Hotel Villa Favorita

When Queen María Cristina began spending her summers in San Sebastián, the court came with her, and La Concha bay was ringed with villas for it to stay in. One by one they have gone, all but this one. Antonio Cortázar, the municipal architect who designed the new town, built it in 1866 on what was then the Baths Promenade: a small house in the French style, white balustrades along its front and a bay window over the door. Most of its 23 rooms face the water, over the beach and the moored boats to Santa Clara Island, and the one to ask for is named after the island: the Santa Clara Junior Suite, a duplex with a terrace over the bay. Inside, brass lanterns hang down the hall past a grandfather clock, and the bar is panelled in green and brass, with cakes under glass domes and doors that open onto a terrace above the promenade.

Recommended for grown-ups who come to San Sebastián to eat and want the beach on the way; the hotel takes nobody under 14. Breakfast is served in the bar, on the terrace or in the room, and guests' reviews make a point of its being cooked to order. The promenade runs east to the pintxos bars of the Parte Vieja, fifteen minutes on foot, and the San Martín market is a few minutes inland. Dinner need not leave the building: on the lower ground floor is Amelia, Paulo Airaudo's restaurant with two Michelin stars, whose set menus are built on small producers. The Baths Promenade goes by another name now, but the hotel has kept faith with the old one: there is no pool, just beach towels in the room and the whole of La Concha to use them on.