Hotel Boutique Villa Favorita

Hotel Boutique Villa Favorita

San Sebastián, or Donostia in Basque, is a small coastal city of about 187,000 people on the Bay of Biscay, twelve miles from the French border, and it has more Michelin-starred restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world. That single fact contains the whole argument for going. The food culture here is unlike anywhere in Spain and arguably unlike anywhere in Europe: an entire city that has organised its social life around eating extremely well, where the ritual of going de pintxos, bar-hopping through the old town eating one or two small bites per bar before moving on, is the primary form of an evening out. Pintxos are not tapas. They are small pieces of culinary ambition, as likely to involve seared scallops in truffle cream or slow-cooked Basque beef on a single slice of bread as anything simpler, and the bars that serve them are packed, loud, and exhilarating in a way that almost no other food experience in Europe matches. The gilda, an olive, an anchovy, and a pickled pepper on a toothpick, is the original pintxo, invented here in 1947 and still served in every bar in the old town, and it is still one of the best things you will eat anywhere. Napkins go on the floor. Nobody writes anything down. You eat standing up and then move on. The crowd is food-driven, design-conscious, and frequently French, the border being close enough that weekends fill with people crossing from Biarritz and Bayonne specifically to eat. San Sebastián is a scene in the way that few Spanish cities are, genuinely fashionable without being hollow about it, because the substance is the food and the food is actually that good. La Concha beach, one of the most beautiful urban beaches in Europe, curves around the bay in a perfect arc. The old town, the Parte Vieja, is where you eat. The Gros neighbourhood across the river is younger, more local, and worth exploring. May to October is the window, July and August bring crowds, June and September are the sweet spot. Villa Favorita is the last surviving 19th-century villa on the La Concha promenade, and that detail matters more than it might sound. At the end of the 1800s, Queen María Cristina began summering in San Sebastián and brought the entire Spanish court with her, and a row of elegant French-style villas was built along the bay to house them. Time took every one of them except this one. The building was designed by municipal architect Antonio Cortázar in 1866, and it sits directly on the promenade between rows of tamarind trees, facing Santa Clara Island, a position that cannot be replicated or replaced. It is now a small adults-only boutique hotel, managed by the Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra next door, meticulously restored with considered interiors and rooms whose sea-facing windows frame La Concha bay like a painting you wake up to every morning. The food across the hotel, from the restaurant to breakfast to room service, is entirely the work of Paulo Airaudo, an Argentine-Italian chef whose restaurant Amelia, located within the hotel, holds two Michelin stars. Choosing this hotel means every meal, including the first coffee of the morning, has been thought through by a chef at that level. It is a small hotel with a rare address, a building that survived when everything around it was demolished, and a restaurant that would justify the visit on its own. The short version:The last surviving 19th-century villa on La Concha bay, the most beautiful beach promenade in Spain, now an adults-only boutique hotel with a two Michelin-starred restaurant by chef Paulo Airaudo. The building, the view, and the food are each individually worth the trip. San Sebastián is the best food city in Europe. This is where to stay in it.