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Top Ten Rooms with a ViewSome might say it’s the quality of the bed and the bathroom that make a good hotel bedroom, others the décor or the size, but these factors often become insignificant if you’ve a great view from the window. Here are our ten favourites. Oustal del Barry, Aveyron (featured on the From the Tarn to the Aveyron walk). This view has such a ‘wow factor’ that the member of staff who nominated it still vividly remembers the moment he opened the bedroom shutters even though it was over 15 years ago. It was late afternoon and the handsome old houses lining Najac’s winding main street were glowing in the sunlight. At the far end of the village, perched on a hill-top, was the village’s picturesque small castle, and beyond that rolling wooded hills. An idyllic scene. Can Xiquet, Catalonia (featured on the Heart of Catalonia cycle). This is a hotel of 4-star standard, with views to match. At night, the vista from your huge bedroom window is spectacular enough, with lights twinkling around the Bay of Roses in the distance. In daylight, however, the view is magnificent, with vineyards climbing up the slopes towards France on one side, and the vast patchwork that is northern Catalonia stretching towards the sparkling blue sea in the other. Pensione Bencistà, Tuscany (featured on the From Bologna to Florence walk). Admittedly this is a view from a dining room, not a bedroom, but it is too good to omit from our list. The Bencistà is a grand 14th-century villa in the hills just north of Florence, Italy’s greatest art city. To reach it, you will have covered some 100 kilometres since leaving Bologna, and now your final destination and the huge dome of the cathedral are so close you could almost reach out and touch them. If one view could encapsulate the magic of Italy, it is this. Can Jou, Catalonia (featured in our horse riding programme and on the Pyrenees to the Garrotxa walk). What makes this view so special is that there are no people – or signs of people, such as houses or roads – to detract from it, giving you a glorious feeling of being completely removed from the everyday world. All you can see are green hills coated in jungle-like Mediterranean woodland in the foreground, and the mighty peaks of the Pyrenees as the breathtaking backdrop. Annie’s Farmhouse, Central Switzerland. Spend a week at this traditional Swiss farmhouse and the Brienzer Rothorn will be a constant companion. It is there when you draw back the curtains in the morning, when you can watch the clouds lifting from the peak, and, after a day of exploring or walking, you can gaze at its slopes as you enjoy a beer on the veranda, knowing that, behind it, hidden from view, are mighty peaks such as the Mönch and the Eiger. Hotel Playa Sol, Catalonia (featured on the Collioure to Cadaqués, Garrotxa to the Mediterranean and Around the Gulf of Roses walks). Translated directly from the Spanish, Hotel Playa Sol means ‘Hotel Beach Sun’, and this sums up the vista from the sea view rooms (available as an upgrade). On a sunny day – something of which there is no shortage – you can sit on your balcony with a glass of sparkling cava and gaze across the glittering sea to the whitewashed houses on the other side of the little bay as they bask in the sunshine against a bright blue sky. No wonder the hotel is at the end of so many walking holidays! |
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Casal de Loivos, Douro Valley (featured on the 
Grand Hotel, Jura (featured on the 
Inntalerhof, Tyrol (featured on the 
Parador, La Palma. Staring across the seemingly never-ending expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, it is hard not to feel humbled. Dramatic in stormy weather, when white horses dance across the waves, this view is at its best on clear, sunny days, when you can see the neighbouring islands of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro across the glittering sea.