Gran Hotel Domine

Just opposite the Guggenheim Museum, this is the hippest hotel in Bilbao with arty public spaces and comfortable bedrooms.

• Breakfast on the Buenas Vistas terrace, which offers superb views of the Guggenheim Museum
• Smart, friendly young staff
• The modern architecture and playful interior design by Javier Mariscal
• Perfect location from which to discover Bilbao on foot

The striking titanium-panel clad Guggenheim Museum by architect Frank Gehry is what brings most people to Bilbao, and the 155-room Grand Domine puts the museum center stage. Staying here, you get to study the icon’s undulating architecture in many different lights—even at night, when it’s all lit up.

The hotel, a modern building of concrete and glass, plays off the design of the museum just across the street. Spanish designer Javier Mariscal fitted the central seven-story atrium with a huge baseball bat–shaped cage filled with stones, and his designs for the public spaces of the hotel are sleek, smooth and ergonomic. Rooms are plain and low-key, with good lighting and comfortable beds with white Egyptian cotton sheets and cozy wool throws in the colder months. Curvy contemporary furniture in plush colors like tomato red, plum and teal adds splashes of color to the rooms, and most of the limestone paneled baths come with oversized soaking tubs and separate showers.

Lauded Basque chef Martin Bersategui from San Sebastián created the menu in the hotel’s Doma restaurant on the seventh floor, whose adjacent open-air terrace has gorgeous views. In the summer, the terrace fills with locals and tourists alike as they enjoy live music and an afternoon aperitif. The menu at Doma changes according to what’s in season, but dishes like a delicious salad of red mullet, crab, tomatoes, saffron and eggs and hake in pil-pil sauce with baby clams show the master’s touch. The hotel also has a fitness center with a Turkish bath, sauna, and massage and beauty treatments are available as well.

The Gran Domine is a perfect all-purpose address for anyone visiting Bilbao, since it’s a comfortable, well-run property in an ideal location and has a lot of personality.