Review of Casa de Carmona, by Jenny Pidgeon

The Casa de Carmona is a beautiful Mujedar 16th-century palace, which has been carefully renovated to a small boutique hotel of character. Carmona itself is very charming and well worth a visit, reminiscent of Salamanca with its honey golden stone, myriad churches, winding streets and little tapas bars.

The facilities

You enter the boutique hotel through a deep-red terracotta patio, which leads through to the reception area. A second patio, filled with plants in large pots and decorated in the same rich colours, forms the central focus of the hotel. Around this patio are the very well preserved public areas of the boutique hotel. The chess room and library are both formal and very beautiful, with carved wooden ceilings, antiques, original rugs and a grand piano. The rooms are comfortable but not very inviting, as a lack of any music and a certain chill in the evenings makes them feel rather museum-like. The numerous brochures for Christies and Sotheby's only enhance this impression.

More informal is the light-filled loggia, next to the small shady swimming pool. The dining room is slightly anomalous to the rest of the boutique hotel in its décor - rather like Reads in Mallorca with pastel painted walls and frescoes of white horses, and low lighting. Dinner is good, with an extensive wine list and helpful maitre d'. Breakfast is an impressive buffet; attended by waitresses in country wench garb (you might also glimpse a manservant in tights and pantaloons as he whisks your bags away to your room on arrival).

Casa de Carmona also has a small gym and a miniature sauna for winter warming. The staff at the boutique hotel is friendly, eager to help and speaks good English. Only a fifteen minutes drive from Seville airport, the Casa de Carmona makes a great destination for a weekend escape.

The rooms

The bedrooms are light, comfortable and more homely than the boutique hotel's public areas. Some are overly floral, with the same fabric covering bed, headboard, chairs and curtains. However, careful lighting and framed prints on the walls, CD players and mini bars all help to make you feel relaxed and at home. The junior suites are worth splashing out on; some of them bi-level, others with large sitting areas in the bedroom. Bathrooms are large with double sinks, green and terracotta walls and good-looking shower attachments in the bathtubs.