A weekend in Matarraña (Teruel)
Welcome to a weekend in Matarraña, one of the most beautiful areas of Teruel!
Matarraña is a region of the Bajo Aragón, located between the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón and Teruel. This region of Aragon is very small, so it’s a perfect stay for a weekend. As this is a two days experience, it is strongly recommended to have everything planned, even the excursions or the places where you can have lunch or dinner.
Personally, it’s a very romantic place to go and it’s a complete experience if you like the adventure, nature, history and gastronomy. Is an ideal place to have a romantic, friends or family weekend, adapted to all the ages and plans.
I hope that this post transmits all the beauty of this area of Teruel. Let’s go!
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ToggleMust visit of Matarraña
- Fuentespalda Zip line
- Ráfales
- Beceite
- Parrizal Route
- Salt de Pontellada
- Calaceite
- Ruins of the Despoblado Ibérico de San Antonio
- Valderrobres
- La Fresneda
DAY 1: FRIDAY
Our first day in Matarraña started when we finished our work day at 2 pm on Friday. We ate something fast and we take our car to go there (we are living in BCN so it was very easy to get there). As it’s a normal thing on a Friday afternoon, it’s not the best day to start visiting things, we decided to start with an adventure activity, the Zip Line of Fuentespalda.
As the name indicates, this activity is located in Fuentespalda village. This is one of the longest zip lines in Europe and it’s fully adapted to disabled people. It has 2 km and it crosses the village from side to side and you reach the 120 km/h. Moreover, the total duration of the flight is 1min 30s. The special factor of this zip line is that you go completely lying down and that makes the experience even better.
In case you decide to go there, it’s a completely recommended activity, a fly sensation (I’m a very fearful person). That will only take 1 hour of you time (we arrived at 18.30 and at 19.30 we were at the hotel.
In order to book the activity, you can do it through their official Fuentespalda’s Zip Line website. If the weather doesn’t allow the activity to be done they get in contact with you to reorganize the activity and give you a solution. We had this problem and the activity was delayed but they had everything under control.
DAY 2: SATURDAY
This was the strong day of our weekend in Matarraña.
We started the day doing the Parrizal Route, one of the most famous of the area, located in Beceite. The route is a 6km route with an estimated duration of 2-2,5h. In addition, it’s not a hard trekking, so everyone can do it. In those parts were the river makes it hard to cross, they have built some gangways that eases all the way. It’s a very chill journey in which you will enjoy a lot the landscape as it’s wonderful.
In COVID period, you had to book a time slot in order to visit it. Currently, that is not like that, but we recommend to do the excursion at first or last hour of the day, as the gangways are narrow and if the place is crowded it makes it difficult. The schedule is from 9am to 17pm and the access costs 5€ (updated to 2023).
During the excursion, we found cave paintings of Fenellasa, a botanic route, some waterfalls and some natural pools of turquoise colors. The best moment in the excursion was at the end of the route in a place called Les Estrech del Parrizal. Once you reach the end of the route where there is a big natural pool, there are indications to Les Estrech del Parrizal, that makes you deviate to a road that guides you there in 15′. It is a canyon of 60m of height, 1.5m of width and 200m of long. This part is just passable during the summer period, when all is dry and allow people cross it.
After doing the route and having lunch in Beceite’s major square , we went to have a bath to the famous waterfall called Salt de la Pontellada. Our surprise was that literally some drops were falling through the waterfall… The hotel people already notified us about that, but we didn’t believe that this was so poor. Mental Note: Always listen to the local people advices.
As our plans were not as expected and we had the whole afternoon free, we decided to visit Calaceite, as it was the furthest village from our hotel. Calaceite is the second village in the area after Valderrobles and a high amount of people of the Matarraña is living there.
The Calaceite patrimony can be qualified in two big groups, architectonic and archeological. Walking through the streets of this village is great as you will find lots of architecture points of interest, from the Iglesia de la Asunción, plaza España (observe the imposing archs) and other streets of the old town that will transport you to past centuries.
On the other hand, you can also find some ruines that can be visited in the area. We decided to go to the Poblado Ibérico de San Antonio. It’s located on the top of a small mountain, 20′ away from the village center and it can also be accessed it by car. This settlement dates from the III b.C century. If you visit it you can make an idea of how they lived there, as they still maintain the entrance door and the houses divisions. Moreover, the views from the top are nice.
DAY 3: SUNDAY
The third day of our weekend in Matarraña, was booked to visit the most important place of the area, Valderrobres.
Valderrobles is the administrative capital place of the Matarraña region. It has an impressive architecture patrimony and it’s inside the list of most beautiful Villages of Spain.
The reality was that we hadn’t informed about the activities in the village and that was an error as we almost lose some interesting activities for that reason.
After crossing the entrance door, the main square is found, and in this square you can find the touristic office. It’s a cozy office that looks more as a souvenir store and typical food. Outside, they have some blackboards with the information about all the guided activities in the village and the area.
We arrived at Valderrobles around 11 and at 12 there was a guided tour. It is a nice tour that guides you through the different village streets and the surroundings of important monuments. The guide explains you the importance and history of the village among the years. We really love that tour. We are fans of the free tours if you don’t have much time in a place and you want to understand where are you and you don’t want to see everything in a superficial way. The guided tour took us 1h30 and it costed 5 per person. We have to remark the kindness of the guide and that after the tour they gave us a wine glass and local cheese. That is the best way of finishing a tour!!
The lunch time came and we decided to find something around. In the old town square there are two restaurants where you can eat something, but we decided to cross the bridge and find a place on the other side. We had 2 hamburguers that were really good!
The ideal plan at this point would have been to visit the inside of Valderrobles Castle. The entrance costs 6€ or you can also do a guided tour with the same people of the tourism office.
We really recommend you to be 1 entire day in this village and do both things. In addition, it’s a place where you can get lost on the streets and take some incredible photos of the village scenarios.
We just have one important village to visit in the afternoon in this weekend in Matarraña, La Fresneda. This small village was declared as a Historial-Artistic place in 1823. The first thing we saw when we reach the village was the impressive town Hall built in 1576 that was declared by the Aragon government as Cultural interest place of the region.
Near to this town hall you can find the Tourist office. Unfortunately, on Sundays it’s close from 2pm, so we made a mistake as we weren’t informed before and we couldn’t do a very interesting activity there, that was a guided visit to the dungeons and the medieval jail. Many of the villages around maintain this dungeons as an interesting point of visit. In fact, there’s an activity called Jail’s Route that guides you through all of them to know the darkest part of Matarraña.
Sadly, we couldn’t do it so we decided to visit the village on our own and we went to the highest part of the town to know the beautiful Santa María La Mayor church. You can just visit it with a guided tour and we couldn’t visit it, but just visiting the surroundings and the external part of the building is also worth it.
The real thing is that we didn’t visit the town as we wanted to, but it was our last visit and was a Sunday. Our advice is that you don’t underestimate any village of this area as all of them have things to offer and interesting activities with a historical and artistical background.
WHERE TO SLEEP IN MATARRAÑA
In this area, as you can imagine, there are lots of charm hotels and knowing that this is a weekend trip, they are economically accessible. You can find all the variety that you want, from 5-stars with pool and spa to small charm hostels.
Our economy is not a 5-stars one, so depending on the reason of the trip, we decide if we wanted to spend more in the hotel or in the food, for example. In this case, we completely were on the second option, but we didn’t forget the second at all.
We found a really nice rural hostel in Ráfales. You don’t have to be worried about the distances to the most important places of the region as distances are not big (20-30 mins). Ráfales is a little town that in the low season has 80 people living there, so you can ensure that you will be quiet when being at the hotel.
The hotel we selected is called La Alquería. It has 6 rooms and a small restaurant for 12 persons. We were very lucky that we were in the room “La Cueva del Floro”. Why? Because it’s one of the rooms that has a balcony that gives you views to the village main square and the views are really nice.
Apart from the rooms, we must mention Jose and Clara, the hotel owners. They are really kind and they make you feel like home.
WHERE TO EAT IN MATARRAÑA
For sure there are lots of places with an incredible gastronomy in the region. But we were very lucky in our weekend in Matarraña, as we had am incredible gastronomy experience and we couldn’t avoid to repeat the experience on our 2 nights there. Our hotel restaurant was inside the Michelin Guide and has a 5/5 in Tripadvisor.
The restaurant is property of the same persons that own the hotel, Clara and Jose, the first as a chef and the second as the waiter and somelier. We had dinner there on our 2 nights and it was a menu of 24 € (if you are a hotel guest) that has an appetizer, a starter, a main dish, two desserts and unlimited water or wine that Jose chooses each night to serve you. The restaurant has 5 tables, and the service is very personalized and familiar, and Jose explains you the menu and how it is done with detail.
What we enjoyed the most about this menu was that is different each day, so the experience is even better as you don’t know what you are going to eat. All the dishes are done with local products, and that is also an extra point, as you can taste all the flavors of the region.
BUDGET OF A WEEKEND IN MATARRAÑA
- Hotel: 2 nights with breakfast included 189€
- Dinner: 24€/pax each night. Total: 96€
- Lunch: sandwich in Beceite 18€
- Burguers in Valderrobres 18€
- Zip line of Fuentespalda 25€/pax. Total: 50€
- Parrizal route entrance: 10€/ per car
- Guided visit in Valderrobres 5€/pax. Total: 10€
THE PERFECT ITINERARY FOR A WEEKEND IN MATARRAÑA
Once we lived the experience and we can analyze it, there are some things we would change in the initial itinerary that would make the experience even better. If I had to redo this weekend in Matarraña, this would be my itinerary:
- DAY 1: Same as we did, Zip Line in Fuentespalda and dinner in La Alquería.
- DAY 2: Parrizal route in the morning. Lunch in Beceite or if we know that the Salt of Pontellada waterfalls has water and the weather is good, we would go to have lunch there and rest. In the afternoon, we would go to La Fresneda and do the dungeons and medieval jails visit.
- DAY 3: Valderrobles visit to do the first guided visit at 10.30 and they we would visit the castle on your own. We would eat in the same Valderrobles and in the afternoon we would go to Calaceite and visit the Despoblado Ibérico de San Antonio.
Una vez vivida la experiencia y analizada en frio, hay algunas cosas que cambiaría en el itinerario inicial y que harían la experiencia aún mas perfecta. Si tuviese que volver a vivir este fin de semana en el Matarraña este sería mi itinerario:
- DÍA 1: Lo dejaría tal cual, Tirolina de Fuentespalda y cena en La Alquería.
- DÍA 2: Realizar la ruta del Parrizal por la mañana. Comer en Beceite o si sabemos que la cascada del Salt de Pontellada está llena de agua y hace buen día para bañarse, iría a comer directamente allí y pasar un buen rato y descansar en la poza. Por la tarde, iría a visitar La Fresneda y así podríamos realizar la visita de las mazmorras y cárceles medievales tan típicas de la zona.
- DÍA 3: Visitaría Valderrobles pronto para hacer la primera visita guiada por el pueblo a las 10:30 y luego visitaría por libre el Castillo. Comería en el mismo pueblo y por la tarde iría a pasear por Calaceite y visitaría las ruinas del denominado Despoblado Ibérico de San Antonio.
This is all folks. We hope we can solve some doubts and at least transmit that this is a great region to visit and disconnect. You can ask for any questions below or in or social media.
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