Parador Zamora
In the historic centre of the capital of the province, this Parador of Zamora occupies a palace built over the remains of a Roman fortress in the mid 15th century, 
and offers the traveller an opportunity to discover the beauty of the landscape, both natural and urban, of Zamora. The medieval flavour of the interior, with its suits of armour, tapestries and attractive canopied beds, combines with the Renaissance style of the courtyard, glazed wooden gallery and coats of arms.
The hotel has two halls for conventions and a swimming pool in the flourishing garden. Wooden floors and beams give warmth to the baronial decor.
The restaurant offers excellent dishes from the traditional local kitchen, such as bacalao a la tranca (cod), pulpo a la sanabresa (octopus), presas de ternera (beef) and desserts such as rebojo zamorano (a local pastry) and natillas almendradas (almond custard).
Information and reservations at Parador of Zamora
We planed a 15 day trip through northern Spain using Paradors, unfortunately the only special deal we were able to obtain was a 5 day stay at Zamora. We did not realize and were not told on check in that the deal included breakfast . This was our first experience with the Paradors and I think it will be a long time before we consider staying at another. I think that even with special deals ( if you can get them ) they are over priced and poorly located. As for Zamora it was disappointing our room was in the ” new block ” the bar and restaurant was expensive the swimming pool particularly badly managed . Parking is also a problem but not unique to Zamora we probably paid close to 300 euros for overnight parking during our 15 day trip.
Hemos estado muy contento por nuestra visita en vuestro hotel este verano.
We stayed at this Parador for one night
and was pleased that was all. The hotel
was just badly managed. The reception
was not attentive, the room we were offered
had not been cleaned after the previous
occupants left, there was a cot and a sofa
bed left in the room ( there was only two of us!!)
And the food and service in the restaurant
was some of the worst I have experienced
anywhere. Overall it was dirty. A hotel to be
avoided at all costs.
We had a very pleasant 2-night stay and found
the accommodation completely delightful.
We visited the Parador at Easter 2010, as part of a tour we had arranged from Asturias to Madrid.
We did experience some of the problems refered to below – parking, slightly difficult reception desk, the restaurant. None of these dimmed our enjoyment of the parador, any difficulties we experienced were resolved pleasantly by the front desk staff and have been forgotton in the context of the total experience, which was wonderful.
Zamora at Easter is absolutely glorious and terribly exciting.- our room was geogeous, overlooking one of the main squares, from where it was possible to look down and participate in the sensational Easter activity.
The decor in the parador itself is exactly what one would expect, slightly faded glory, totally appropriate for the building and its immediate environment. The restaurant food is expensive but eating in the restaurant itself was an experience, and you can ease the cost by buying into one of their packages. The breakfast was staggering good.
We stayed two nights and are planning to return again.
Sirs,
We have ,as you probably know, been using Paradores for many years and have allways realy enjoyed the atmosphere, sorroundings and service. Unfortunately this time at Zamora we found the bathroom to be very dirty. Inside the shower sheild where it joined the bath was black with what was obviously months of grime. This required me to make a complaint to the staff and ask them to clean it. It was improved but was still left in a very dirty state. WE then went on to use a further 3 Paradores and with the exemtion of Salamanca all the other bathrooms were below what we had come to expect from a Parador. WE hope you will accept this a constructive comment.
Regards,
Ken Knee
Rooms were far too hot at night. Heating couldn’t be adjusted- even though there was switch in room. Evening meal far too expensive hence so few people in dining room at night. Breakfast good. Where was the sauna ? Be prepared for people just walking arround Parador just looking at furnishings etc! Parked on square as 14 Euros per day to park in Parador carpark. This didn’t seem to be used by guests. Parking freee after 2pm Sat & all day Sunday
Old building full of history, but in need of some work – looked tired. Parking, despite requesting this when booking was not available. Expensive restaurant with limited menu choices. Weather was dreadful so useful to be in the centre for a quick walk. Used the hotel as a stopover, but not sure I would stay again. Staff were very helpful.
We stayed at five different paradors on our trip in Sept, 2010 and this was our least favorite. The front desk staff were slow, relatively non-responsive and not nearly as competent as in the other paradors. Parking was pay (but quite cheap, you just had to get the tickets every four hours during the day), on the side of the parador. We did like the old city.
There were only two negative aspects to an otherwise marvelous experience in a historic and beautiful setting. The same parking situation as outlined in the review before and the front desk people kept sending us to the restaurant to eat but the people in the restaurant were telling us they were closed. So, closer communications between the front desk and restaurant as to their hours would have been helpful. Otherwise, a wonderful experience in a wonderful city and palace. The grounds and public areas were beautiful with so many historical artifacts!
On the positive side, staff were extremely helpful and welcoming. The building interiors were magnificent.
On the negative side, the view from the back of the palace overlooking garden and pool was a little disappointing as the garden looked untidy. Perhaps a view over the town square would have been preferable.
In some of the lounge areas, there were ash trays with cigarette ends left in them which neither smell nor look nice, but I believe this will not be possible after June 1st.
Overall, the experience was very enjoyable.
Our stay at Zamora this past October was a pleasant unexpected
surprise. What was to be just an overight stay between Madrid and
Santiago de Compostella turned out to be a highlight of our three
week odyssey through Spain.. The city’s setting and architecture were
stunning. And to stay in a building that was a former palace of the
Conde de Alba was…estupendo.
Only problem was overnight parking. We were told to park overnight in a
parking garage and we would be reimbursed upon presentation of the
parking receipt at checkout. The same lady that gave the parking
instructions the previous night denied our reimbusement at check out,
because we didn’t tell the garage attendant that we were staying at the
parador. And she was unwilling to contact the parking garage to rectify
the problem. I finally told her that she could keep the money if by
chance she could solve the problem. I am only relaying this information
so that future guests do not have to deal with same bureaucratic
nonsense.
Wonderfull building and hotel. This contributed to the enjoyment of our tour of spain.