Pensións: a private room.

Pensións generally provide a private room combined with a shared bathroom or small locker room. The private room makes them a step up from hostels; the shared bathroom facilities put them below hotels.  Just as hostels often refer to themselves as both albergues and hostels, pensións can overlap with both hostels and hotels.

The pensión I stayed at in Soto de Luiña, my room in the photo on the right, was a part of a 3-star hotel, Casa Vieja del Sastre in August of 2022. The red brick building just beyond the hotel, the green building, was the pensión (photo credit Casa Vieja del Sastre).

The hotel website today makes no mention of the pensión rooms so they may be being renovated to include in-suite bathrooms or there may be some other change to the property. That’s kind of sad as it was an excellent place for an elderly peregrino.

The hotel website does mention the hotel restaurant. I ate at the hotel restaurant the night I stayed in the pensión. It was an outstanding choice and I recommend the place wholeheartedly.

Today’s version of the hotel website includes a page specifically encouraging peregrinos to stay there with both a 15% discount and special services including massage and even a ride for those pilgrims who simply cannot reach the end of the etapa on their own. Things like that might make a relatively expensive hotel room worth the extra cost.