We stayed here for 2 nights in September, travelling up from the coast. To be frank, I doubt very much if we'd have done this if it hadn't been a special offer. Glad we did as it allowed us to discover a very different bit of the country. Illueca itself is nothing special, the hotel being easily the most outstanding building there. Following our SatNav meant an approach from the back of the hotel up a very precarious narrow road. We discovered a much safer approach the following day! The surrounding villages and area, however proved most interesting, with more than enough monasteries, castles and ancient sites to visit.
We enjoyed our stay although found the hotel rather soulless and definitely understaffed. We had a top floor room, with balcony, at the back with great views of the surrounding mountains. It was comfortable with a good bathroom, fine for our needs. I was a little surprised to find the room folder totally void of anything- no information of hotel facilities, tourist info. - nothing. Getting information from the concierge was also difficult, our spanish is rudimentary, her english non-existent. (The tourist office, however, is next door!)
Our deal included the romantic dinner, with wine, which I must say was excellent. The earliest they serve dinner is 9.00pm which some people might find rather late. My criticism would be that before dinner we tried to order drinks at the bar. After a wait for someone to appear we asked for a fino sherry. Unbelievably, after a few minutes of searching, we were informed they didn't have any! All exported I guess.
Breakfast was fine with a reasonable choice although the one waiter had to do everything with the consequence that on the first morning the scrambled eggs arrived after we'd finished eating and on the second they still hadn't appeared by the time we left. Would I return, probably not unless they improve their customer service but the area is definitely worth a visit. Don't miss the Monasterio de Piedra.

First the good news. This is a hotel in a beautiful castle (XIV-XVII centuries) with great views over the village of Illueca and surrounding attractive hills of Zaragoza province. It has it´s own bar and restaurant which serves decent evening meals (with red wine from nearby Cariñena), and the half board price is a good deal. It lies about halfway between Madrid and Barcelona, so is a good one-night stopover. The rooms are modern - ours was a trifle small but ok, with good views and very quiet. The bad news? Well, as is often the case, the devil is in the detail. The bed was uncomfortable, especially the pillows, which made a good night´s sleep (for us at least) impossible. There were lots of annoying flies in the bar and, especially, with the breakfast. The breakfast, even ignoring the flies, was meagre - one of the worst I have had in Spain. With so little extra effort, this place could be so much better. If there are flies all over the place, why do they leave the buffet food open without cover? Why do they serve such cheap juice - better none at all. I don´t know whether I would recommend it or not, but will say yes (unenthusiastically) because the building is so fine and in the hope that they change those pillows and improve the breakfast! The village below does not seem to merit much attention, apart from the church immediately below the castle which has great mudejar decoration inside.

At first we were surprised to find out this hotel was not in the city of Zaragoza, but in the Spanish province of Zaragoza. Then our GPS led us up a narrow, steep, unpaved back road at night. But with our first view of the front of this former papal palace, lit up and overlooking the valley below, we loved it. Sure, the elevator makes peculiar noises, and I have trouble with stairs, but we enjoyed our one-night stay here immensely. We had a snack at the bar when we arrived in the late afternoon/early evening, then had dinner in the dining room. Breakfast was also served in the dining room and did not disappoint us. We are Canadians, and our country just doesn't have 15th century buildings, so we were thrilled, and would recommend this place to anyone who wants a beautiful out-of-the-way hotel in Aragon. Castillo Papa Luna was a wonderful start to our week's drive through Spain.