Apartamento El oso y el Madroño

The building does not have an elevator, which might be inconvenient for impaired people or when having heavy luggage. However, I knew this before booking and in my case the beautiful views compensated the effort and I was very happy to be on the last floor. The guidance for check-in is not very clear, but the owners were very responsive and kind so I got in very quickly and smoothly. The living room is towards a high traffic upper road so it might be a bit noisy at times, but as a noise sensitive person I had no problems to sleep well in the bedroom.

lack of information and communication on arrival.. NO meet and greet. all done by guess work and WhatsApp. waited outside the building untill someone came out then managed to get in .no number on the apartment door which we found on the on the top floor. 63 steps. 7 flights suggest some information in the apartment for the guests.

It is located at the fourth floor and will really have problem with big luggages if you don’t used to have exercise and don’t used to climb the stairs. There is an air conditioner in living room and there are only fans in the bedrooms. It will be quite hot in the summer, specially the bedroom and kitchen that are far from the living room. The fan cannot help to cool the room in such a hot summer. You can open the window to have some fresh air but don’t comfortable to sleep when leaving the window opened because of outside watching or light.

We cancelled another apartment because it didn’t have airconditioning and this was listed with. Unfortunately it was only in the living room and not in the bedrooms so it was very hot and difficult to sleep. And as mentioned many times, the stairs are a killer especially after a long day exploring or with your suitcase. Would have been nice for a tea towel in the kitchen to dry your dishes. No balcony or any other space. Only at one side of the bed a plug for a light or charge your phone (although there were two bed side lamps which only one you could connect)

The GPS location on Google took me to a different place (about 80 metres away). It was raining so I was walking with suitcases in the rain. No directions were given at time of booking: also no code for the keysafe/lockbox was given. I arrived quite late (after 9 pm) so it was quite difficult getting in. Also no bottled water was provided. And no supermarkets were open. There is no elevator so carrying bags up 3 flights of stairs can be difficult for some people. Once I got settled and got to the supermarket the next day, everything was perfect. One other small issue (no fault of the owner) is that there is often a terrible smell of cigarette smoke as you enter the building. Obviously some people feel they can smoke at the entrance which is disgraceful.

A trade off, 3rd floor means climbing BUT great views