Face-lift: High Style, Low Rates: The Spanish Government Is Onto Something Good
Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, March, 2006 by Tiffany Sharples
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For Joaquin Jesus Serrano, working as a bartender at the Parador de Zafra, in a commanding 15th-century castle, used to feel a bit too much like returning to the Middle Ages. "The lighting was so dark, and the walls were plain white," he explains while refilling a glass of Rioja. Today, Serrano may as well be in West Hollywood. The parador's backlit bar is as subtly glam as anything on Melrose Avenue. Round silver mirrors line the soft gray walls, and a sophisticated crowd settles into brown, round-backed chairs.
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Spain's state-run parador system was founded in 1928 by King Alfonso XIII, with two goals. He wanted to preserve deteriorating buildings-about half of the 91 paradores are in palaces, convents, and the like-by opening them as lodgings (parador means "stopping place"). And he hoped to make exploring the country easy for all by keeping the rates low. ...
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