Hotel Casona de la Reyna

The hotel is located by the river at the foot of the hill on which Toledo old town is situated. It’s slightly away from the centre and very easy to find the way there by car. We booked a double room for one night, which turned out to be the corner room on the first floor overlooking the street. It was medium sized, nicely decorated, spotlessly clean, well appointed, with a large comfortable bed. We heard no street noise overnight. The hotel receptionist was very helpful, particularly when she came outside to assist us with the parking meter (see below). The walk to the old town from the hotel is up steep cobbled streets and I expect is very tiring, particularly in hot weather. However, opposite the hotel is a bus stop from which the No.12 mini bus leaves every 30 mins. For 1 euro this will take you the 5 stops to the junction of Cuesta Carlos V and the Plaza Zocodover at the North West corner of the Alcazar. The downhill walk back to the hotel from this area is no hardship, even after a big meal. There are plenty of bars/restaurants around Plaza Zocodover and nearby Plaza Magdalena, although the restaurants don’t start to open until about 20:00. A bit further along Cuesta Carlos V from the bus stop is where the tourist “train” runs from. This is a pleasant and informative 45mins trip around the city walls with stunning views of Toledo from the opposite side of the river. Parking, we have a large SUV (Jag F-Pace) and parking it was the main reason for choosing this hotel. It has its own garage for 15 euro a night. The entrance door is wide enough for any size car to get in or out, but the 10 or so parking bays inside are quite narrow. Getting into one when the surrounding bays are empty and can be driven into to help manoeuvring would be no problem either. However if the surrounding bays are taken, I imagine the bigger the car, the more awkward the necessary shuffling would be. In the end we didn’t need the garage because there are 8 or so on street parking bays directly outside the hotel, and we arrived about 15:00 and dropped lucky and got one. In fact the closer it got to 17:00, the more spaces became available. These bays are in the orange zone 1 area which means there is a charge to park between 10:00 x 14:00 and 17:00 x 21:00 on weekdays. It’s 3 euro for each 4 hour period. The parking meter is a bit complicated, but as best I remember it goes like this. Touch the screen to turn on. Then press the key with the flag icon on it. Select English. Select “general” ticket. Type in your car number and then pay. Display ticket in your windscreen. You can pay at any time but the ticket doesn’t start until the charge period. We paid 3 euro at 15:00, which covered us until 10:00 the following day, by which time we’d left. I imagine there are nicer hotels, in better locations, further up in the old town, but with a car there are only a couple of underground public car parks up there and some of the streets are very narrow. Staying at this hotel avoi