Pension Correo

Any port in a storm

We left Nerja in the rain some time after 1030 AM for the 220-km drive on the coastal toll highway past Gibraltar and through Algeciras before reaching Tarifa. With a stop for lunch in our car at a gasoline station along the way, combined with getting a bit lost as we negotiated the interchanges in Algeciras, it was late afternoon by the time we arrived - but at least the sky was clearing! After finding a street parking spot in the centre of Old Tarifa, we set off on foot using Sue's Lonely Planet book and talking to passers by as we checked out some leads. We had our sights set on Hostal Africa but found it closed until February. Another one near our car wanted E70 per night so we passed on that, but they gave us a more detailed map and a couple of other possibilities. The first one was closed but the second (Pension Correo) was open and had one room left for E40 (C$70 or US$55). It was up three flights of stairs but had its own little patio and an attached bathroom, so we decided to take it while the going was good. It was only a couple of blocks from where we had parked our car, so we just left it there for the night and dragged our suitcases down a narrow pedestrian alley between the two locations.

Unique Quality: Pension Correo is so named because it sits opposite a Post Office on one of Tarifa's many narrow streets. It actually used to be a group of houses surrounding a typical Andalusian patio, but they were all taken over and converted into a hotel. The patio remains for the use of patrons, but with a light drizzle falling, we did not make use of either it or our roof-top patio.

The front-desk clerk was very helpful with advice and Pension Correo is located very close to the action in Old Tarifa, with our favourite restaurant located only a few paces away. I would normally have rated it higher but, because we had one of our worst sleeps of all-time as described in my Warnings & Dangers tips, I had to cut a couple of notches off.

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Historical Travel, Photography, Road Trip

Pension Correo Photo: Pension Correo & its street entrance

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