So on Wednesday we are in the seventh month of this, the strangest and perhaps the quickest of my 24 years in Spain. But now we are heading into July 2020, the summer heat arrived with a bang and life except the wearing of masks is more or less back to normal.

This weekend will be the first time we´ve left our province of Jaen since January. No jaunts nor road trips. So with oh so slight hesitancy we are leaving the safety of Jaén with only a few cases of Co-vid for the ´outside world.´

Where are we going? We´re heading south to the province of Malaga and town of Competa in the east of the province. It´s a town we haven´t been to before and there can´t be many of those left!

Which establishment are we heading to? Villa Andalucia B&B on the edge of the town of Competa.

Are we looking forward to it? Oh, yes!

A place to relax, dine, wander, view gaze and swim while able to stroll into town and 25 minutes from the coast if you fancy a beach. We are more mountain people than beaches but a good view of the sea is always welcome.

So watch this space for a new addition to Only Spain Boutique Hotels and B&Bs, the only new addition this year so far – may it not be the last and hopefully no more lock downs will happen when there is freedom of movement between countries too. Escape from Jaen number one….

With Monday seeing us enter phase 2 of the Co-vid19 lockdown here in Jaen province, news, very uplifting after 10 weeks and many changes of plan means that it looks like we will be able to move around freely this summer.

For quite a while it looked like that was not going to happen and the slogan ´Don´t Cancel, Postpone´has been all over the media since the beginning of the shut down in March.

Many, many businesses, not only small hotels and Bed and Breakfasts have been feeling the pinch and with the uncertainty of whether they would open for this summer season hanging overhead too.

Casas de la Juderia, Cordoba

Cortijo del Arte

La Casa Grande de Zujaira

So if you haven´t already made plans now is the time to support those small hotels, make plans and keep these lovely little establishments open and running. I see many have been making the most of the time to do alterations and decorating so it is with pleasure that I am again able to plan ahead. I´m not sharing yet which beautiful little place is the first on my list, it is a surprise and will be a gorgeous addition to our portfolio which has sadly not been updated for quite a while, not only the fault of lock down but the busyness of life!

Let´s hope that during the rest of this year there is not one but several new and beautiful establishments added. As always I plan with pleasure and so look forward to meeting and greeting both new hosts and their lovely homes.

Keep posted…….

I´ve also added some new photos to my local B&B which now has a pool so why not pop over to Atelier 88 to see some new images. Enjoy.

We’re very happy to have been included in a write up by Andrew Forbes in an article entitled ‘The Eight Andalusian Hotels not to be Missed’ published in Sur in English.

Andrew and I met at the amazing La Nava an exclusive, elusive, private estate but I’d been following him and his antics for a while. I was honoured when he asked my advice for his round up of one hotel per province in Andalucia and as my home province of Jaen is the one least known to him and most people he came to me for my advice.

Hotel Balcon de Cordoba, Cordoba

Finca la Fronda

So for the eight Andalusian provinces which ones were chosen? That is the big question…. here we go in alphabetical order

Almeria – La Joya de Cabo de Gata, this one is on my list to visit.

Cadiz – Hotel Plaza 18, featured on Luxury Spain Travel

Cordoba – Balcon de Cordoba, right here on Only Spain Balcon de Cordoba

Granada – Granada Parador sited within the incredible Alhambra’s grounds

Huelva – Finca Buenvino which is on my list, my choice would have been Finca la Fronda

Jaen – Palacio de Ubeda, what can I say? My suggestion!

Malaga – Marbella Club, not on my list as not boutique enough.

Sevilla – Corral del Rey, a definite agreement from us.

To read the original artice on Sur follow this link The Eight Andalusian Hotels not to be Missed

For our Christmas present hubby and I decided we wanted to do something not buy presents so we booked to walk the Caminito del Rey in Malaga province again.  We went about 3 year ago with 3 sons and 2 girlfriends. We fancied going alone, not keeping tabs on members of the group. So on a not very bright January 4th we put on our boots, hairnet and helmet to walk the King’s Walkway. If you haven’t been – you should. If you haven’t a clue what it is read on.

The stunning views and incredible feat of engineering  of The King’s Little Footpath near El Chorro in Malaga province is not for those with vertigo. Originally a narrow footpath on the sheer cliff face for worker’s access, it fell into disrepair but still attracted a large number of dare-devils to walk it before being closed down.

After four years of restoration, in most cases completely rebuilding, this exciting and dramatic walkway, in places 105 metres above the river, is completely safe but gives you the feeling of doing something thrilling. Dramatic gorges, tumbling river it really is nature at its most jaw-droppingly best.

The whole walk is three kilometres long and takes 2 – 3 hours depending on your speed and how many photos you stop to take! Comfortable shoes, water and warm clothes are needed, depending on the time of year, this is  a gorge, the sun doesn’t get to all parts and the wind can be nippy too.

We enjoyed our experience just as much the second time around and only two minutes down the road to home hubby said ‘I could do that again.’ I agreed with him but on another day….

Tickets are limited and must be booked in advance. Some hotels in the area offer deals on a night stay with entrance to the Walkway included. We stayed in the lovely (but not boutique) Hotel Casa Grande in Burgo over half an hour from the walk entrance but a beautiful (as is all of  inland Andalucia) drive through the mountains.

As much as we don’t really like to repeat where we have been (the world and even Spain is too big for that) we will probably at some point return to walk the Walkway – as you can see even on a grey day it is spectacular and it may just be addictive!

Well December has arrived but my climbing rose doesn’t seem to realise and is blooming and budding again. Nice and cheery, certainly not as profuse as its spring flowering but  should I tell it that it is almost winter now?

Red Roses taken on 1st December, Jaen, Spain

Friday night saw hubby and I on our last escape of 2019, except the works Christmas ‘do’ in Fuengirola, does that count? This being our first year working with Inland Andalucia estate agents in the Martos office up in the north of Andalucia in my home province of Jaen.

I keep saying one of my favourite cities, I seem to have a lot but this one really is special! Granada touches my soul. The steep, narrow, characterful and full of characters Albaicin area is one I can explore and explore. I think I could live there – if I had to live in a city. On this trip we actually got to drive the car into the ancient area of the Albaicin to get to the hotel car parking, think ‘No Entry’ signs that you ignore and automatic bollards that you hope will stay down!

Practising Guitar on Mirador de San Nicolas with Alhambra  Views

The gorgeous, ancient Hotel Santa Isabel la Real is right next to the monastery of the same name. A beautiful small hotel with an wooden-gallery patio. Charm and warmth, cosiness and age mellow into one delightful little place to stay. Family owned, lovely staff, good breakfast, big comfortable bed and shutters onto our internal patio window, as well as a bar crawl up and down those streets for supper meant one of the best nights sleep I’d had in a long while.

Hotel Isabel la Real, Granda

So, keep watching this space – very soon Hotel Santa Isabel la Real will be live on Only Spain, the last one for this year. I’m plotting and planning, researching and drooling over some fabulous little places to stay for the coming year – Let’s see what 2020 brings and roll on spring time! I am not a fan of winter at all. The roses are helping though!

Many of the lovely establishments we have here on Only Spain do weddings on a small scale so we were delighted when an American wedding planner got in touch and asked if we would partner with them.

September and October saw them visiting several of our hotels and travelling around Spain. Not only do they plan wedding but they also plan and advise on any type of holiday and especially anniversary and special occasion trips. So that is the latest news and we look forward to working with them and introducing more hotels and Bed and Breakfasts to them.

The not so great news is that the clocks have gone back, the hours of daylight decreased and we’re rapidly heading into what isn’t my particular favourite time of year. Saying that we took a brief escape this weekend to a small city I like very much – Guadix. We didn’t stay at Hotel Abentofail but went in for a pre dinner glass of local wine. It is a lovely little hotel and it was great to be back there, if only briefly.

So what is next? A little reminiscing first – it is crazily over a year ago now since we headed across almost to the Portuguese border and the lovely Finca la Fronda and the town of Aracena from where we have lots of great memories, even more photos and my well-loved leather handbag in use nearly every day came from.

Next? I fancy heading coast-ward and investigating another hotel or two down Malaga way. As much as I love the mountains and olive groves where I live for an escape at this time of the year I like to head to warmer climes.

I always find this time a year a little sad. We’re now into the last fortnight of August, the weather is starting to cool just a bit, especially in the evenings which is bringing to an end the long lazy evenings outside as Autumn will soon be upon us, pools will be closed up and generally life will pick up to a strolling pace again.

If you know Andalucia, the heat it gets and the manaña attitude, because of the heat, you will know how difficult it is to get anything done when it seems like everyone is on holiday. Businesses and shops close and frustration reigns if you’re trying to progress as normal.

Our travelling has been very limited lately with one thing or another so I’m very happy to be off next weekend to check out a gorgeous looking establishment not too far from home. It’s always a joy for me to be able to add boutique hotels and B&Bs in my own province. But saying that I can get to Malaga airport in 2 hours ten minutes – practically every trip takes that long. No long queues of traffic here. Having recently been back in England and driving there I found it horrible and quite stressful, it is not the case here in inland Andalucia. Driving is a joy, many empty roads, very little traffic and always fabulous views.

So watch out for our lovely new addition an check our the gorgeous Finca la Fronda because it is almost one year to the day when we first visited this beautiful rural Casa Rural.

As always if you want to recommend a hotel to us please do or if you want us to check one out for you again just get in touch with me via our Contact Us page.

As a promoter of lovely boutique hotels in Spain one of my greatest joys is heading off to discover another Spanish hotel or B&B. I always do my homework first to try and make sure they fit into the guidelines for our portfolio.

What Makes a Hotel Boutique?

That’s a tricky one, if you haven’t read my post What is a Boutique Hotel why not pop over and do so. What is it that makes them special to me? Unique, owner-run and small are the main things  I look for, add to that charm, cosiness and elegance. Not all establishments are accepted into our portfolio of special Spanish hotels.

Cortijo del Marques

Casas de la Juderia, Cordoba

Cortijo Sabila

Only Spain Boutique Hotels in Spain on Other Sites

As well as Only Spain I have two other blogs Andalucia Explorer and Luxury Spain Travel where I often write about the hotels and B&Bs that I visit. I also to some freelance writing and promote the Boutique Hotel portfolio through other websites and sometimes magazines. I also write a fortnightly column about living in Spain for B-C-ing-U where establishments I’ve visited get a mention. The most recent articles that can be found online are:

A Little Bit of England in Andalusia, Spain for Journeys, Jaunts and Junkets

Beautiful Boutique Hotels in Andalucia for Flush the Fashion

Your Own Wellness Holiday in Andalucia for Viestra Magazine online and print

If you have a boutique hotel or B&B in Spain and would like to be part of our growing portfolio, have visited a lovely place to stay and want to recommend it or even if you want us to check out a hotel for you before you visit just get in touch here or via our Instagram page OSBhotels.

Casas de la Juderia, Cordoba

Hotel Viento 10, Cordoba

La Casa Grande de Zujaira

Spanish Weddings in Small Hotels 

I’m very excited to be working with an American wedding and trip planning company which is visiting Spain in September and travelling around some venues. I hope to accompany them to some of our lovely hotels so that they can promote Spanish weddings in some of our beautiful small hotels. Watch this space.

Or have a read of this post Your Own Boutique Hotel for a Wedding in Spain. Four Fabulous Private Small Boutique Stays

It’s now the long hot lazy days of summer down here in southern Spain. Andalucia literally melts with pretty much dawn to dusk sunshine. I suppose really it is still spring and not officially summer yet. There’s an old Spanish saying which translates something like ‘ don’t take off your long sleeves until the 40th May’ which is, 9th June when the weather is more settled and it’s vest and shorts hot morn ’til morn.

Weddings Season in Spain

That also means it’s wedding season for both  locals and those from abroad wishing for a Mediterranean wedding. June is a lovely month, hot but not as hot as July and August and not so busy either. Schools break up around 21st June so earlier in the month is perfect. September is also has great weather for outside weddings.

But with a climate averaging over 300 days of sunshine a year really wedding season is all year round in Spain!

Hotels in Andalucia for Small, Intimate Weddings

As a portfolio of Boutique Hotels we have several gorgeous ones for small intimate weddings in my area of Andalucia. If you want any help or advice on wedding planners or wedding locations just give me a shout via my Trip Planning page. You can use the form or book a free no-obligation phone call with me. I’ve personally visited all the hotels in Andalucia on Only Spain. As a trip planner I know of a lot more properties and private estates that aren’t hotels and so are not on here, some you may find on my Luxury Spain Travel Blog.

I can’t think of a better location than Spain, especially Andalucia, for the balmy, Mediterranean wedding of your dreams.

One of our recent blog posts was Spanish Haciendas and Cortijos – What are They? So I was very happy to come across this old post with stunning photos in Hola Magazine – Cortijos y haciendas donde respirar la belleza de Andalucía – Cortijos & Haciendas where you can breathe (or inhale) the beauty of Andalucia.

Of course I had to pour over the list of beautiful hotels in my part of the world and was absolutely delighted to find that we have four out of the eleven beautiful establishments in our portfolio. Which is constantly growing as we travel Spain visiting gorgeous places in which to stay and add to our collection – Haciendas and Cortijos, Fincas and Palacios and just plain Casas too!

Cortijo del Marques

Finca la Fronda

These are the list with fabulous photos which you can see via the link above and those with links are the ones on Only Spain Boutique Hotels, clicking the links will take you to each hotels page here on  Only Spain.

Hacienda El Santiscal

Cortijo del Ramon

Haciendas & Cortijos in Andalusia in Hola!

Hacienda San Rafael, Sevilla

Cortijo El Sotillo, Almeria

Cortijo Los Malenos, Almeria

Hacienda de Oran, Sevilla

Cortijo Ramon, Jaen

Finca Cortesin, Malaga

El Carligto, Malaga

Cortijo del Marques, Granada

Finca Buen Vino, Huelva

Finca la Fronda, Huelva

Hacienda El Santiscal, Cadiz