Parador Avila
In the historic quarter of Avila, the Parador is installed within the former “Piedras Albas” Palace, backing onto the impressive city walls.
In keeping with its surroundings, the hotel’s interior has a warm and intimate feel creating a very refreshing atmosphere, enriching your time spent there. 
Its beautiful decorative features include granite and adobe floors, bright colours and spacious rooms, some with four poster beds. These features all combine to create a light feel to the rooms.
The Parador also features a garden containing archaeological remains, a magnificent glass-roofed courtyard, partitionable function rooms and a cafeteria. The hotel’s restaurant provides a beautiful view over the gardens and the city walls.
We have visited Spain many times and love the Paradore experience. They are all different which is exciting, mostly old, but some new! This year we availed ourselves of the 5 night card which makes staying in Paradores more than reasonable costwise for the quality of the accommodation. The bathrooms are big and mostly have baths as well as showers, the decorations are in keeping with history of the building and quite lovely. Paradores are always well signposted so finding them is easy. Most have ample parking which solves another problem for the independent traveller with a car.
The suckling piglet in the Segovia Paradore is the best we’ve eaten in Spain. I like the fact that on each menu local specialities are offered.
This trip we stayed at Vilalba, Cambados, Salamanca and Avila.After a warm and sunny 10 days, the weather broke as we approached Avila. Luckily the central heating came on and we were snug and warm in our Paradore home. It actually snowed on 4th May, 2010 when we stayed there, so sight seeing was limited. We have happy memories of walking across the Roman bridge into Salamanca from our lodging and soaking up the sunshine in the beautiful courtyard at Cambados.
We were at the parador in May 2009 for just one night. When we got there, our travel agent had evidently not confirmed the reservation so they didn’t have us listed. We were afraid that we would not be able to stay, but thanks to the excellent customer service by Senor Gomez at the desk, we were able to get a huge, beautiful room with a spacious bathroom, overlooking the garden. He asked if we were staying at any other paradors and without hesitation, called Ciudad Rodrigo to confirm our reservation there so that we would not have to worry about a room. The parador is well-located just a few blocks from a small plaza where you can have a nice meal and watch children playing and adults out for a stroll. A parador is a building that is architecturally interesting and historic, but it is the people who make it a beautiful place to stay. Senor Gomez and an older gentleman (bellhop) working with him were excellent ambassadors for the parador.
My wife and I visited Avila and stayed at the parador Easter week. Location was very convenient and well situated for seeing the fortified city on foot and what it has to offer. Access into the city to the hotel and Parking were easy, near a gate, but entering from the wrong gate and the narrow one way streets, may make getting to the hotel a bit challenging, so you will want good directions or a GPS to get you to the front door.
Based on the rate, we received good value when compared to other hotels we have used during this trip and others to Spain. The parador itself provides a fun maze of hallways and interesting artifacts throughout, making finding your room interesting. Room was fairly basic, but a good size, comfortable, and well maintained. The parador’s restaurant was fine although maybe a bit quiet for Spain, but that may appeal to some and food was okay. There are plenty of restaurants and taverns within easy walking distance from the parador, offering lots of tapas and local flair that may offer a better choice for lunch and dinner.
Helps if you speak Spanish, but the staff were bilingual, friendly and accomodating. An Easter (Semana Santa) procession went right in front of the hotel which was an added fun surprise for experiencing local culture/traditions at night.
Don’t let my name fool you, I’m born and raised in the USA. We had a lovely stay at the Parador in Avila. Very interesting town. My wife and kids, Ages 12, 10 were there in Feb. A little rainy, but nice compared to NYC. We got a 2 bedroom suite which was perfect for a family of 4. Strongly recommend it. Easy drive to Segovia too.
My wife and I enjoyed our stay in Avila, Toledo and Santiago de Compestela recently. The location of the Toleda Parador, overlooking the city of Toleda was absolutely breathtaking. The Parador in Santiago was delightful, but we did not realise that we could not park outside the Parador. We had a slight parking problem at Avila, but had a nice letter from the Manger of Avila awaiting us upon our return home, explaining the situation.
We found all the staff great, particularly the “smiling” staff at Toledo. The food was quite expensive but we enjoyed the overall Parador experience.
We visited this lovely village in September and it was wonderful.
The Paradore is truly delightful and the staff were very professional and friendly. On arrival our bags were checked with the minimum of fuss and we parked our car in the garage without any problems. An extra small fee is payable.
Our room was delightful, and it overlooked the gardens and part of the city wall. My camera went into overdrive snapping all the beautiful parts of this very special Paradore which is right in the town. The buffet breakfast was the best we had sampled on our trip through Spain.
Our recommendation for those wishing to have special time in Avila is to stay at this Paradore and savour the quiet enjoyment this lovely establishment gives you. We would love to return and again enjoy its charm.
23rd and 24th July, Parador Avila was magnificent. Staff were great, room overlooking the small garden was very nice. Breakfast was good wide choice of food.
Location and surroundings in Avila spot on! We have stayed at many Paradores and this was one of the best.
Parador Ciudad Rodrigo was equally magnificent, setting fabulous especially the garden overlooking the river on a sunny evening. Layout of hotel, rooms, staff, etc all great on 25th July exept for the evening meal. We’re no gastro experts but the Veal Cutlets was the biggest single slice of tough, grissly meat I have ever seen. We did register a complaint but not heard any feed back.
The paradore at avila was not what I had hoped for. The room view was on to a garage and carpark…when we complained about the ciagarette smoke still smelt in room; the girl willingly gave us another room, bt it was next to the room we had just vacated. I have to also add the food was not as good as we had expected. Both at breakfast or at dinner. Mediocre; was faintly disappointed as at a downtown hotel in madrid we had hot food served to us. What would be the cost to the hotel to add a station which serves hot eggs for example?
La granja was great though; the english speaking waiter an old man was very friendly; giving us some information on what the paradore was etc before. this is also information that should be available to guests easily.
Reception was excellent and helpful. Our room was good, and well-positioned with a view over the gardens. A general comment about all the paradores we stayed in was that there were no coffee-making facilities in the rooms. The restaurant service was good but food rather ordinary.
The parador is in the old city with easy access to all the tourism places.
we had a great time .accomadations were good at each of the paradors(avila, jarandilla,oropesa & chinchun)the dinners were expensive for what you got. i also think charging for bread & water is a bit much. i think each
parador should have a layout indicating what the areas of the parador were during the original occupants.
The staff was friendly. Room and bath were modern and clean
Public rooms were varied and good to places to hang out.
Terrace, with adjacent garden and view of the wall, was great for an afternoon or evening drink and a place to have a continental breakfast, rather than the enormous buffet breakfast we unfortunately had paid for.
Didn’t eat dinner as it was expensive and rumored to be mediocre. A 10 minute walk into town reveals numerous good restaurants at reasonable prices.
We stayed at the following Paradors: Avila, Salamanca, Jardilla de la Vera and Toledo.
Except for Jardilla all the Paradors were exceptional in the welcome at reception, the service and the rooms. The information they imparted about the sites and especially about promos at other Paradors was excellent and we would not have know about them. When it comes to a family of 6 adults that can be a considerable saving.
Please convey our thanks to the relevant Parador staff.
Rose S. Bentovim and Family
Everything from polite and helpful staff, to beautiful and clean rooms, and a lavish breakfast was superb.
The first room we had was a disaster and we had to change it- the heating unit gave off a very nasty smell- as though the unit was faulty- we were worried about the unit not being properly cleaned- you can get legionnaires disease from faulty air conditioning/heating units- it looked as if the room had not been used for a long time and stank of stale and smelly air.
The reception clerk who we spoke to the next morning was rather hostile about the matter although he did change our room which was satisfactory & did not smell
The food also was disappointing- we had a very poor dinner.