Corral del Rey

Calle Corral del Rey is a narrow residential street without a single bar, which in the middle of Seville takes some discipline. The hotel takes its name and spreads across three old houses on both sides of the cobbles. At the centre, behind a studded Moorish door, is a seventeenth-century casa palacio, its patio ringed by Roman marble columns. Tim Reid and Kuky Mora-Figueroa opened it as a hotel in 2007. The restoration kept the Mudéjar doors and the old timber beams; she did the interiors, with things brought back from India and Morocco and hand-dyed muslin at the windows. On the roof are a plunge pool and an honesty bar, and over the rooftops of Santa Cruz, the Giralda.

Recommended for a few days of Seville on foot with a roof to come back to, and for families as much as couples: children of any age are welcome, and a Deluxe Double connects with a Junior Suite to sleep five. The cathedral and Casa de Pilatos are each about five minutes' walk, close enough to see one and be back before breakfast stops at noon. Then the tapas carry on all day, croquettes and padrón peppers among them, with sherry on the roof. The rooms to ask for are the two Pool Terrace Suites, duplexes at the top of the house, each with a plunge pool of its own among potted olive trees, which leaves the one on the roof to everybody else. And for anyone who finds Calle Corral del Rey too sober, El Rinconcillo, said to be the oldest bar in Seville, is five minutes away.