Hotel Villa Soro

The rooms are classic, unshowy and deeply comfortable — the feeling of staying in a well-kept family home rather than a hotel. Ours had the proportions of the old house: high ceilings, a fine burgundy-lined cornice, and tall arched windows filtered through sheers. The decor is proper British-villa — floral toile bedspreads and matching curtains under pelmets, plaid tub chairs, a polished mahogany writing desk, monogrammed white linens and framed sketches on cream walls. There is a real sense of space, too: a separate entrance hall with fitted wardrobes and a bench leads through to the bedroom and a small sitting corner by the window. It is the kind of quiet, grown-up comfort that has gone out of fashion in newer hotels, and is all the nicer for it.

The room looks out over the villa's garden — a bronze sculpture set on the lawn, clipped hedges and mature planting — to the red-roofed houses climbing the Ategorrieta hillside beyond, all under the bright, clear light the Basque coast does so well. It is a green, residential outlook rather than a city one, and a large part of the villa's charm: you feel tucked away, even though the beach and the old town are only a short ride off.

The bathroom is a complete change of register from the traditional bedroom — and all the better for it. It is a bold, graphic black-and-white checkerboard, tiled floor-to-ceiling and underfoot, with a black-framed mirror and sconce, a fluted-glass walk-in shower, a sunken tub and a marble vanity on a slim black steel frame. Diptyque toiletries complete it. It is a confident, almost Art Deco flourish that gives the old villa a real jolt of modern personality.

Breakfast is served in the villa's handsome wood-panelled dining room, which doubles as the bar by night — dark carved timber, a mirrored back-bar and bottles for an evening cocktail. The spread is generous and homemade in feel: a sideboard of whole and cut fruit, house jams and compotes, a tray of warm viennoiserie — croissants, pain au chocolat, a raisin loaf — and a counter of Basque charcuterie, cheeses and vine tomatoes, all served on pretty blue-and-white china. Unfussy, and very good.

Hotel Villa Soro is a rare thing — a genuinely characterful, family-scale hotel in a city short on them, with the warmth and hush of a private house and a garden setting only minutes from La Concha and the Parte Vieja. It is not a full-service grand hotel — there is no spa or pool — but for anyone who wants San Sebastián's pintxos, beaches and Michelin stars from a base with real soul, it is hard to beat. Perfect for: Travellers who value character, calm and heritage over resort facilities, and want a residential base a short hop from the old town and the beach Skip if: You need a spa, a pool, a central old-town address or full grand-hotel service Book the: A room in the main villa for the high ceilings and the garden view — and don't rush breakfast in the panelled dining room.