La Rioja, Spain

Casa Grande

Price per night from$211.12

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR198.82), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Casa Grande Photos

Style

Grande design

Setting

Pilgrim’s paradise

Explore

More hotels in La Rioja More hotels in Spain

Quite literally a big house formed from old local stone and sleek new black wood, Casa Grande in La Rioja is a pilgrimage for holy holidaymakers and adventurous oenophiles alike. The minimalist yet mediaeval manor is next door to the church in the village of Grañón, with the spire and local terracotta roofs on show from the hotel’s hallowed terrace. The masterpiece masonry has been expanded over the years and the interiors are entirely modern, bar the original beam and stone backdrop. And if the spirit of adventure suddenly takes you, the village is a pitstop on the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain’s most prolific wine-producing wonderland.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of wine and a welcome snack

Facilities

Photos Casa Grande facilities

Need to know

Rooms

11, including three suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £186.71 (€219), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates don’t usually include breakfast (from €20).

Also

Look closely at the façades and you may find a family crest lurking in the masonry.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Nespresso coffee machine, free bottled water, TV, air-conditioning and under-floor heating.

Our favourite rooms

Each room has the same stylish, seamless mix of ancient framework and modern additions, with black panels, red armchairs and polished wooden floors amid the beams and bubbled stone walls. Tall people may want to avoid the rooms with sloping ceilings above the bed, although they do have a skylight for some spire-spotting – more of which awaits from the terrace of room 23.

Packing tips

A thirst for (wine and) knowledge, pilgrimage-friendly footwear and lots of taxi money so you can enjoy the output of the local wineries and cellars freely.

Also

There’s an adapted room and a lift for disabled guests.

Children

Over-9s are welcome.

Food and Drink

Photos Casa Grande food and drink

Top Table

The terrace is always a good idea, or go for a table at the long black seat at the back of the restaurant for the best views through the windows.

Dress Code

Contemporary cassocks.

Hotel restaurant

It’s not all about the Riojan wine at the restaurant (though that does feature) – the region’s traditional food is celebrated as well and not just in the form of huge hunks of grilled meat and Grañón’s signature fried potatoes (though those do feature, too). You’ll be able to make your wine selection from the cellar, which, naturally, showcases the best of the region’s renowned grape juice.

Hotel bar

The cellar’s stockpile is for sale so you may as well get tasting – you’ll also be able to settle onto the terrace for tapas, cocktails and coffee.

Last orders

Breakfast hours are between 8.30am and 10.30am, lunch service is from 1pm to 3pm and dinner is served from 8pm until 10pm. The bar is open from 12pm until 11pm.

Room service

Food can be ordered to your room during restaurant hours.

Location

Photos Casa Grande location
Address
Casa Grande
Calle del Caño 13
Grañón
26259
Spain

Casa Grande is in Spain’s rolling La Rioja wine region, surrounded by cereal fields and forests, and next door to the church in the village of Grañón, which is traversed by the Camino de Santiago.

Planes

The nearest airport is in Bilbao – the drive south should take around an hour and a half.

Trains

Haro has a train station that’s served by direct trains from Bilbao-Abando.

Automobiles

A car will definitely come in handy for exploring rural La Rioja and its many mountains, monasteries and wineries. There’s a public car park close to the casa.

Worth getting out of bed for

La Rioja isn’t just for wine fans, though they will love the fact that days (and nights) can be spent almost exclusively in cellars and wineries – the nearby town of Haro has been making wine for centuries now. The area’s great outdoors allow for skiing and snow-shoeing in Valdezcaray, and hiking in the Sierra de la Demanda, as well as hot-air-ballooning, mushroom foraging, horse-riding and cycling. The Camino de Santiago calls through these parts – one of the pilgrimage’s great stops, the ancient city of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, is near Grañón. Visitors can also voyage to the World Heritage-listed monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla, or undertake a  we cooperation jpilgrimage of a different kind to pay homage to tapas on Calle Laurel, a small-plate-dispensing street in Logroño, La Rioja’s capital city.

Local restaurants

Fittingly for somewhere with such a celebrated wine yield, La Rioja has lots of fine-dining establishments to enjoy it at (along with some equally fancy food) – pitstops worth a pilgrimage include Venta Mocalvillo in Daroca de la Rioja and Nublo in the wine capital of Haro.

Local bars

If you’ve made a mission to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, you can reward your efforts with some cooling cocktails at Café Tertulia; and refreshment also awaits at Troika in Ezcaray.

Reviews

Photos Casa Grande reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Spain and unpacked their red wines and rosaries, a full account of their Bacchus-pleasing break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Casa Grande in La Rioja…

Those seeking spiritual enlightenment and those just in search of a delicious drink will enjoy a trip to Spain’s northern countryside and a stay at Casa Grande. It may be more the latter flocking to La Rioja these days, but the devout can still depart for the Camino de Santiago, or Way of Saint James – the pious pathway winds through the neighbouring fields and foothills, with monasteries, churches and villages for your anointed pitstops. 

Casa Grande’s old stone walls have been added to over the years, but the new minimalist modern interiors were designed to keep things simple and streamlined. There are handy lounges just off the restaurant for when you’ve imbibed too much Rioja and can’t make it to your room without a rest (or you can just detour to the cellar for more wine instead). Masonry marvelling aside, days can be spent on the wine or pilgrim route, with spectacular hiking trails, mountains to ski down and towns to eat tapas in – with a refuge the average pilgrim could only dream of (and a huge bed) awaiting your return. Your prayers have been answered. 

You’ll also find Casa Grande in:

Book now

Price per night from $211.12

Hotels nearby

Villas nearby