San Sebastián, Spain

Villa Favorita

Price per night from$272.72

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR254.55), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Villa Favorita Photos

Style

Odds-on favourite

Setting

Basque boardwalk

Explore

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With a La Concha locale, Villa Favorita is a Basque bay beauty in one of San Sebastián’s grandest old seaside buildings, with the elegant, old-school interiors to match: grandfather clocks, parquet floors and paintings of plants. The chosen one is also home to a fine-dining restaurant (the San Sebastián equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses) – Amelia is one of the city’s destination dining experiences and you’ll barely have to get out of bed to try it.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink, plus early check-in or late check-out (subject to availability)

Facilities

Photos Villa Favorita facilities

Need to know

Rooms

23, including one suite.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £243.11 (€280), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates include breakfast.

Also

The 19th-century villa was built as one of many summer residences for Queen Maria Christina, who would bring her entire court to town and move in for months.

At the hotel

Free WiFI throughout, gym. In rooms: beach towels, 49-inch TV, free bottled water, tea and coffee kit, GHDs on request and bespoke bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Since it’s sitting on the dock of one of the most beautiful bays in Europe, a sea-view room at this hotel should be a dealbreaker. Go for a La Concha Bay Panoramic for the longest-lasting rays, from dawn to dusk; or a La Concha Bay Terrace for its sun-baked balcony.

Packing tips

An appetite for foams, purées and smears; plus glamorous beachwear to hit the flashy promenade in style.

Also

There’s a lift and specially adapted rooms for disabled and hearing- and vision-impaired guests.

Children

The hotel is adults-only.

Food and Drink

Photos Villa Favorita food and drink

Top Table

Out on the terrace soaking up the San Sebastián sunshine.

Dress Code

Expandable waistlines and loose-fitting forms (for obvious reasons).

Hotel restaurant

The hotel’s Donostia dinner rivals meant it had to up its gourmet game for its restaurant: the result was equally acclaimed Amelia by Paulo Airaudo, which ensures its fine-dining is as seasonal and local as possible. The team works with small producers for starry set menus – and even the breakfasts (served in the bar, on the terrace or in your room) are designed by a Michelin-approved chef.

Hotel bar

The bar extends out onto the bay-facing terrace, where you can enjoy organic wines from small cellars and local spirits, all accompanied by some very special snacks if you’re peckish.

Last orders

Lunch service is at 1pm and there are two dinner sittings: 7.30pm and 9pm.

Room service

A room-service menu is available between 8am and midnight.

Location

Photos Villa Favorita location
Address
Villa Favorita
Calle Zubieta 26
San Sebastian
20007
Spain

Villa Favorita has the ultimate San Sebastián setting, right in front of La Concha Bay and within strolling distance of the old town.

Planes

For direct flights, Biarritz and Bilbao are your best bets – it’s 45 minutes by car to Biarritz over the French border and an hour and 15 minutes to Bilbao. The hotel can arrange transports from either on request.

Trains

The city’s North Station is less than a kilometre from the hotel – transfers cost around €20.

Automobiles

You’ll be able to get around San Sebastián (preferably on a constant pintxos crawl) on foot – there’s a car park 250 metres away to stow your wheels at. Valet parking here costs €26 a day.

Worth getting out of bed for

First on any rational person coming to San Sebastián’s agenda will be food, whether it’s a week of Michelin-starred dinners in this fine-dining firmament (the city has among the highest number of stars per capita of anywhere in the world) or pub crawls with pintxos (technically open sandwiches, but in reality so much more). La Concha bay is flatteringly described as Europe’s very own Rio – and you’ll be able to admire the coastline simply by stepping out of the hotel’s front door (or from your sea-facing window). Hike to the top of Mount Igueldo, or take the easy, over-indulged route by hopping in the cable car. It’s a 15-minute stroll to the old town. For a Gallic getaway over the border, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, just a 25-minute drive away, is one of the most beautiful towns in France (and there’s some competition). 

Local restaurants

San Sebastián has one of the highest concentrations of fine-dining restaurants on the planet, but you’ll just as easily be able to mainline creatively topped slices of bread (AKA pintxos) – for the former, Akelarre should be top of your list. Other places with starched tablecloths and absurdly indulgent food include Zazpi STM, Galerna and the charming, family-run Casa Urola in the old town.

Local bars

For pintxos and patxaran (the unofficial Basque Country beverage), head to either (or both) Antonio outposts – though you’ll be spoilt for choice for pub-crawl pit stops.

Reviews

Photos Villa Favorita reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Spain and unpacked their bikinis and Basque recipes, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Villa Favorita in San Sebástian…

We’re not one to have favourites, but of all the hotels in San Sebastián, Villa Favorita is one to elicit preferential treatment. It isn’t called a hotel singular for nothing – the 19th-century building is one of the last villas standing along the curving La Concha shoreline and it’s as refined as ever. Spend your days by the bay, which passes for a mini Rio de Janeiro, ascending one of the three mountains looming above the coast or setting off in search of the fanciest food on the planet. You’ll also be able to go on pub crawls in search of pintxos (and the obligatory napkin throwing, which isn’t littering around here, we promise). The hotel’s elegant decor matches the grand old promenade outside, with grandfather clocks, parquet floors and, more often than not, sea views. And it has its own fancy restaurant, of course, with an Argentine chef at the helm – in a city with this many culinary celestial bodies, it’d be rude not to. 

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Price per night from $272.72

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