This review is for anyone who's booking a trip from afar and thinks it might be easy to fly into…read moreBadajoz and rent a car to drive around Western Spain. This is an insanely small regional airport. It appears there are only 2 flights in or out a day, and I found it surprisingly impossible to find a rental car after my flight was diverted to Sevilla and arrived at Badajoz Airport by bus. (The inability of the pilot to land in fog may also be due to the limited resources of a tiny airport.) Because I arrived at a time with no scheduled arrivals, there were few resources to get me to my rental car downtown, and when I finally took a €25 taxi, I found that Enterprise was closed for a 3 hour afternoon siesta! (Owing to the delay, I had missed my initial reservation, and by the time they reopened at 16:30, they were fresh out of cars.) All that said, the airport is surprisingly new and modern looking; there's even overhead signage pointing you to the gates, as if you could possibly miss them! You could totally film an airport movie scene here, and with the right angles you'd never know it was about the size of a high school gymnasium and about as noisy as a monastery.

Kinda funny that we made the same assessment of the hotel not earning a five stare status the first…read morecouple of hours upon arrival. The first major drop was when I asked the desk manager if the front terrace had wait service - response "I don't know" well do they serve tapas, " you will have to ask someone in the restaurant" ---- as I recall, " I don't know" should never be uttered to a gust at a fife star hotel who's rating is earned for it's service to it's guests. Second major clue, barman told guests the bar was closed a few minutes after one of the Easter processions ended. He had a few children with the group of four adults. The bar was NOT closed, maybe didn't want to deal with the group. Manager overhead and apologized. But that was it.... So don't expect anything to be improved. That said, is well located and reasonably well equiped. It's a solid 3 star. Price wasn't bad either. So... As long as you are not expecting five star service, its a decent stay, would give them a four star if they presented themselves as a four star hotel and be BS the public.

On the first night in Merida, the hotel we stayed at was called Merida Palace which is right by the…read moresquare. I liked it because this is a historical hotel and the rooms are very well decorated. We have two rooms which are connected. The rooms have two beds in one room and the other had a king size bed. Perfect for four people. The bathrooms are huge and decorated with local art back when it was a Palace, I guess? The room also came with a hot water kettle which allows one to get hot tea when one needs something warm. I alway bring my Trader Joe's instant coffee pack $1.99 for 10 whenever I go, so I made myself some coffee in the morning. The hotel has a nice old feel to it, it reminds me of the Steigenberger Hotel in the city center of Lepzig, Germany, or the Intercontinental Hotel in Bordeaux, or the Grand Bretagne hotel in Athens, All by the city center, and all very old and very posh. A good night stay for sure. Do not miss if you are here to visit the Roman ruins.