Basque in glory: the best hotel in San Sebastián

If you’re dining out nightly in San Sebastián on one, two or more Michelin stars, spread over several indulgent hours, then the Hotel Maria Cristina is the only five star hotel worth staying at. There are 136 rooms and suites in this block-sized sandstone building, right on the edge of the Urumea River. We love the oversized proportions of its belle époque-influenced public spaces, all arched doorways, marble floors and inset wall panels in whites, golds and rich deep browns, and the bar, with its colour palette of bronze and stormy blues and greys. We are also taken with its minimal but well-stocked library/study, where we’ve spent time, post-suppers, leafing through compendious coffee-table books on the movies of Pedro Almodóvar – appropriate reading material in a hotel with strong links to the annual San Sebastián International Film Festival, for which it has hosted parties and been accommodation for some megastars of the silver screen.

It’s appropriately filmic, too, to stay in one of the River View suites. White-neon lettering spells out the hotel’s name on its river aspect, and from these top-floor balconies the view out across the water towards the Old Town as the sun begins to sink, and the big neon letters are illuminated, is thrilling. The suites and rooms have original (thankfully abstract) artwork and large mirrors with bevelled frames on the walls. Bathrooms have marble tubs, Parisian Métro-style tiled shower walls and antique touches such as iron lamp housings.

In a place where even the pintxo snacks in the tourist-rammed bars are molecular-gastronomical and Michelin-standard, the hotel can’t skimp on its own food. Breakfasts here are lavish – even though we, like many guests, are devoted on every visit to town to a schedule of tasting menus and pintxo crawls, it’s hard not to get carried away. There’s little respite from gourmanderie in San Sebastián: through a door just inside the hotel entrance is a branch of San Sebastián Food, a shop selling raw ingredients (proper calasparra rice for your paella, proper paprika to season it) and locally-produced treats. As far as souvenirs to take home, a Basque Beret made entirely of dark chocolate takes some beating. C

Hotel Maria Cristina, República Argentina Kalea, 4, 20004 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
943 43 76 00; hotel-mariacristina.com