To celebrate our anniversary we had to travel to Valencia (Spain) where hotels and restaurants reopened since March 1st 2021.

We decided to stay at Hospes Palau de la Mar, a five-star hotel with the best reputation in Valencia, conveniently located close to the historical center and right next to the Jardin Del Turia. The hotel itself sits in a 19th century building; it has an elegant entrance and nice patio.

Our room was well designed with a king size bed and a big bathroom, with a marble bathtub and an Italian shower.

But as usual, as the French saying goes: the devil is in the details... No coffee machine, only one small garbage bin in the bathroom for the whole room, a lighting system strangely conceived (you can only turn off all the bed lights at once, not just one side or the other), the bathtub once full of water was so slippery that you could not seat up in it, and last but not least, the service was next to non-existent for a five-star hotel.

The Covid crisis does not excuse everything, five-star hotels should provide everything that goes with their rank and maybe look a little closer to the level of excellence five-star hotels offer in other countries, namely in Asia.

The luxury hotel industry in Europe needs to level up their game if they want to stand a chance in the post-Covid world.

In the end, do we recommend Hospes Palau de la Mar? Actually we do because, overall, the hotel has some good qualities: its location, the building, a nice spa with a small swimming pool, sauna and Turkish bath, a gym and a restaurant called Ampar.

Hospes Palau de la Mar

Navarro Reverter, 14

46004 Valencia, Spain Tel : +34 963 16 28 84