Well, after faxing and/or emailing my final 2 hotels in Llanes and Luarca for my upcoming trip (leaving next week )and receiving no response, I broke down and telephoned them yesterday. My spanish is very limited but I managed to get the reservation made and gave them my name. They said they did not need a credit card number to hold the reservation nor did I need a confirmation number - everything was OK. Is this normal?

I usually receive an email or fax for my confirmation so I have everything set when I arrive - I'm a female traveling alone and like to have my hotels set ahead of time. I'm a little uneasy about this but it is off season in 2 cities that are highly seasonal so I should be fine.

Should I try to fax now to receive a confirmation, or perhaps just wait until the day I arrive and phone ahead with my arrival time?

I really do need to learn the language much better :o .

Thanks all!

CathyM writes: The situation you descrribe is not unusual. I have had it happen several times and called from the airport or bus or train station on arrival to make sure they were holding my reservation. Most recently it was in VilaGarcia de Arousa (Galicia). In one or two instances, I arrived a day early: the Hotel Santa Maria in el Puerto de Santa Maria (Cadiz) and the Hotel America in Vigo (Pontevedra) were able to accomodate me.
BTW
You write: My last September visit to el Sardinero (Santander, Cantabria) the high season didn't end until el Día de Cantabria, 15 September, so I just assume the case would be the same for Llanes (Principality of Asturias), which is just across the rio Deva (i.e., less than 80 km west from Santander).

Thanks, Eddie.

I think I'll just telephone the day I'm going to arrive and give them my arrival time so there are no surprises. I thought about faxing them again before I leave for confirmation but with the language difference it could result in even more confusion!

I was in Santander the end of September 2002 and it was pretty lively, but when I did a daytrip to San Vicente de la Barquera up the coast it was very quiet. I'm hoping it's not too quiet this time of year but at least I did get the low season rates on my hotel.

I'm going to post a transportation question (in the proper forum) also that I think you can help me with...particularly when it comes to this area of spain and public transportation.

Thanks again!