A few years ago I was on holiday in Spain with my sister and mother, when we arrived we stayed in the cheapest hotel we could find, with breakfast included. We would stuff our faces before exploring the local beaches and shops. The breakfast was continental, with 2-day old croissants and acidic OJ, and the room it was served in smelt appalling. We loved the area of Spain, it was so sunny and beautiful and we could just go out and explore, but the worst part of the day was always coming back to that awful hotel.
After a few days we moved to our second hotel of the trip. Mum had saved hundreds of shop vouchers, so we had a discount on a 5* hotel. The taxi ride took us out of town and up the mountains, there was still a lovely view of the town, but instead of the dusty streets we were surrounded by nature. We arrived at big wooden gate doors, drove along the long winding “drive-way” (about a mile long) to the reception, it was absolutely stunning. We were beyond excited – this place had 3 infinity pools, and gardens filled with flowers and plants from all over the world, beautifully kept, like a jungle of paradise locked up from the rest of the city.
It was a hot day, and we were all a bit sweaty, wearing our clothes from a day of walking and each accompanied by an old, tattered bit of luggage. We checked in and got told to wait for someone to escort us to our room. Not long passed and a boy arrived, he looked like something out of the nutcracker, the way his uniform was crisp and clean, and he was ever so polite. He helped us with our bags and took us to our rooms, through corridors that were gleaming clean and thriving with healthy splashes of green vines and plants.
We got to our rooms and put down our bags, mum looked at the boy as she searched her ripped jean pockets for some money to tip him. She pulled out a crumpled five euro note and handed it to him. He looked at it, looked at me and my sister, and turned back to mum and said “mm no thanks” with a shrug as he smiled kindly and walked away.
We laughed so hard and never forgot that moment when the bellboy felt too sorry for us to take the tip as he decided we’d need it more than him! That night we had snacks in our bags for dinner, and shared an omelette and a jar of olives between us. It was delivered through room service, so it was extremely costly.
The breakfast at this place was incredible, with a chocolate fountain, hot drinks expertly made by baristas and all sorts of pastries, fruits, and other foods. Our breakfast was included so we all stuffed our faces every morning as we knew it would be the main meal of the day!
We had an absolutely wonderful stay there, with memories I’ll never forget. On the last day as we checked out my sister got a glimpse of the receipt – “HEY!” she said, “They’ve charged us for the deluxe package massage – we didn’t have that?!”
Mum started blushing and stared at her a little in shock, she lowered her voice and said “actually, I did…”. One day when she sent us off to have fun, she snuck in an hour long Thai Massage without telling us. But nothing gets passed my sister.
In all seriousness it was a lovely holiday and Mum deserved the massage (although she shouldn’t’ve hidden it from us!), and we never starved even though it really felt like we were living on the edge every day – we were very fortunate to have such a lovely holiday.
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