Birding Hotels in Spain - Choosing the Right Ones

When back from a foreign birding trip having chosen the right accommodation goes a long way to creating the sensation that you have had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday. Of course the main part is the birds, but unfortunately they can't be booked ahead in the same way!

So how does one go about choosing the right accommodation out of the hundreds of hotels there may be at the next birding location? Saunas, pillow menus and in-house disco bars are all very well, but such features are not likely to aid you in your primary objective of searching for birds, and may well stretch your budget further than you would like.

Generally speaking the closer the hotel is to the action the better. Which means that initially you should be looking for rural hotels as near as possible to a major birding site or itinerary, or your key species. Plan the birds first and then see what hotels you can find along the way.

Having found a well-located and likely-looking candidate let other factors come into play, such as the hotel setting or the grounds themselves. Birding can be very productive in some hotel grounds, and is a great filler activity. If there is an interesting birding site just a short drive from the hotel then consider a pre-breakfast outing to make the most of your day and to work up an appetite.

Talking of breakfast, there's little that can compete with the aroma of locally baked fresh croissants mingling with coffee to set you up for the day's birding. And if the buffet extends to fresh yogurts, cheeses, cold meats and other local produce, what more could you possibly demand?

A hotel room with a view is an excellent feature, especially for being able to carry on birding when you are drying yourself, getting dressed or just lazing around. Scop's Owl, Rock Sparrow, Lammergeier, Audouin's Gull and Blue Rock Thrush are just some of the interesting birds I have detected from hotel rooms when guiding in northeast Spain.

When guiding a group a comfortable lounge or room with enough seating space and privacy to call out the day's checklist is a great boon that should not be taken for granted. Another useful feature that some of the smaller hotels may not have is a drying room - even in sunny Spain outdoor people like birders can get wet at times!

The friendliness, understanding and flexibility of the hotel staff can make all the difference to how you finally rate a hotel. Birders and birding groups sometimes need timetables and rules to be a little flexible: an earlier-than-normal breakfast might be required to enable you to catch a flight, someone might have to be trusted with a key to enable your group to do some pre-breakfast birding, or you may find yourself phoning back to ask the hotel to send on an item which one of your party members carelessly left behind. Service with a smile always works wonders, and in my experience that is the trademark of the smaller, family or rural hotels that can be found in northeast Spain and Mallorca.

At the risk of appearing too demanding could we also ask for a certain predisposition towards birders and their needs? For example, hotel staff who can provide us with local maps, direct us to sources with useful local information, perhaps a logbook or even a small nature library?

To many birders another growing issue is sustainability. In such cases it helps considerably if we see that the hotel is making moves to reduce waste, to recycle, to employ energy-saving devices, to use solar panels, to create more sustainable local employment, etc.

If in the final assessment much of the above can be added to what normally makes for a good hotel, e.g. good cuisine with a variety of local dishes, good wine, cleanliness, safe parking, reasonable pricing, etc. then you need look no further for you have found your ideal birding hotel.

Steve West is a bird guide, author and creator of the BirdingInSpain.com website. He has lived and birded in Catalonia, northeast Spain for the last 20 years and has written two books based on his local knowledge and experience, "Where the Birds are in Northeast Spain" and the more recent "Flying Over the Pyrenees, Standing on the Plains". His acclaimed BirdingInSpain.com website offers free birding itineraries, maps, checklists and a complete and studied network of recommended rural hotels for birders coming to northeast Spain and Mallorca. See more at the BirdingInSpain.com website:

http://BirdingInSpain.com

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