Hi all, and it’s review time again. Slowly reviewing the places I stayed at (and other things) from last year’s trip, all the time worrying that once I’m done – well, I’m DONE. Because not much likely to happen on the travel front in the foreseeable future. Seville was one of our favourite stops for the whole trip, with so much to offer the visitor. And the important thing when you travel to such a place, is a place to base yourself, and we chose this little place hidden away in the alleys and streets of Seville’s Old City. And we were, *Spoilers*, happy with our choice.

Big Name, cute place

I’m going to start off here with a criticism. The name. Well, no, you can call your place anything you like, but when you’re a non-Spanish speaker (although I get by) and you haven’t yet been to your hotel, the name ‘Las Casas de Los Mercaderes’ is not the easiest to remember. Roughly translated it means the house of Merchants, if you’re interested, and it is in an historic building hence the name.

That aside, it’s very accommodating and pleasant, with friendly reception staff who can help you out, which is always nice. The building has been fully restored, is set around a courtyard which reminded me of several places I stayed at in South America with a decorative glass route over the top to keep out the rain. And as rare as rain is in Seville, we actually had a day with some really heavy rain there. We were on a tour of the local palace and it belted down and the tour guide was really surprised.

The room wasn’t huge, but it was cosy and warm enough, and it was sort of on a ‘half-floor’, a floor that seemed to be half way between two other floors. The room was simply decorated with a fridge, TV, desk and twin beds. The bathroom had a bath and a shower combined – I think in Europe a bath is pretty standard for your hotel room, even in a three star hotel like this one.

Find Your Own Way…

Remember the old adage – ‘location, location, Location!’, well the location of Las Casas de Los Mercarderes is just off a square, Plaza del Salvador, named after the church to one side of the square. It’s a really good location. The old town is actually pretty big and a real rabbit warren at times, and there are parts that are busier than others. This does get busy, because the square has a lot of restaurants around it, so you have a good chance to try some tapas and other Spanish food. I have to say, we had a bit of tapas here and there, and it was much better in Seville than Barcelona! Having said that, there are still busier places in Seville, primarily around the cathedral.

We got off the train and took a number 32 bus a number of stops, for around 15-20 minutes and got off at this point where there is some sort of modernist overpass. We turned left and took around 10 minutes to walk to the hotel through the old town. There’s a big difference in modern Seville, which we were still in when the bus dropped us off and the old city, where we stayed and spent most, but not all, of our time in Seville.

Then it was a matter of weaving our way in the general direction of the Plaza del Salvador through the unfamiliar alleyways and narrow streets. It was downhill so it wasn’t too bad, and just when we thought we were lost, we found the Plaza! I must be honest, we got a little lost several times trying to get back to the hotel, because it’s right in a maze of streets at different angles, but to be honest this wasn’t a negative for us – for me it was part of the charm of Seville. Close by were not just restaurants and bars, but also a decent supermarket, a great ice cream shop and the Flamenco Museum wasn’t far away either.

The 3-star hotel in Spain…

Both our hotels in Spain were three star affairs [You can read about my stay in Barcelona HERE]. But I have to say, they were both really nice, we were happy and had no complaints. Doing a search today reveals a price of $70AUD (probably around $50USD) for a room at Las Casas de Los Mercaredes, which I can only presume is due to the hit of Covid-19. I paid around $400 plus 26,000 velocity points for the stay. From memory over $100 knocked off the price, which was nice. Which shows that they are certainly cheaper right now. Of course, July is also the middle of Summer, and although many spots in Europe would be booming, Seville might just be a little TOO hot!

All in All…

All in all, this was a great place. We were very happy, room service each day, clean room, non-carpeted floors (actually I prefer carpet, my wife doesn’t) and I think there was an option for breakfast that we didn’t take up. The building itself was interesting, the desk was a little small for me so I would write out on a table in the courtyard when I was doing my diary. Despite the busy area, it was a pretty quiet place to stay too, with very helpful staff.

Andy’s Ratings:

Value For Money: 3.5/5

Cleanliness: 4/5

Noise: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Location: 4/5

TOTAL: 19.5/20 [78/100]

Thanks for stopping by – May the Journey Never End!