Prat de la Coma s/n, Setcases, Girona, Catalonia
The small town of Setcases is located in a fairy tale setting tucked away in a lush valley surrounded by mountain peaks where chamois and wild horses roam and exuberant streams cascade over sculpted waterfalls before rushing past meadows where marmots play. Think I’m exaggerating? You clearly haven’t been.
Buzz Trips View
After a long trek through inspirational countryside we like to drag our tired limbs back to somewhere that is not only full of character but which is also sigh-inducing comfortable. Hotel La Coma delivers both. With an attractive, low-rise Alpine design it’s small enough to feel intimate but big enough so that you don’t feel claustrophobic. An outdoor covered terrace beside the entrance is perfectly placed for falling into a seat with a cool cerveza in hand after a long descent from Ulldeter.Setcases is a pretty and quiet town (anyone who arrives in a rural valley expecting anything else isn’t living in a fairy tale land they’re living in cloud cuckoo land). But there are a handful of bar restaurants and a cracking local shop, Ca La Núria, where you can pick up wine and the sort of local produce that will have the juices flowing like one of the nearby mountain streams.
Best of all, everyone at Hotel La Coma is incredibly friendly – from Agustin and Carmen, who gave us fantastic tips for walking routes and told us all about the area, to Arlington who showed us how to geocache and poured lashings of whisky on my ‘whisky tart’.
Rooms
The twenty two bedrooms are exactly how you’d expect a mountain lodge to look – lots of pine. Ours had contrasting slate-coloured walls which added a stylish, modern feel. They have loads of space, perfect for spreading out maps and walking gear. All rooms have TVs, wifi (yay) and bathrooms have a hairdryer which Andy found especially useful after we were caught in a thunderstorm up at Ulldeter.
A big balcony is also useful for drying out, or airing, clothes as well as for lounging about with a glass of vino and just enjoying the views. They are exactly what I want from a hotel where I’m doing a lot of outdoor activities – lots of space and comfortable.
Facilities
We didn’t get to try them out, but there is a swimming pool and mini wellness centre with jacuzzi and sauna. There’s also mini golf and a games room for younger visitors. The communal lounge is cosy and there always seemed to be the delightful aroma of woodsmoke in the air.
The dining room is decent sized and, like the rest of the hotel, has a casual atmosphere which immediately relaxes. There’s a varied menu; the food is definitely of the traditional hale and hearty Catalan country fare with some interesting local dishes (snail and rabbit). There’s a typically Catalonian breakfast selection including breads, chorizos, butifarra, hams and the ever present pan amb tomaquet.
For a rural hotel, there are more facilities than you’d normally expect.
We were there to explore the countryside and Setcases and Hotel La Coma was an ideal base for us, offering easy access to some quite diverse walking that included some of our favourite routes in the Pyrenees. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hotel La Coma; it provided exactly what we wanted, was comfortable and the family and staff couldn’t have been more helpful.
By the way, the whisky tart was so good, I had it the next night as well.
Hotel La Coma; +34 972 136 074; double rooms with breakfast cost from around €85
Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+
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