Mr & Mrs Smith

Arguibel

Pays Basque, France

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.
• Rates Double rooms from AU$184.98 (€140), excluding tax at 7 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (€140) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• 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.
• Also The hotel has free parking or can arrange a taxi from Biarritz train station.
• Hotel closed 5 January to 13 February 2010.

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