12 best hotels in San Sebastián for a gourmet getaway in Spain's food capital

Like all great hotels the Maria Cristina, which opened in 1912, is even more than the sum of its considerable parts. San Sebastián’s most venerable and glamorous lodging has no sprawling gardens, no pool, no big-name spa or chef-driven restaurant. But its situation beside the river Urumea, with views of Rafael Moneo’s Kursaal building and the Cantabrian Sea beyond, is as nearly perfect as any hotel in Europe. If the building’s sandstone façade has a certain severity, the interior is voluptuously furnished in the eclectic style of modern luxury, with a soft-edged colour scheme in grey, mauve and turquoise. Named for Spain's regent queen, mother of King Alfonso XIII, the Maria Cristina has history and heritage in spades; anecdotes cling to it like sequins.(Here's just one: an outsize portrait of Bette Davis, who smoked her last cigarette here before being rushed to Paris and death, presides over the cocktail bar.) Worth singling out for praise is the hotel’s charming and discreetly omnipresent service, which creates something of the intimacy of a grand private household. Paul Richardson

Address: República Argentina K., 4, 20004 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £360 per night.

This address, in a grand 1917 building in the golden sandstone typical of San Sebastián, manages several clever tricks all at the same time. One side of the hotel abuts a quiet old-town square on the fringes of the Parte Vieja, while the other gives directly onto the old harbour with all its buzz and brouhaha. The Lasala Plaza has no pretensions to five-star fuss, yet its clean-lined modern rooms with a palette of greys and whites, solid wooden floors, top-level beds and bedlinens, Japanese WCs, and domotic lighting are airy and comfortable. Immersed as it is in the Parte Vieja's vast universe of pintxo bars, the hotel hardly needed its own-house restaurant. Even so, Ander González's La Jarana is making a name for itself with a disingenuously simple menu of retro dishes (steak tartar, fish soup, egg and chips with morcilla) impeccably done. Crowning the building is a rooftop terrace – a rare beast in San Sebastián – with a swimming pool and bar. As the venue for a glass of cold txakoli while watching the sunset over Santa Clara island and the heights of Igeldo, nowhere in town comes close. Paul Richardson

Address: Lasala Pl., 2, 20003 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £135 per night.

Once an unassuming villa off the beaten track at the base of Mount Ulia, Mendi Argia was left to ruin before Openhouse Studio carried out its thoughtful restoration into a boutique hotel. The original structure has been carefully preserved to respect its links to the landscape, complemented with interior design by Openhouse magazine co-founder Mari Luz Vidal and CiOestudio architect Sara Ojanguren. Oak, terracotta, black marble from the Gipuzkoan town of Markina and glass create an environment that easily welcomes the contemporary within the traditional structure. The hotel sees no need to compete with San Sebastian’s restaurant scene, instead partnering with local restaurants including Mirador de Ulía and Bodegón Senra, to offer a dinner service on request whereby a chef travels to the hotel expressly. Paul Richardson

Address: Ulia Pasealekua, 184, 20013 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £265 per night.

San Sebastian’s Centro neighbourhood was always the city’s administrative and retail hub but never had a great appeal to visitors. Arbaso, the city’s coolest urban bolthole, has since changed all that. Stupendously sited in a 19th-century apartment block in caramel-coloured stone on a sedate square beside the neo-Gothic Cathedral, this easeful boutique stay is predicated on an idea of contemporary Basque-style fusing dark-hued minimalism with a respect for rural tradition. Natural materials (notably wood) are to the fore and there’s an elegant austerity in the interior design. Suites, so large they feel like apartments, have perfect views of the Cathedral from their grey-painted ornamental balconies. The hotel’s restaurant, Narru, lies at the centre of a growing restaurant ecosystem in Centro. Altogether Arbaso (‘ancestor’ in Basque) has raised the neighbourhood’s self-esteem considerably. Paul Richardson

Address: Hondarribia Kalea, 24, 20005 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £100 per night.

Villa Favorita is an offshoot of the been-there-for-ever Hotel Londres, but there's a charm and chic about this 23-room townhouse hotel, housed in one of the last remaining private mansions behind La Concha beach, that rather puts its forebear to shame. Rafael Sitges, the doyen of Spanish interioristas, is a past master at balancing bold glamour with exquisite taste: the sea-facing rooms with their high moulded ceilings, maritime-inflected brass fittings, studded headboards and mirrored bathrooms are beyond classy. Antique furniture makes a strong showing – an antique Dutch grandfather clock stands beside the reception desk, dutifully tolling the hours. Sitges' regular collaborator Paul Christopher McKenna is behind the gorgeous hand-painted lifts and the trompe l'oeil murals of tropical vegetation. Meanwhile, down in the basement, Argentine chef Paulo Airaudo ups the ante at the two-Michelin-starred Amelia. 'Favorita' may not have been the Villa's original name, but it's coming to seem deeply appropriate. Paul Richardson

Address: Zubieta Kalea, 26, 20007 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £200 per night.

'Un Hotel de Cine' is Zinema7's punning description of itself, and the phrase defines it perfectly. First off, the hotel occupies the site of a former cinema, the much-loved Astoria, in the un-touristy neighbourhood of Amara. Each of the breezily designed contemporary rooms is named after an actor or director, and photographs throughout the hotel are a roll-call of winners at the annual San Sebastián Film Festival. Theming of this kind in hotels can be annoying if it's not done with the coherence and humour on show here: the Zinema7 has a library of film books, a huge collection of DVDs for the use of guests, and do not disturb signs that read: 'Silence! we're rolling!'. Ceiling installations in the ground-floor Bistroteka Zinema7 restaurant are made of recycled film reels, while the portly gentleman to be seen permanently seated in the lobby is a sculpture of Alfred Hitchcock, who also lends his name to one of the suites. It's all great fun, and this is one of the few hotels in San Sebastián that the whole family can enjoy.

Address: Familia Santua Kalea, 1, 20010 Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Price: Double rooms from around £100 per night.