My husband and I stayed at this hotel for 5 nights for a ski break that we booked independently. The hotel is generally a lovely, well managed, tastfully furnished boutique style hotel, with a calm and relaxed atmosphere (with a couple of exceptions ...) The hotel has a small and cozy lounge area, and the food is wonderful with plenty of choice and variety each morning and evening. There is a separate bar downstairs where family fun and games are held throughout the day and into the evening ~ led and hosted by a children's entertainer.

We parked in the free parking bays (marked out in blue) on the main road approx 50m from the hotel, left our skis and boots in the car and drove to the El Tarter lift every day, which saved us the slog up to the Canillo lift, and the 10 euro parking fee which is charged when arranging parking through the hotel.

The hotel is directly opposite the Ice Palace, which we looked around but didn't use. There is a nice ice skating rink, pool, restaurant and other facilities which would be great to use if we had the time ... but we didn't.

The hotel is next door to a pharmacy, and there is a ski hire shop within the hotel and another a couple of doors away. There are also restaurants and a supermarket virtually on the doorstep.

The doorman was hilarious in that he was never on 'door duty' and spent all his time talking to the reception, bar and waiting staff. The reception staff were very helpful and arranged for us to have a packed lunch made available as we needed to leave before breakfast for our return journey. I had requested a 'non smoke smelling' room and mountain view and we were given both. Check in and check out was smooth, efficient and professional.

One of the waitresses was excellent and really stood out as being very competent and highly skilled (she has short, dark, bobbed hair). The rest leave a lot to be desired; and one waitress was noticably chewing gum. I lost count of the amount of times a waiter/waitress leant across one of us to retrieve plates off the table. I also didn't like having the plates scaped and staked in front of me on the table.

The bar staff are very laid back and have a wicked sense of humour. A plus is that they don't jump down your throat as soon as you sit down in the bar or lounge area. The drawback is you might wait a while before you are approached; easily overcome by popping to the bar and having your drinks delivered to your table.
Drink prices were very reasonable; house red wine at 8.5 euro and bottled water at 3 euro.

The hotel room was bright and airy and large enough to accomodate our ski clobber. The beds were lovely and firm. We had a 'double' room which is essentially two singles pushed together. The bathroom was fairly large with a nice, long, deep bath with an overhead shower ~ the bath was bliss after a hard day skiing. The hotel provides bathrobes and plenty of towels and complementary toiletries. There is a safe in the wardrobe which is free of charge, and a fridge with a mini bar. There is also free internet access throughout the hotel, which is ideal as we had our laptops with us; reception instantly supplied us with the access code upon our request. There are also two internet connnected pc's set up in the reception area that available free of charge.

Some hotel residents were less than respectful when returning from their night out; stomping along corridors, singing and talking loudly; but that isn't the fault of the hotel. Likewise, smokers had no hesitation in lighting up; even in the designated non smoking area of the hotel lounge area, so the lobby and hotel corridors are smoke ridden at times.

There are some building works taking place outside the rear of the building, but they didn't disturb us as we were out all day. I can't comment on the leisure facilities as we didn't use them but they did look nice.

Overall, a very nice hotel which I have awarded 4/5 ~ only because the restaurant staff could do with some training to increase their finesse and the doorman could be better placed doing his job and welcoming you as you arrive.

Lastly, we don't know what happened mid way during our stay (on Wed 23rd Feb) and guessed there might have been an inspection or management visit? ... the atmosphere changed and the staff morphed from relaxed and efficient to edgy and harassed. The restaurant seemed to be overbooked, tempers and attitudes of hotel guests were frayed with lots of elbowing and pushing in around the food service area, and the attention, service and attitude of the waiting staff service was very poor. However, this was a one off and I'm only mentioning it so the hotel are aware.