Name: Hostal Virgen de la Encina
Address: Calle comendador, 4, Ponferrada, Ponferrada, Ponferrada, 24401, Spain
Rating: 7

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Elevator/lift

Smoke-free property

Heating

Newspapers

Ticket assistance

Terrace

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Rooms

Accessibility features

Accessibility

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Common kitchen

Restaurant

Snack bar

Bottled water (at extra charge)

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Spanish

English

Languages Spoken

Tour assistance

Tourist services

No parking

Parking

Event facilities

Meeting and presentation facilities

Conference Hall

Business

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hostel

Museo de la Radio

Hostal Virgen de la Encina

Ponferrada

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I took my Trip Via Caminoways.com. I planned to stay here at Hostal Virgen de la Encina however I could not get transportation to it.  I instead arrived the following day after paying for separate accommodation the night before elsewhere.  
I found the main contact here to be very rude who hung up on the phone twice and when I needed to organise a Taxi would not talk to the Taxi Company herself in Spanish and got me to do it. 
I had paid for the previous night there and I was surprised by this.  
I am sure it's fine as long as you don't run into any issues.
Caminoways.com helped me out greatly

Avoid If You Encounter Any Problems

Couple of drinks overlooking the castle. Ordered food really good quality food and high standard for a very good price highly recommend a visit. In the centre of the town and square very easy to fine and service was really good and a good people watching place.

Lovely meal

The proximity to the Knights Templar Castle was absolutely fantastic and the people were very pleasant. We loved the balcony overlooking the castle and the room was fine.  We really appreciated the lift!
But the lights were very dim; a dead bulb didn't help. The shower was so tiny it was unsafe. Also dangerous was the lack of sensors for the lights in the hallways.

The night was cold - an extra blanket would have been welcome. The wifi didn't provide Internet access. 

The door key was tricky to manipulate, the bathroom taps were loose,  one of the beds was really squeaky and two people need two bedside tables.

We arrived unexpectedly early so were willing to wait but each time we were given had to be extended because the room still was not ready. This happened three times.

Our breakfast was very meagre. Toast and coffee and one orange (only when fruit was requested). An enquiry about yoghurt was met with a shake of the head. We expected better as we had a brisk, cold walk ahead.

 Small improvements will really help.

Set in the historic town centre of Ponferrada, this casual budget hotel is less than five-minute’s walk from the Castilllo de Los Templarios and just over ten minutes from Gil y Carrasco “El Plantio” Park. The train station is less than a kilometre away.
 
The rooms are down to earth and mine featured a flat-screen television, wardrobe and en-suite shower-only bathroom with a balcony. It offered rustic décor including exposed stone walls and, I’m told, some rooms even have a whirlpool tub. The reception is manned 24 hours and the staff exceptionally helpful and friendly. 
 
The adjacent tapas restaurant and cosy bar serve meals all day, including a continental breakfast (served daily 06:00-12:00 with tea, coffee and fruit juice) and both they and the hotel are child-friendly. I’m unsure about pets.
 
The building is set over three storeys, with tall wide windows and a lovely pale yellow colour as if straw has been diluted with white, the shade resembling the hue of sunflowers or ripe lemons. The decorative wrought-iron of the balconies adds a rustic feel similar to a Provence landscape painting by early-twentieth-century French artist Gabriel Deschamps and the wooden door frames compliment the flaxen perfectly. The name of the hostal is written along a small canopy above the entrance but also attached to the middle floor, written vertically, beside the middle window, for there are three across the façade.
 
There is also an entrance on Calle Comendador (Comendador Street) around the back of the building and this is where the bar can be found, along a narrow street, cobbled, and encroaching on the adjacent building that adds charm to this beautiful city.
 
My room has large wooden shutters which are left open and, by doing so, let in the illuminating sunshine which means lights are not needed. There are two large beds, separated by a small chest of drawers and they back onto one of the dry stone walls mentioned earlier. Yet the room in no way feels cool or draughty because of this large stone interface. It is charming, and traditional and not ruined by plastering over and painted as the temptation with some more modern, overpriced hotels would likely do. The bathroom is small but clean, as I said mine just had a shower, but there is also a toilet and sink and, again, light filters through a frosted glass window. A nice touch is the tap which, in fitting with the rest of the establishment, is rustic in that it doesn’t match the rest of the gleaming white porcelain. In my humble opinion, that makes it better, but I’d struggle to explain why. Complimentary soap, shower gels and nail files (classy) add to the charm. 
 
The bar downstairs is a large open space, with traditional columns still supporting high roofs and a small brick wall topped with wood offers the bar area. Behind, well-stocked, bottles glisten, for it is bright here too, and there are newspapers available (predictably Marca, the popular sports daily), when the locals don’t monopolize them anyway. The furniture is wooden, as is the flooring and the beams of the ceiling, yet the whole feels modern, clean, merging the traditional with the current fad for urban modernism. The bar is a pleasant area and it is moderately priced too. 
 
Perhaps the best thing about the hotel is the location. Overlooking the broad square, to my left lies the excellent Museo de la Radio (Radio Museum), Luis del Olmo’s appreciation of the medium as a means of communication and a testimony to his hard work in the field in getting this recognised. A visit is a must. Opposite, a low lying building sits broodingly, one-tiered, offering a glimpse of a distant church tower and the imposing edging of the Castillo de los Templarios (Templar’s Castle) walls. Beyond even that, one can look out at the mountains which surround this beautiful city, and, as I while away the hours standing on the balcony thinking, it is interesting to hint that these very mountains do likewise, creating an inner peace that takes me away from the hustle and bustle of a city and right into the heart of those hills, deep, secure, calm, contemplative in silence. As if connecting with my inner soul isn’t rewarding enough in itself, I spot a man stooping, shuffling silently, first around the corner, into view, then making his pitiful way across the square, dragging his feet across the shadows as if they are weighed down by chains, sticking close to the sides of the building, walking ever so slowly, dressed in a dark brown of a pantomime villain on his way to some devilry, a man with the weight of the world on his slight shoulders and, now free of my own burden, I feel able to relieve some of that old man’s pain myself, make him sprightly again, out of sight, a new man. 
 
The nearest supermarket (Mercadona) is less than a kilometre away, the Plaza de Abastos market (well worth a visit) a similar distance. There are rivers very close by whereas a large lake, Lago de Carucedo (where legend has it that Roldan’s Sword is hidden), is just over fifteen kilometres away and near the wonderful Roman Mines of Las Medulas. The mountains are between seven and twelve kilometres away and they are called La Tebaiada, Manzanedo de Valdueza and San Facundo, though I’m not familiar with which one I look out over, from my room in this excellent Hostal. Thoroughly recommended.

Rustic rooms, a bar and a tapas restaurant in a casual budget hotel set in a 19th-century building

This was a very nice, inexpensive hostel along the way to Santiago.  

It's across a small plaza from an impressive Templar castle.

The room was clean, small, cozy, and very comfortable.  It had a very nice bathroom. A big window that opened out onto a quiet little alley way.  The bar/restaurant was very nice (someone posted a really good photo here).  The breakfast was satisfying and the coffee was hot and strong.  The orange juice was freshly squeezed and delicious.  The staff were great!

I honestly don't know about the couple of odd negative reviews.  My experience was very pleasant.

They also had secure storage for my bicycle.

I Liked It

A great place to stay for the night when passing through Ponferrada. It is located above a bar but it was not noisy.Staff were very welcoming and the room was small but clean with bright decor. Lovely view over the castle. Good value for money. Breakfast is available in the bar and is traditional Spanish. 

Cute hostel next to castle

A great end to the day for 6 Camino cyclists.  Above average hostal accommodation on the camino.  Our rooms were great with views overlooking the castle in pretty much the centre of town.  Bikes accommodated in separate building opposite the hostal.  Busy bar full of locals later in the evening.

Hostal Virgen de la Encina

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