This one is on top of a hill overlooking the town of Monforte de Lemos. This is one of their more recent conversions. The complex consists of a 17th century monastery, 16th century palace and a medieval tower. The hotel is in the monastery bit, while the palace is used as a conference centre.

The whole assembly is, to say the least, impressive. The hotel is done out with usual Parador style, great rooms will superb views, cloisters to wander round or sit and relax, nice pool and there's a gym. The food is excellent, even better than most Paradors, whioch are pretty good at the best of times.

Monforte is a pleasant riverside town, a twenty minute walk down from the Parador - the staff will show you where the footpath is - though the climb back up will seem rather steep if you've been tapas-crawling.

Well worth a visit.

We have stayed in many Paradors in Spain and this was the best ever. The building is spectacular. It was opened in 2003 and has been renovated in a magnificent way. It was a 16th century monastery, and you cannot get away from this.

It was wonderful to see the locals visiting the building to view it, wander around the cloisters and have a drink in the bar area. We even got talking to a chap from Monforte who had played in the ruins as a child, and he couldn't believe how wonderfully renovated and restored it was.

The only downside is that you do need a car for this region - we've always travelled around the other regions of Spain via train and bus and never had a problem, but the public transport system in this region is not the best.

This does however mean that the area is totally unspoilt by tourists, and we were delighted in being one of the rare tourists, and even the Tourist Information office seemed surprised we were there!