Jaime I Hotel Peñiscola

What a delight this small hotel turned out to be. Would definitely return if I ever get the opportunity. We had a room overlooking the pool on the second floor, accessed by a small lift. Room was spacious with a large mirrored wardrobe with enough hangars and shelf room for two female guests. A/C worked well. Two small twin beds, a bit hard for myself but that's me. Nice comfy pillows. Blanket in wardrobe if required. Bathroom spacious with shower over bath, plenty of shower gels/shampoo left for us, if needed. Both rooms were well cleaned. Balcony nice size with dryer, table and two chairs. TV in room but no English channels so didn't use. Food: Well what can I say other than we both gained weight! Plenty of choice for breakfast; cereal, yogurts, fruit, pastries, bread, rolls, cheese, omelettes, fried/scrambled eggs, bacon, different hams and I'm sure there was other things. What I loved was the freshly squeezed orange juice and the great coffee, as good as I've had in a cafe. We were half board so we had dinner apart from one night when we swapped for lunch. Plenty to choose from; fish, meat, veg, salads, chips, mashed potatoes etc, in addition to speciality nights ie Mexican, Asian, etc and these were great. But the crowning glory of dinner was the desserts. They were AMAZING! I have a sweet tooth and I was in heaven. Lots of different little desserts on individual plates with some fab chocolate work. Pastry chef deserves a medal. Some of the best I have ever had and I'm very well travelled. Staff were friendly despite us not being able to speak Spanish. Small bar in reception and we had a nice coffee there one day. Small pool which we didn't get round to using as we either went out for the day or were at the beach which was about a five minute walk away. We used a free car park just down the road most of the time but did on-street parking a couple of times using the parking app. This worked well. On our last day we were given the use of a courtesy room to wash and change in before leaving for the airport in the evening. All the hotels I've stayed in before in Spain have been large and impersonal, but this was small and friendly and we didn't miss the huge dining room and entertainment, far from it. Dining was nice and relaxed, no queuing for a table or for food with people rushing here and there. We did tend to eat about 8pm so were pretty much the first in the dining room. Loved the resort and visited the castle and old town, beach was great with beach beds etc for 15E, sea gently shelves way out. Plenty of bars, restaurants in both directions. Two small trains take you round the resort which was fun. We visited Alcossebre, Tortosa and Morella and had plans to go to Castellon but as the temperature was 40, stayed on the beach instead. Would recommend this resort as long as you don't expect Benidorm, Salou, etc and like to be with loads of other British tourists. Would definitely recommend the hotel, just don't be on a diet.