Arguibel
Style Daring design kaleidoscope
Setting Coastal Basque hillside
On the Atlantic coast between St-Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz, Guéthary is a French fishing port with architecture that would look more at home on a Swiss Alp – the timbered exterior of Arguibel, no exception. Inside, lime and turquoise walls, regal roll-top baths, disco-shiny mosaic tiles and psychedelic Louis-XV chairs are just some of the eye-popping details that make this boutique hotel a design rhapsody.
Need to know
- Rooms Five, including two suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from $175.85 (€140), excluding tax at 7 per cent.
Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (€140), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
- More details Rates exclude breakfast (€15).
- Facilities Garden, free WiFi throughout, book, CD and DVD libraries; flatscreen TV, DVD player and CD player in the lounge; iPods in the lounge and bar. In room: Anne Sémonin goodies, minibar, free bottled water (TV by request).
- Check-out 12pm (or later when possible). Earliest check-in, 11am.
- Children All ages welcome; cots are free, extra beds cost €25.
- Hotel closed 5 January to 13 February 2010.
- Also The hotel has free parking or can arrange a taxi from Biarritz train station.
Food and drink at Arguibel
- Hotel restaurant No restaurant. Breakfast – taken in the turquoise salon or on the deck – is a French farmers’ market in microcosm: fresh fruit, little pots of yoghurt, just-baked brioche, bread and pastries, and wonderful coffee.
- Dress code Look as though your surfboard’s just out back by donning Hawaiian-inspired prints.
- Top table On sunny days, the deck, with its views over the sloping lawn beyond, is hard to beat.
- Room service There isn’t any, but you can ask the hotel about takeaway options, which vary according to season.
- Hotel bar Cone chairs and low Verner Panton tables furnish the old-meets-new bar, which has a 1930s-style polished wooden counter and serves fruit juices, wine and champagne, 9am–1pm and 5pm–10pm. At other times, a help-yourself honesty bar operates.
Arguibel 1146, Chemin de Laharraga, 64210 Guéthary, Pays Basque, 64210
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Smith extra at Arguibel
A drink on the house (wine or champagne); a pass each (worth €30) to the Loreamar Thalasso Spa at Grand Hôtel Saint-Jean-de-Luz; and tickets for the Basque Eco-Museum in Saint-Jean-de-Luz
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Suite Paul-Jean Toulet is a turquoise tour-de-force, with sleek high-design details in bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Two sets of French doors open onto a balcony with a dining table for four. Of the rooms, No 30 Charlie Chaplin is the biggest, but No 63 Betry Daguerre wins our hearts with its angel-white decor, driftwood bedstead and pebble-shaped pouffe.
Packing tips
Quiksilver board shorts for him, Roxy play dresses for her, and Havaianas for everyone – you’re in surf country now…
Also
The hotel can book you a yoga lesson or in-room massage.
From the Guestbook…
Don't miss St. Jean de Luz, the pretty beachfront town about a 15 minute drive from Arguibel. Besides its relaxed boardwalk and fantastic seafood restaurants, St Jean de Luz is th...
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