As a birthday present to our friends, we decided to visit the Sierra Nevada and the Hotel Juan Francisco (known locally as San Francisco, btw) over the New Year weekend.

We originally planned to drive down at sunrise, but arrived the day before instead after checking with the hotel beforehand. I'm really glad we did, as this allowed us to buy lift passes and collect ski equipment a day early, which probably saved a couple of hours. As others will tell you, the ski resort gets VERY busy at weekends, especially over the holidays!

Guejar Sierra has two roads in. One from the bottom of the Sierra Nevada main road and the other from the top, which acts as a good short cut if coming back from the mountain. Beware this route is very steep - my brakes smelt like an old chimney by the time we pulled up outside the hotel.

Finding the hotel, especially in the dark, isn't easy. If coming in from the short cut, watch for the small 'Granada' direction sign on the wall. The hotel is 20 meters further on to the right. Either way, look for the bright blue neon Hotel sign on the roof. You can't really miss it as you come down the mountain roads at night.

There's a fairly large car park at the rear, and check-in was a breeze. There's 5 floors - we had rooms on the 1st and 4th, which were all very spacious and some with balconies. All rooms seemed to be twins though, but we simply pushed the beds together. There's actually an amazing lounge room on the 5th, perfect for pre or post dinner drinks.

After a long drive down, we didn't feel like exploring the town, so ate at the hotel which was very busy with locals dropping into the bar for a drink. Dinner was served from 8.30, so we had a few drinks in the bar, all server with superb complimentary tapas. It amazes me how they can serve such amazing snacks and still make any money.

Food at the hotel restaurant was equally great. We went for the daily 3-course special for 10 euros including a drink. It started with a tapas entrée, followed by a selection of dishes to make up the starter, main and desert. Interesting translations for the dishes though, such as 'Asparagus all messed up with garlic'. After a few more drinks in the bar afterwards, we retired.

Breakfast the next morning was typically Mediterranean, but plentiful and fresh. We left for the Ski resort to blue skies and returned about 8pm as the traffic out was pretty heavy. We decided to head into town to check out the local bars and food. The best bar seemed to be the one in the corner of the main square nearest the hotel. Amazing tapas again. Of course, nobody really speak any English, but you can easily get by.

Although there were 3 or 4 restaurants in the town, they were a little expensive or take away, so we decided to head back to the hotel bar. Even though we were practically the only ones eating, they still opened up the restaurant for us at 10.15, Given the generous portions, we decided to try some goat from the main menu (not the best in the world) and a few other dishes.

Things went rather downhill from there, as we returned back to the bar for a few Solle Sombre's (Moorish but evil). About 3am the barman wanted his bed, so reluctantly we grabbed a refill and headed to a room. At about 5am there was a tap on the door to ask if we could be a little quieter, so we decided it was probably time to go to bed. Amazingly, we didn't actually make it to the slopes until 1pm the next day, but despite how much we'd pushed our luck, the hotel let us leave one of the cars there for the day.

To sum up - a brilliant weekend, where the hotel simply couldn't have been any kinder if they'd tried.

Had a long weekend to see the Ski slopes. Very friendly staff - comfortable rooms - basic breakfast - great tapas at the bar - very cosy and typically spanish decor. We will be back again January 2010.

We spent 3 nights here and on two days travelled up to the Sierra Nevada to Ski. Rooms clean and comfortable. Breakfast very basic but good food in the evening. Very reasonably priced - coffee in the bar is €1.

As previous reviews have said don't expect the hoteliers to be able to speak english (they do an english version of the menu) nor any of the local bars and restaurants. We liked this though as made the hotel very traditionally spanish and it was mostly spanish people staying there.

In spite of what some website say it is about 35 - 40 minutes up to the ski resort.

Hotel about 20 minutes away from the Alhambra Palace which we also visited.

For the price this hotel is fantastic and the hosts very welcoming.

Nice hotel in a small village near Granada. Very friendly staff, but you will need to know some spanish to communicate. Large, clean rooms, with very good heating system and a small terrace. Parking available. Restaurant was OK, but breakfast was basic. 20 minutes drive to Granada/Alhambra.