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 (EUR225.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Pack your beret and salt your cod – we’re off to the most Basque of Basque stays, Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa. In the Spanish border town of Hondarribia, this beautifully converted Fifties beach house is a celebration of all things Euskadi: decor, cuisine and even the concierge’s little black book each offer insights into the region’s rich pickings. Meander the Cantabrian coastline’s storied fishing towns and surf-friendly beaches; tap into the gourmet scene radiating out of San Sebastián (only 20 minutes away); or explore the timbered villages of the Pyrenean foothills. Then return to your mansion lodgings, where regional plates, an expertly stocked wine cellar, and convivial lounge spaces await.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A welcome drink each (alcoholic or soft) on arrival
Double rooms from £211.95 (€248), including tax at 10 per cent.
More details
Rates include breakfast à la carte. From July through September, there’s a two-night minimum stay.
Also
This historic villa stay has an elevator and one ground-floor room, Guadalupe, is suitable for guests with reduced mobility, but unfortunately the hotel is not specifically adapted for wheelchair-users.
Please note
span id="docs-internal-guid-f661d4d1-7fff-2467-4621-fc2b03bc2cfa">For stays in July, August or September, you’ll need to book at least two nights. And if you’re bringing your own wheels, it’s advisable to reserve a parking space at the time of booking.
Hotel closed
The hotel closes annually for two weeks in November and two weeks in January.
At the hotel
Wine bar; library-salon with books, movies and games; bikes to borrow; laundry service; and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, Bluetooth speaker, tablet loaded with guest services, minibar, coffee machine, kettle, free tea-making kit, free filtered water, and Cinq Mondes bath products.
Our favourite rooms
We can’t find fault with the attention to detail lavished on Villa Magalean’s eight rooms: Azulejo bathroom tiles, decorative plasterwork, Lladró lighting, C&C Milano linens, and Holland & Sherry textiles speak to the thought that has gone into dressing them with subtle elegance. We’re torn between the plum and pink hues of Jaizkibel and Baluarte de la Reina (especially the cosy living space in the latter junior suite) and the in-the-eaves romance of Villa Magalean’s two suites, Belharra and Peñas de Aya.
Spa
Tucked downstairs from the lobby, Henriette is modelled on a Turkish spa, with moody-hued mosaic tiling, arches and pillars, and steamy low-lit caverns you’ll want to retreat to. Steam until ‘just cooked’ in the hammam, hop onto the heated exfoliation table for an invigorating scrub, then check in for the scents-and-lights show that is the spa’s high-spec experience shower: there’s a Finnish sauna, too. Book ahead of your stay for head-to-toe massage therapies that buff, soothe and revive, using natural oils and aromatherapy-inspired lotions and potions by Parisian spa brand, Cinq Mondes.
Packing tips
Pack for the night out you want to have: high-stool-friendly linen pants or midi skirts, and sturdy espadrille wedges or heeled clogs you’re happy to stand in for as long as it’s pintxo o’clock.
Also
Plug adaptors, beach bags and towels, and umbrellas are all provided by Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa.
Children
Welcome: the boutique set-up at Villa Magalean means this exclusive stay is better suited to older children. The hotel has two pairs of connecting rooms, and a two-bedroom suite, and staff can advise on family-friendly activities.
The layout at Mahasti is non-hierarchical, with tables piano-side, by the bar or nearest the terrace all equally pleasing – you’ll soon find your favourite.
Dress Code
Casual is fine by day; for evening, bring your brightest threads for flamboyant flashes of colour against Mahasti’s monochrome decor.
Hotel restaurant
A light-filled, white-tiled basement dining room framed by arches and sporting semi-circular windows, Mahasti is a casual spot for all-day dining, presided over by an upright piano that you’re welcome to play. Rock up for pintxos and cheese or charcuterie planchas with wine by-the-glass, any time; opt for Basque gâteaux with tea or coffee in the afternoon, and modern regional plates by evening, when local chef Markel Ramiro champions regional produce in a menu that celebrates mar and tierra (roasted monkfish with caramelised-onion sauce; seabass with almonds; sirloin with potato strudel). An à la carte breakfast is served here, too, featuring seasonal fruits, breads and pastries, egg dishes and sweet options cooked-to-order. In fine weather, bag a parasol-shaded table on the terrace and dine alfresco.
Hotel bar
‘Mahasti’ is the Basque word for vineyard – a clue to the hotel restaurant’s master stroke – a glass-enclosed wine cellar of refined bottles curated by wine-lover and hotel co-owner Didier, whose time well spent in Bordeaux shines through in a predominantly European collection, long on French, Spanish and Basque vintages: you can join a scheduled tasting session or request a private one, or freestyle your way through the list of wines by the glass, accompanied by platters of cold meats or cheese.
Last orders
Mahasti is open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, 6pm–10pm.
Room service
Anything from Mahasti’s menus can be ordered to your room during standard kitchen hours.
Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa is between the port and the old town in Hondarribia, a coastal town in the Basque Country that’s effectively the Spanish border, looking across the Bidasoa river to Hendaye on the French side.
Planes
The hotel is just a five-minute drive from San Sebastián airport, and the hotel can arrange private transfers. Or Biarritz across the French border is 40 minutes away by road.
Trains
Irún, just two kilometres from the hotel, has the nearest train station (the hotel can arrange private transfers from €20); to find out more about rail connections in the Basque Country, Euskotren is your friend. Across the river-border, Hendaye is served by high-speed TGV services from Paris-Montparnasses.
Automobiles
The hotel has eight private parking spots, five covered and three street-side, and you’ll want to reserve this when you book your room; from €15 a day (or €20 a day for electric vehicles).
Worth getting out of bed for
You can see the fortified walls of the mediaeval old town in Hondarribia from the front door at Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa: your beach-house stay is only streets back from the riverfront, too. Hotel staff have the expertise you need to tailor your time in the Basque Country to your own agenda. Food-and-drink lovers will want to check out the region’s txakoli bodegas, perhaps take a tapas tour of Fontarribia or enjoy a private dinner at a fisherman’s house. The calorific highs of San Sebastián need little introduction, whether you go on a pintxo bar crawl, bag a table at a starred restaurant, or take picnic slices of gâteaux to the top of Monte Igueldo. A stroll along the curvaceous prom at La Concha should help walk off the food fest. Highlights of the Cantabrian coast include Pasajes, where you’ll find a historic shipyard and Victor Hugo’s former home; and Getaria, a fishing port loved by anchovy lovers (and feared by anchovies). This is a coastline beloved of surfers – the hotel can arrange tuition: for sands and rollers typical of the area, explore Zarautz or over-the-border St Jean de Luz. At the westerly end of the Pyrenees mountain range, there’s no shortage of trails for mountain biking or hiking either – yours to explore a dos (ask the hotel to prepare you a gourmet picnic to enjoy along the route), or with the informative company of an expert guide.
Local restaurants
A timber-lined dining spot on the banks of the Bidasoa, Alameda is a starred family-run restaurant where the Txapartegi brothers oversee a Basque Nouvelle menu featuring liberal use of pasture-fed beef, anchovies, oysters, and Banka trout, as well as whatever’s in season from tomatoes to white asparagus, to broad beans and peas – a delight worth booking well ahead of your stay. Fishing is the livelihood of so many in this corner of Cantabria it would be churlish not to sample its fruits – and Hermandad de Pescadores is an excellent spot for it, with grilled monkfish, buttered hake, sautéed clams and cod fritters all on the menu, served in a traditional flotsam-decked blue-shuttered bistrot. Ostensibly a pintxo bar on the marina in Hondarribia, Bar Gran Sol is more like a culinary studio where the smallest of Basque delicacies is crafted into an art form: savour smoked-cod toasts, a soft-boiled-egg-topped nest of straw potatoes; cheese-mousse-stuffed mushrooms or squid croquetas.
Local cafés
Amona Margarita is foremost a bakery – good news if you’re after a rustic pastry to go with your coffee, or fancy taking away one of their proudly made-from-scratch panettones. A traditional timbered café that has a way with all things toast, freshly pressed orange juice and coffees sporting serious crema, Gaxen is a solid choice for mid-morning pit-stops.
Local bars
This is fair warning that you’re unlikely to visit Gastroteka Danontzat and leave only having drunk – not when there are fried potatoes so good you’ll conclude that was all you wanted anyway, and not when there’s sweet-charred octopus or truffle-laced slabs of cheese to try. In fact, it may be worth surrendering pre-arrival and booking the six-course wine-paired tasting menu… Sidle along Kalea San Pedro to Itsaspe, where you might be interested in the hot and cold pintxos (the tortilla is tipped), artful platters or fresh seafood, or perhaps you just fancy a rifle of its wine menu, sipped at a pavement-side high table.
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 harbour town hotel in the Basque Country and unpacked their espelette peppers and txakoli wine, a full account of their coastal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa in Hondarribia…
A mid-century siren of a boutique stay, Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa flaunts her Fifties beach-house heritage with original stonework, wrought-iron balconies and decorative plastering. Modern details – Lladró lighting, Basque art, and rooms named individually for local figures or landmarks – bolster an attentively curated sense of place. And what a place: a stay at this boutique villa hotel puts you between the port and the mediaeval district in Hondarribia, with the French town of Hendaye just across the river, and the Cantabrian coastline and gourmet delights of San Sebastián on your doorstep. In a small region that punches culturally above its weight, the hotel’s ability to over-deliver feels aptly Basque, too: experienced staff sourced from world-class hotels; a sophisticated salon-library with books, movies and games to borrow; a Cinq Mondes spa with hammam-inspired design, and a wine cellar to covet (and enjoy tastings from), thanks to the owners’ oenophilic expertise. In Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa, owners Caroline and Didier have created something of a pocket grand-dame.
