Let´s start by saying two things. Oviedo is a fantastic place in Spain. I doubt anyone would ever regret coming here. It is lively, and Asturias, the region of which Oviedo is the capital, is quite unique. You´re up in beautiful, lush hills. Everything is very green, which obviously means that it rains a lot. The local food is simple, but honest and plainly wonderful. The local Cider (Sidra) is a wonderful - but be careful, apart from making you tipsy, it has laxative properties if consumed in excess ;-)

So now let´s get to the hotel, and to the location. Staying at a NH hotel means that you have a standard for comfort, and I have never had a bad experience staying at any NH hotel. This particular hotel was just about OK. It has two blocks, a front part (facing the street) and a back part facing a noisy, danky court yard.

The positive side of the hotel is clearly the location. You can walk to Gascona road, the "Avenida de la Sidra" where you can find many Sidrerias and enjoy the local buzz. All the other sights are also in walking area. You´re right in the old town with all its monuments and the local night life.

On the not so positive side, the hotel did not accommodate my special request for a room type (even though I reserved the room well in advance). If you have a special request for a room, my advice would be to call a few days ahead and make sure they remember. Otherwise they´ll just assign the rooms on a first-come-first-serve basis, and if you get there late in the evening, as I did - tough luck.

Breakfast at NH hotels are typically rather spectacular. This one was very good as well, even though the team wasn´t as efficient as I usually experience at NH hotels. Some thigns just didn´t get replaced, some things weren´t labeled (which type of milk is this? Skim milk? Oh no, it´s actually soy milk. OK then). If you just asked, they´s bring stuff that you would have expected to be there in the first place. Getting a cup of tea in the morning (not really a Spanish habit anyway) was definitely possible, but needed intervention as well. On the weekend, the breakfast team closed the buffet 10 minutes early instead of first informing the guests that they are about to do that, if one wanted to have a last go... All of this didn´t really disturb me too much.

On the slightly more disappointing side are the rooms at the back - in August it can get quite warm. I had the option of either using the air conditioning (which I don´t really like) - but the A/C was very noisy, and makde a clunk-clunk-clunk noise once it got going. Or you can open the window - but then you have a continuous humming, and it will often smell like you´re right next to the laundry room. I would think that the rooms facing the street (in the front block) are nicer. However, there is also the chance that you´ll be "entertained" until the small hours by merry partygoers on the weekends. Perhaps the A/C is really the best choice then, and you may be luckier than me in that aspect.

There is free WIFI in the lobby - you get a voucher with a password for 30 minutes at reduced speeds. If you don´t feel like dishing out about 10 EUR day for Wi-FI in the room, do it like I did and buy yourself a Yoigo SIM card with 500 MB mobile Internet for 8 EUR.

I think I´ll still stay there the next time I´m in Oviedo. The reason is just because the location is so fantastic.

Oh, and one more thing. If you come by car, you can park next to the hotel to unload your bags. Ask them where the paid parking is (it´s just at the front of the street, in the corner). They´ll stamp your ticket and you get a 20% parking discount.