Hotel Leonor de Aquitania

A palace house above the gorge, on Calle San Pedro

The Leonor de Aquitania occupies an 18th-century palace house at number 60 Calle San Pedro, the street that climbs from the Plaza Mayor towards the castle along the edge of the old town. The house overlooks the Huécar gorge. You are a few metres from the cathedral and the Plaza Mayor, and the whole old town can be explored on foot from the door. It is a three-star hotel named after a queen: Eleanor Plantagenet, wife of Alfonso VIII, the king who conquered Cuenca.

Rooms: gorge or street

The rooms suit couples, business trips and families. Some look onto the Huécar gorge and others onto Calle San Pedro: if the views are the reason for the trip, ask for them specifically when you book. All have individual climate control and free wifi. There is a lift and the hotel is adapted for people with reduced mobility.

Check-in is from 14:00 to 00:00 and check-out from 7:00 to 12:00. From Sunday to Friday you can ask to leave as late as 14:00, subject to availability.

The spa and other services

The wellness area has a Finnish sauna, Turkish bath, infrared sauna, jacuzzi, fitness room, a Photon capsule and UVA tanning beds. If you book on its website for two nights or more, access is free. Booking on the website also gives a 5% discount, and with seven days' notice there may be a room upgrade if available.

24-hour reception, restaurant and café (which also caters for banquets), breakfast in the room, room service until 23:00, laundry and dry cleaning, luggage storage and newspapers in the communal areas. Pets are accepted on request, possibly with a supplement.

Better to leave the car outside

It has no car park of its own. There is public parking nearby and the hotel has an arranged car park with a discount on the 24-hour rate for its guests, except on long weekends and public holidays. From the castle car park you walk down in a few minutes. Without a car, urban bus lines 1 and 2 go up to the old town and from the AVE station you connect with line 10.

Next door is Raff San Pedro, at number 58 of the same street. For the day, the Sunday of Hanging Houses, cathedral and Huécar gorge can be done entirely on foot from here.