My favourite hotel in Calella de la Costa.

I have been asked which hotels I consider the best and worst in Calella.

Well, the best is easy, of all the hotels I have stayed in up to now, the Maritim wins hands down and I am reluctant to try any of the others on my wishlist in case I am disappointed!  Others on my wishlist include the Bernat II and the Hotel Mar Blau.

Whilst not wanting to call any hotels 'the worst' there are hotels I would not stay in now although they do have their uses. The Olympic, for example.  I have stayed in the Olympic a few times in the past when I could not afford any better. Working full time I was determined to have a week in Spain every year but it had to be cheap which meant coach travel and budget hotels.

Similarly with the Bon Repos and its sister hotel the Esplai, when they were all I could afford I was grateful for them.

One of the problems with the cheaper hotels is that they are used by the German holiday companies who specialise in coaching in hundreds of teenagers who run riot around the hotels and resort with no supervision at all.  

One year a group were running around the hotel banging on doors at 5.30 in the morning, I was so worried that I put a door under the doorknob and I do not scare easily.  This was in the Haromar.

Another year, every non German in the hotel (the Calella Palace, or Osiris as it was then), lined the terrace and clapped as the teenagers all trudged off to their coach dragging their cases for the journey home.

Another issue is the location of the single rooms in the cheaper hotels.  They are never the best located in any hotels, usually having views of the bins, but in the Olympic I was right next to the lifts, which were not quiet and were going all night.

I have stayed in the Amaika which was a good hotel, although the standards seem to have dropped in recent years.  This is a 4* hotel with the interior resembling the Titanic, why anyone would want to base their decor on a sunken ship I don't know.

The rooms in the Les Palmeres were fantastic, but the hotel is definitely geared towards the older traveller.

I enjoyed my stay in the Hotel Vila, it looked completely uninspiring from the outside but inside it was amazing.  But it is more a weekend break type hotel rather than for a full week.

Do you have a favourite hotel?  

Hotel Amaika, Calella de la Costa

I have to start this post by saying that I have not stayed in this hotel for a couple of years, but I am assuming it has not changed too much, if it has please let me know and I will update.  I was making an attempt to stay in every hotel in Malgrat de Mar and Calella de la Costa but then I found my favourite hotel and have stayed nowhere else since!

It is classed as a 4 star and on the whole I would agree - the decor is different, more of that later, the hotel is clean, the food plentiful and the staff friendly.  However, and there is generally a 'however' wherever you go, is that in more recent years, they have opened their doors to the budget tourist, and I can't blame them, an occupied room is more profitable than an empty room, regardless of the price you received for it.

And that is what has steered me away from staying here again.

The interior decor is based on the Titanic, I have no idea why, and it does look good.

The rooms are bright and airy, they do have fridges installed, but these are locked and the key needs to be rented from Reception.

There is a gym and you are also very close to the sea front and the running/cycling track.  If your room is on the left side of the hotel, you overlook the new main street/meeting area.