Hotel Tres Coronas de Silos

😊: Lovely and charming building in the plaza. Parked the motorbikes in a side street next to hotel. Breakfast was served outside, which was a nice touch. Plentiful breakfast with fruit, cereal, toast, ham, cheese, coffee and juice. Helpful staff despite our limited Spanish.. 😢: Nothing to dislike..

😊: Very friendly and attentive personnel. Very nice location and superb building. Great rooms..

😊: Beautiful building, very friendly staff, great location. 😢: Cold shower.

Could be really great. Located on the main plaza of a tiny town dominated by the amazing Santo Domingo Monastery surrounded by hills and nature. The good: Hotel is in an amazing ancient building. Decent sized double room (but not the single size, which is awful) looking out through French doors over the cobblestone scenic Plaza Mayor across from the monastery. (Single looks thru small window to alley). Newly renovated bathrooms (not the single). New paint. New nice floor. Good lighting appreciated. Gorgeous mirrors. Quite clean, once I chased out a few shards of glass and a few hairs on the bathroom floor. WiFi decent. Lovely snug bar on premises. Nice wines. Gracious, professional service from the owner, and from Always Amazing Alexandra who seems to be everywhere at all times. I hope she is paid well. We loved sitting on the small plaza with coffee or drinks and snacks, watching the world go by. The beautiful monastery bells ring until midnight. A lovely fresh fried egg and coffee with hot milk or cocoa are available for breakfast. A TV is on the wall but we didn’t use it. The bad: hard, hard bed (I like a firm bed but dang), and a long thin plank of a pillow. No air conditioning, no fan, on a hot day in June. No screens but plenty of flies, smoke from someone’s wood fire somewhere, and cigarette smoke wafting in from the tables below. We couldn’t sleep. Only one person gets two pillows so we flipped for it. Thin rough towels: one bath towel one hand towel . Two tiny slivers of bar soap which are annoying-why bother. Shower floods the bathroom, which often smells faintly of sewage. Blow dryer overheats after 4 seconds. Have to wait several minutes for it to resume, so “bad hair day” vacation pictures. Old, stained, saggy upholstered wing chairs need to go. Breakfast has generous assortment of mediocre quality food (except for nice egg & coffee). We were there during week days, so mornings were thankfully quiet, but not sure during the weekend when shops are open, since French doors must be open for fresh air.

We'll always be glad we stayed overnight at Hotel de Tres Coronas, but other travelers may benefit from knowing the quirks of staying here. I don't pretend to understand the why's of it (why the hotel doesn't block off the days of these all-consuming family events), but it seems not uncommon that the hotel is overtaken by large parties of the extended family of the proprietor's. Even before we visited I had read reviews on TripAdvisor mentioning that the hotel was full with some family celebration, and that they as paying guests could not eat in the hotel's dining room and were sometimes rather ignored. || Well, this also happened to us during our overnight in October 2015...although we sort of didn't mind! We were not really unhappy about it, because the hotel is beautiful, on the small square and just across from the monastery, which was our main reason to visit. We were given a very nice room upstairs with one of the few double beds. When we arrived the young woman at the front desk told us she had no room for us to have almeurzo, but to return after 3:30. But when we returned she had no place for us. A large baptismal party was in full sway in the dining room. The woman offered us a sofa and low table in the lobby, to have a glass of wine. She eventually came out and asked if we'd just like to dine there? Sure, we said. She brought us the specialty, roast baby lamb, which was easily the best roast lamb! I knew the food would be good based on Penelope Casas's mentions of it in her excellent books on Spain and Spanish cooking.|| So, we ate delicious ham soup and then perfect roast lamb at a cocktail table at about our knee level, watching the young children of this family entertaining themselves politely and charmingly nearby, and other older family members come and go from the dining rooms. One young mother of the baptismal group very kindly approached us, to say that the hotel isn't usually this chaotic. We said we didn't mind. (Of course, we were being extremely polite, because we do think family sacramental celebrations are important, far moreso than our little meal.... but we did pay full fare to dine in a busy lobby, front door opening to cold wind at our right elbow.) || So, while we truly didn't mind being kept on the periphery of the hotel's facilities, we think others might ask about this when booking a room. In the evening, after attending Vespers and before attending Compline at the monastery, we did manage to find a spot at the bar for some nice ham and cheese with wine. Morning breakfast was tasteful and peaceful, very good breads and cafe con leche. Also, the staff is very courteous. In the morning one woman kindly insisted on carrying my suitcase down the stairs for me. And, the children in the celebrating family truly were polite and amusing. Several of the little girls jumped up to assist me when I asked them how to use the WiFi. And in the morning, the proprietor was helpful in providing a map for our drive to Leon.

What a lovely village and what a quaint little hotel on a village square. Very quiet except when the bells till at 09:00. And it's not 9 peels! It's a 3 minute bell performance. Not goo for a lie in. There is a quiet little bar and an even quieter restaurant where the food is not too bad but I saw no chef so I guess the barmaid microwaved it. Total price including dinner bottle of wine and double room was £73. Shower in room was just adequate. I would stay here one night for the location an surrounding scenery. But no longer.

I can't imagine having a better experience! The staff was polite and helpful beyond expectations. For example, we were curious about the filming of the movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which was filmed close by. When we asked about the hike there it was later in the day and the man at the front desk started calling around to see if he could find someone to take us to the location. The rooms were clean, comfortable and quiet. We had a delicious dinner. The service was wonderful. Pollo guisado cooked perfectly. Breakfast in the morning was included and extensive! Fresh fruits, bread, yogurts, meats, cheese, coffee... Really, a perfect stay and highly recommended!

If you've had enough of the cathedrals of Burgos and Leon and want somewhere quiet to unwind, the Hotel Tres Coronas in Santo Domingo offers something for almost every body.||The hotel sits presiding over the main square of this small town. Inside is dark,old wood, bejewelled occasionally with antique furniture, a stack of magazines here, a pile of books there. The downstairs is mainly taken up with the dining room and bar, but the lovely staircase takes one up to one's room - our's on the top floor with a landing of table, chairs and reading material - comfortably fitted out, clean, big bed, comfortable pillows and spare blankets in the cupboard if needed.||Downstairs, in the restaurant, or indeed on the terrace if it's a nice day, the food is flavoursome and generous. The menu has that rarity in Spanish menus, things that are really vegetarian. No hidden bits of ham or chicken, just a vegetable casserole, full of local fresh vegetables in a light, well-flavoured stock, or you may prefer artichokes with porcini mushrooms, again no hidden 'extras', just what it says. For carnivores I can personally vouch for the rabbit which was delicious and also for the lamb, roasted in a traditional wood fired oven, (the portion was so big, it even had the German couple, on the table next to us, aghast). The staff are helpful and friendly: though English was not their strong suit. The place is tightly run by the owner whose father's bust watches over the transactions at the reception desk, keeping, I have no doubt, every one on their toes. During the day one can sit and watch the Griffon Vultures sailing on thermals above the town, in the evening it is a very short stroll down to the monastery to hear the monks celebrate Mass in plainsong.||If you like looking at gardens, a short walk to the west end of the town, behind the official car-park, will take you to the town's allotments, interesting as much for the imagination of the allotmenteers in their fencing and seating arrangements, as for the quality and fecundity of the produce itself. I think that one night is probably not enough.