Alojamiento Jose Carlos

The hotel lies in Puerto de la Torre just outside Malaga not too far from the airport. It looked quite unwelcoming when we reached there after being harassed by the car rental people at the airport. It was extremely hot, and although the courtyard of the hotel looked exactly like it had in the pictures we had seen when we booked the hotel, there was nothing pleasant about being faced with a burning staircase in the open leading apparently to the rooms above. Of the hotel reception there was no sign, all we saw was a big restaurant, not surprisingly empty at six thirty in the evening; the rather wide passage leading to the restaurant was being washed. After being unable to spot a ‘hotel reception’ fast, we did manage to discover the rather modest desk in the restaurant serving as ‘Reception’ to the hotel. We were told our room was not ready and that we would have to wait for it to be cleaned, but we were reluctant as we still had some hopes of visiting Malaga for a few hours that night. This we did after we got allotted what the patron said was a more expensive room! This higher price room (#43) is actually an “inside” room -- a small cluster of rooms on the upper floor have the distinction of being in a section by itself where daylight struggles to find its way in. To compensate, the narrow hallway leading to the three to four rooms is actually very well lit electrically. In spite of the negative beginnings and almost no natural light in the windowless room, the one night stay turned out to be quite OK in the fairly good sized room conveniently furnished with a good double bed, tables, air-conditioner, good closet and night tables, etc. The medium sized fridge in the room was a big bonus as we were able to freeze drinks for our road travel the following day. The bathroom is big and has a very fancy shower. Took a couple of pictures of the luxury shower cabinet with "extra dyser" – there are a lot of nozzles that spray water on your back, your shoulders, your feet, etc. and all this to the sound of music if so be your pleasure; the shower cabinet has its own private lights! I am not sure if it even had “disco-like” lights, if you just want to sit with a glass of champagne while your feet are washed. Bath supplies provided are adequate, but we did not find a hair drier in the room! I dare say the reception would have provided one, but we didn’t ask. This really excellent value for money is on a convenient bus line to Malaga. During the “off-season” we were there the buses were running almost 15-20 minutes apart; the journey to the city centre takes 40 min and costs EUR 1,30 each way. Very convenient, though a bit long but given the savings in money in hotel prices, it may be acceptable to many. Bus #21 takes you to Alameda Principal Sør which is walking distance to the market and the cathedral and lots of nice eating places. Anyway to sum it up, our one night stay was very comfortable, and I believe that we would choose to go back there for a longer stay too given the comfortable room for the low price of €50. The area around the hotel is rather nice too, pizzerias and some shops too I think.