Villa Soro

Surrounded by park-like gardens in a quiet, fashionable, residential quarter of San Sebastián, this patrician manor has an almost country-house hotel feel and is an easy place to relax.

• The charming service of the alert and friendly staff make visitors feel like privileged house guests
• The magnificent century-old trees in the garden
• The bicycles the hotel provides for trips to nearby Zurriola beach

Villa Soro occupies a landmarked 1898 gabled granite villa with half-timbering accents in a garden setting just fifteen minutes outside of the city. The well-mannered boutique hotel is a good choice for anyone who prefers small personal hotels and is touring the Basque Country by car (there’s complimentary on-site parking). Traces of this private life survive in the hotel’s beautiful public rooms, including the elegant but comfortable lounge, winter garden and small but pleasant bar (N.B. The hotel has no restaurant, but a simple room-service menu is available, and the three-Michelin-starred Arzak is just up the street).

Upstairs, the 25 rooms eschew nostalgia for a clean, contemporary look that comes from beds made up with white duvets, velvet tub chairs, dark-stained wood desks and white walls. Floral brocade curtains and bed skirts add notes of color and throughout the property, modern art by local artists like Jorge Orteiza creates a cultivated patrician atmosphere. Rooms in the original villa are preferable, having a romantic charm that comes from their mullioned windows, steep gabled roofs, and high ceilings. The white marble baths are equipped with separate tubs and showers.

Parking is generally easy in town so guests should feel free to drive themselves into town if they already have a rental car.

Those who appreciate the authentic will be happy here. The hotel has the winsome charm that comes from occupying what was built as a private house.