REMANSO DE TRASFONTAO Casa das Árbores & Bubble

Wonderful
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple
  : Virginia was a super hostess, so welcoming. The property is stunning and the surroundings are gorgeous. It is difficult to run a luxury bed and breakfast and keep the house immaculate when you are part of a working farm but she manages it wonderfully. We stayed in 8 different hotels during our 1350km road trip around beautiful Galicia in the autumn. I can say that this hotel was definitely the most comfortable. The bed was enormous and exactly the right kind of support. It is clear they have invested a great deal in creating accommodation that features the best of modernity married with traditional materials and architectural nuances. The end result is a hotel that looks charming but is also very practical, without draughts, creaky floor boards and similar! Everywhere was spotlessly clean. The huge spa bath for two was a delightful luxury. Virginia excelled at providing us exactly what we wanted in terms of food for breakfast, especially since my husband is vegan and I am vegetarian. The packed picnic basket of breakfast goodies each morning was stuffed with so many items of fresh loveliness! Having use of the spacious private kitchen for guests was an unexpected bonus and we loved being able to cook a hot vegan dinner one night we were there. Despite being literally a storey away from many cows being milked and fed every day, we were surprised to not even hear one 'Moo!' from the animals, the double-glazing is that good. My husband absolutely loved this hotel and it was his favourite of all the ones we stayed at during this vacation.
  : The hotel was wonderful but I actually wish it had not had a farm attached to it, as I got upset over what I saw. The second night I barely slept as I was so sad about what was going on outside my window, a storey below. I am vegetarian. My husband is vegan. So we are sensitive (and most would say OVER-sensitive) to these things. I did mention to Virginia that I was tearful seeing how the baby animals (calves of just a few days old) were being treated - separated from their mothers for apparently 24hrs a day and kept in cages most of the time so they could barely stand or turn around, having no contact at all with their mothers, never feel grass only concrete below their feet, and fed just a couple of times a day. The looks on their faces, the bewilderment and sadness that I picked up from them was awful to see. But of course I acknowledge that I am not a veterinarian and I am not a farming and husbandry official and have no training in this, all I can relate is how I FELT about what I saw. Virginia did tell me that she also feels sad for the babies, taken away from their mothers and told me that later on, the babies and Mums will be reunited in the field, some weeks or months in the future (that seems to be far too late to me!) All that said, I am sure this farm is actually an example of how animals are treated BETTER than other farms and not the worst, in terms of how animals are kept in modern farming methods all over the world. All I can say is that if you still believe what you saw as a child in picture books about how dairy farms work, you are clinging to a romanticised shadow of what is modern reality: maximising profits at the expense of countless animals' emotional and mental wellbeing. I am switching over to being vegan from now on, as a result.

Good
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple