Hotel Rural El Otero

If you are looking at this hotel, you must have already recognised the brilliance of its location. We chose it for a week’s stay in July 2022, wanting to do some walking in the Picos de Europa as well as exploring the stunning coastal towns and villages which are separated from each other by numerous coves and fine sandy beaches. But apart from the convenience of its location, we weren’t prepared for how stunningly beautiful was its actual position. Sitting on a verdant ridge, with only two or three other neighbouring properties, the land drops away on both sides of the hotel with lush green fields and grazing cattle. From the terrace, where we ate breakfast each morning, you look beyond the well tended garden and discreetly placed swimming pool, towards La Borbolla, a rustic hamlet of red tiled houses, which nestles in the valley. There is an almost eerie stillness, only cut through by the tinkling of cow bells drifting up from the fields below, and from the patchwork of meadows which cling to the seemingly vertiginous folds and creases of the landscape which eventually rise up into rock covered peaks. Hotel Rural El Otero is a family enterprise run with all the personal pride you would expect from a venture which has clearly been an ongoing and passionate project ever since its inception, when the decision was made to extend what was a modest house, into a larger, yet still relatively modest, hotel. Everything was spotless, with bedrooms and bathrooms cleaned meticulously each day and not a spot of dust anywhere in the lounge or elsewhere. There were no more than about ten other guests, apart from our family of four, which I reckon must have represented total capacity. There’s a tiny dining room where we played cards one evening, but for all our breakfasts and the two evening meals that we ate at the hotel, we sat outside on the terrace. Would we go back? Absolutely. Aurora and her daughter Paloma, were absolutely charming and extremely welcoming, as too was the only member of staff, who served breakfast wearing a perennial smile and a spotlessly white tunic and trousers. They were eager to offer suggestions for places to visit and their restaurant recommendations, particularly Sidrería Tierra Astur Gascona in Oviedo, were spot on. And to further confirm its status as a family business, when Paloma left for a weekend away, her similarly cheery sister, Berta, arrived to take her place. We were very sad to leave, and when we did, it felt like we were parting as friends.