Hostal Andrés

Without going into too much detail I unexpectedly stayed here for 5 nights recently (early October, 2014). I never considered it to be more than hostel accommodation and fairly basic. However, bearing this in mind the room was spacious with TV (basic channels - all Spanish) and separate bathroom, including walk-in 'non-power' shower, and balcony. I ended up with a bad back as the bed was somewhat hard. All was generally clean and there was a maid service. The pigeons inhabiting an adjacent building were irritating in the very early morning after first light. The ringing of the church bells right next door was never a problem. The attached restaurant with a direct doorway to the hostel offered a full English-style breakfast for 10 euros (incl coffee I think) and dinner at reasonable cost, depending on what you wanted to spend. I never used it during my stay. The location was very good for El Saler town/hamlet, local restaurants/bars, the adjacent nature reserve, and the beach, but it was a 20 min bus ride to Valencia city centre.

At the time of booking this accommodation in February 2013 for our stay in August 2013, we very clearly requested 2 single beds and a room that had WiFi. On 16 July, I emailed Hostal Andres to reconfirm our booking and again mentioned our requests. We had no reply. We emailed again on 28 July and still got no reply from them. We eventually phoned them on 29 July and spoke to them reconfirming our arrival and again asking for our request of 2 single beds and that WiFi was VERY important to us. However, when we arrived, we were shown to a tiny, dark and dingy room with a 3/4 size bed. We refused to accept this room and were then taken to a room with 2 single beds that was so small, there was only space for one person to squeeze past the beds at a time. It was dark and dingy with only a tiny window looking into an inner section of the building that housed the drain pipes. But, when we discovered that the toilet was leaking with water all over the floor, we rejected that room too. The third room we were shown was a little bigger, with 2 single beds but NO WiFi. The TV was not working but the owner managed to repair it. In desperation, we accepted this as we had been traveling all day and were tired and needed to settle down. But, once settled, we found that the beds were very cheap and the mattress on my bed was broken. I had two weeks of hell trying to sleep in the bed with things sticking into me. I had to use my pillow to pad the mattress. The bedding, bedspreads and curtaining were also cheap and of poor quality. The reception people had hardly any understanding of English so it was impossible to make ourselves understood or to understand what they were saying. When trying to use the WiFi downstairs - there is not enough room in the tiny, cramped reception area and when we tried to sit at a table in the road outside (Restaurant Robert, which is part of the Hostal) even though it was early morning and no-one using the restaurant, we had a rude and aggressive waiter telling us we had to order something from the restaurant to be allowed to sit at the table - even though we told him we were staying in the Hostal. The advertised "breakfast" is also not served at the Hostal but at another restaurant in the main street and this consists of toast with either jam or tomato spread and coffee. The Hostal also advertises the beach as being 10 minutes walk away. The truth is that the beach is a 15 minute fast-paced, brisk walk. The "travel desk" is a tiny table in a dark corner with a few free pamphlets or brochures that are also all in Spanish. The room was also not properly cleaned. We had to always wear our sandals as the floor was always gritty. One day, the cleaning lady arrived at our room so late, we had already returned from the beach. She flicked a mop around in the bathroom, emptied the bin and indicated that she was late and needed to leave to catch her bus home. The second day she tried the same trick and we somehow managed to get our message across when we complained at reception. After that, our room was cleaned every day again. Other faults were that the main light in the bathroom was fused from our arrival. Just before we left, the light above the mirror also fused. We didn't have the energy left to try to get this sorted so we resorted to managing with the light from the entrance hall.

The room is kind of clean. We had a balcony which was nice 'cause we are smokers ;). The people here only speak Spanish. The restaurant is situated next to the hostel. It's not cheap, we paid 60 euro's for our dinner (2 persons). But it was good (Restaurante Robert). It was cosey to go to bed and hear the Spanish people still chatting on the terrace of the resataurant. The other neighbor is the little church. This morning (Sunday) at 10 the bells started to ring and we could hear people singing in the church. There's not a lot to do in El Saler itself, but it's close to the beach - about 5 minutes walk (don't eat your lunch there since you pay 6 euro's for a few fried potatoes) and on Saturday the El Saler beach was filled with locals, families. At the beach you pay 4,- for a bed & 4,- for a parasol. The hostal has got wifi and the people are friendly. Breakfast was poor: a coffee with too much milk & 2 small cakes (?). But...for this price (55,- / doubleroom) it's a fine place to stay for 1 or 2 nights.

Un hostal con mucha limpieza,el personal muy agradable, desde las camareras de habitaciones,cafetería como los dos de recepción. Precio económico. El restaurante del hostal muy limpio.comida excelente ,económico,siguen las normativas del covic el personal muy agradable. Vamos todo genial

Establecimiento familiar,correcto con buena atención personal. Cocina de su restaurante excelente.Buena opción para pasar unos dias relajándose fuera delbullicio y aglomeraciones en tiempos de la covid19. Habitaciones sencillas correctas, precios asequibles.Trato excelente