016 and 15/09/2016 and there are only certain paradors which take part:

Full list of paradors for 65 EUR per night here.

Full list of paradors for 75 EUR per night here.

In addition to actual stay, you can book discounted breakfast for 12 EUR per person.

Before you book
I encourage you to register with Paradores’ loyalty program called Amigos de Paradores – Friends of Paradors. 🙂 The program membership is quite beneficial. As a member you will get…

• Free breakfast with your first reservation – just this alone worth it to sign-up!
• Welcome drink each time you stay at a Parador – yes you do get a voucher for an alcoholic or soft drink from the bar!
• Access to exclusive offers – these are not empty promises, for example, current sale was only available to members for 2 days and only then was open to general public.
• Personalized service from our Amigos Help Desk – I am yet to experience this, but what I can say is that general booking line is fantastic: all agents speak great English and are very helpful. Amigos get their own phone line.
• Earn points towards free stays at our hotels – more on this to follow in the future posts. In two words, you will be able to earn one free night only after roughly 20 nights (requires around 2,000 EUR spend).

I would register simply for free breakfast and welcome drink. Membership is free and registration only takes a couple of minutes.

Needless to say, booking via this sale is non-refundable, so do check prices on major booking sites. I was comparing and for some paradors this sale is a great opportunity to get a bargain, others are on sale for the same price. But even if the price is the same, if you book directly with parador, you will get free breakfast and welcome drink and loyalty points.

You can book on Paradores website.