We had a first floor room with a magnificent view of the castle and the valley. The staff are friendly and helpful, and the facilities are very good. The one small problem is the thinness of the walls which means you can hear other guests.

You rarely find a 3-star hotel with such a fantastic view on the alquezar mountains and the castle - rooms are correct, clean but not the most modern or design - here you experience nature in a romantic scenary - nevertheless, the hotel has everything you would expect, they do a lot to make your life easygoing - associated to the hotel is Avalanche, they organize fantastic canyoning experiences (my 2 teenager boys found this the highlights of our trip through northern spain) and Ugo is very helpful in getting you organized (Ugo, if you read this, give our thanks to Hector and Ignatio, our 'personal' canyoning teachers!) - during the weekend Alquezar is pretty touristic but during the week it is perfect : a romantic hotel - if weather allows, dining outside everywhere in the village with fantastic views and a lot of outside activities

The Santa Maria was exactly as beautiful as it looked online. The room was comfortable -- not huge, but we wanted a queen-sized bed and a view of the castle, so we knew the room would be a bit smaller than the others. Bed was very comfortable, bathroom and shower were fine, and everything was very clean. Having a balcony was wonderful! We went to Alquezar to relax and explore, so the fact that there wasn't a television in the room was not a problem for us. Our only issue was that the heat didn't work, but they were very quick to give us a small heater which warmed up the room very quickly. There were several parking spots right outside, and when those were full we only had to drive a few yards down the block to find a spot. We were a little nervous after reading some of the other reviews, but it really was no big deal. (In the summer it probably gets a little bit busier with tourists, but it seemed like there were other nearby places to park as well.)

The common area on the first floor was very lovely and cozy, with comfortable couches and a fireplace. Breakfast each morning was plentiful and all staff members were incredibly warm and helpful. We met Ugo when we checked in (he is a tour guide for some of their adventure trips and also works in the hotel at times) and he was really nice and easygoing, also very helpful in giving recommendations for restaurants. (Side note - if you go to Alquezar you *must* go to La Marmita -- it was easily the best meal we had during our entire two weeks in Spain! Every single thing we ate was delicious, the atmosphere was very romantic and special, and our waiter, who owns the restaurant and whose son is the chef, treated us like family.)

On our second day we met the owners of the hotel, who told us to treat the hotel as though it were our own home. They went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed and on our last day they hugged us good-bye! We will miss them. They made our experience in Alquezar very comfortable and personal, a nice change from the larger and sometimes impersonal hotels usually found in larger cities.

We have absolutely no complaints about the Santa Maria -- on the contrary, the next time we visit Spain we will go out of our way to go back there!

We just walked in when we where traveling around in the area