Mr & MRS Smith Hacienda de San Rafael

The most perfect stay! The location is idyllic and peaceful. The food is delicious and the set menu in the evening can be tweaked to cater for pescatarians, vegetarians etc. The accommodation is very comfortable and extremely clean. The staff are wonderful! A special shout out to Isabel! We will be back!

This is a gorgeous place to stay. It is a beautiful house set in quiet and unspoilt countryside south of Seville. The rooms are lovely, with super comfortable beds and pillows. The meals were exceptional - delicious food served in really lovely settings. Both the alfresco lunch by the pool and the more formal dinner in the dining room were perfect. Best of all were the lovely staff who made us so welcome and were exceptional hosts. Thank you!!

We needed a hotel near Seville on our way from Portugal to Malaga and found this one at Conde Nast Traveller. We did not expect much and my wife asked “why do we need to go there?” before we arrived. At the end we were all overwhelmed by the magic of the place, the friendly, well trained and efficient staff and the owner Anthony, who definitely has guru qualities. I did not only have the best massage and many great breakfasts in a row but as well the most impressive inland sunset I have ever seen. Please don’t go there all at once, we do want to find a free room or a little villa next year when we plan to come back. Rainer and family, Germany

We had our wedding at Hacienda de San Rafael and it was truly wonderful. It was the perfect weekend and the Hacienda the most beautiful location to celebrate. The service was impeccable the whole stay - every need was catered for and everything so seamless, making it such an enjoyable experience for all the guests. Food was amazing at every meal. Thank you so much to Sofia, Anthony and all the team at HSR for making it so special.

Hacienda de San Rafael is a lovely place. The setting is pretty, the buildings are charming and the food and service is good. However, Hacienda de San Rafael are also charging a super-premium price (EUR 400 per night plus) on top of which they add extras whenever they can (e.g. a cover charge for bread at lunch, a supplement for fresh fruit at breakfast). The feeling, as a result, is of being marooned in a comfortable and attractive cash extraction machine. The same, you may argue, is true of other luxury hotels. Not necessarily the case. We arrived at the Hacienda from a 5* hotel in Cordoba with better facilities and better service that cost less than half the price. My own view, others may disagree, is that when the nightly B&B rate exceeds EUR 400 the following should be true: 1. Breakfast should offer some variety (breakfast at the Hacienda is the same every day and is very basic continental ... anything else is an expensive extra) 2. Breakfast should include a choice of freshly brewed espresso based coffees (coffee at the Hacienda is lukewarm filter served from a stained and cracked vacuum flask) 3. The room should come with a high quality shower with strong water flow (the shower in our room operated with a trickle at best and smelt faintly of sewage) 4. The standard of decoration in the room and in the resort in general should be very high (the standard of decoration was tired in places with missing mosaic tiles in the main pool, an old and dented bin in our bathroom and the toilet roll holder hanging off the wall) 5. The sleep quality should be excellent (our room was neatly sandwiched between an American guest who chose to play very loud music after midnight and the staff food preparation area. In addition we were woken early every morning my staff laying tables for breakfast immediately outside our room) 6. There should be lots of very comfortable and pleasant places to sit especially outside (there are a lot of fairly comfortable places to sit which are ok as long as you are happy to put up with the flies and wasps) 7. Drinks should be high quality and readily available (the drinks menu is not very extensive, and drinks were highly priced and not great quality. The house wine that is included with the EUR 65 dinner menu was not very good and was served warm on one occasion. A shame since the food is excellent) 8. Broadband should be fast and reliable especially in bedrooms (the Hacienda has a bewildering number of WiFi networks none of which seem to be reliable and WiFi was frequently inaccessible from our bedroom) These issues may sound minor. But they have to be taken in the context of the super-premium pricing. They do not feel minor in the context of a 4 night stay costing almost £2.5k.

There are no superlatives excessive enough for how divine this place is! Breakfast served at our patio each AM, dinner by candlelight, cocktails on the terrace, lazy afternoons by the pool — and a staff so lovely and kind, we felt like family! Thank you Anthony, Gerry and Isabel for your hospitality!

Hacienda de San Rafael is an experience and a destination in itself more so than just a hotel! It is a labour of love that has evolved over the past 30 years as the lovely and lively owner, Anthony, will explain to guests upon arrival. You will have breakfast, lunch and dinner at different places within the hacienda. A beautiful view and plenty of bougainvillea flowers decorating all that they do is guaranteed. We loved our breakfasts served, in our own outdoor veranda, by their happy and smiling staff. There are different types of accommodation spread across the hacienda. Some are super new and will even have their own infinite pool. Others are older but still charming. The place never seems crowded as the hacienda is large and the various 'houses' are spaced out. We had one of the pools to ourselves during our stay (normally we would not stay in places with 'many' pools but this is not at all a mass resort. It is all about giving guests maximum privacy and enjoyment). The food is good and the staff is really lovely. It is not that close to any of the major tourist destinations (Sevilla, Cordoba, etc.) but travel is easy if you rent a car as the roads were empty, at least when we visited. We would recommended just staying at the hacienda to enjoy its beautiful grounds, gorgeous nature and the amazing hospitality that is on offer. A perfect holiday to unwind in a beautiful place that feels like your own hacienda!

This Hacienda is just perfect. We stayed for three nights with our 6 year old son and had the mot wonderful cassita to stay in with a beautiful pool. Jerry the manager is so lovely and all of the staff are friendly, kind and helpful. The owners' boys were staying and our son had so much fun playing with them. We can't wait to come again, The food, service and a**osphere are wonderful in every way.