The best
I stayed at the one-bed bungalow at “Casa de desertio” for three days in October 2024 on my own as part of a short trip to see the three Western parks (Fort Bravo, Western Bravo, Mini-Hollywood) around Tabernas, as well as participating in some filming at Mini Hollywood. I booked this accommodation as it was very cheap and high up on the list of recommended accommodations in Tabernas. The bungalow is nice enough to earn the three-star rating on here, but with caveats, and I’m also going to go into a little more detail about the challenges of visiting Tabernas solo.
The bungalow is at the end of a long winding dirt road in an Andalusian horse farm called PRE Pferde Andalusier, run by Judith (German) and Roberto (Spanish), just outside the northwest end of Tabernas. I got a taxi from Almería airport into Tabernas, and called Judith, who after hearing I would be walking the rest of the way, said Roberto would come to pick me up from the supermarket after I’d done shopping in half an hour. Roberto arrived 45 mins later and seemed very nice, but unlike Judith (who I never met), spoke no English. (It turns out that not many people in Tabernas do.) He drove down the long, winding dirt road into the horse farm and eventually reached the bungalow. Roberto was able to answer a few questions thanks to Google Translate before leaving.
The bungalow itself is quite pleasant - one room with double bed (though only one long pillow!), cupboards, decorative fan, aircon, small sofa and TV, kitchen area, and then a separate bathroom with shower. The bed is comfy enough, and the AC unit is directly above the bed. Kitchen comes with some supplies, though I was disappointed by the lack of a kettle, and the cupboards were a bit hit-and-miss in terms of utensils etc (only one butter knife for toast). The bathroom was fine, no issues with running hot water, though the runners on the shower door were both broken, and needed some effort to close.
To be improved
However, I cannot emphasise enough that it is a remote location, and that if you don’t have a car and don’t speak Spanish, and aren’t willing to walk long distances (as I ultimately had to), it will be a very difficult trip and you will often be totally dependent on the kindness of strangers.
Taxis in southern Spain are expensive, more so than you may be expecting. There is no Uber or equivalent working in Tabernas (including Cabify) so you’ll be entirely reliant on the handful of taxi drivers working in town, and despite what some people may tell you, none of them speak English. As such, trying to explain to them that you’re staying in a horse farm off the beaten track is very, very, very challenging. I had some help from the people involved in the filming, but if you’re on your own and don’t speak Spanish, be warned.
None of the area around Tabernas (and even much of the town itself) is pedestrianised, so if you don’t have a car or any other means of transport (there is a golden business opportunity waiting for someone to open a mountain bike hire company in town), you will basically have to walk everywhere. There are some paths but they can still be treacherous and Google Maps can prove somewhat unreliable in following them, plus it gets very hot in the middle of the day - bring a hat, sunscreen and lots of water if you’re planning on walking a full hour or two (or even more!) each way. On one pilgrimage, Google sent me walking down the lay-by of a motorway for several kilometres (including a couple of bridges I had to run across when no cars were coming), and while I was dumb and hardy enough to follow through with it, your mileage may vary.
If you’ve never been to the desert at night before, then you need to know that when the sun goes down and if there’s no moon, it is absolutely pitch black outside. So if you don’t have a car and can’t book a taxi, then you will need to schedule your day around the sun and be very careful where you’re walking otherwise.
Continue with Google
