Hotel Villa Eugenia

In the upscale hillside neighborhood of Gros, just outside of the center of San Sebastian, stands a beautiful Victorian-era mansion. Villa Eugenia’s owners haven’t just kept it up to date — they’ve thoroughly updated it, inside and out, in the process of turning it into a 21-room boutique hotel.

This means not just a renewal of the design and décor, though it does mean that — Villa Eugenia is also a surprisingly green hotel, with heat exchangers, solar panels, and an aerothermal heating system for the outdoor swimming pool, as well as charging stations for electric cars.

Meanwhile the rooms verge on the decadent, with memory-foam mattresses on the oversized beds and impressively indulgent stone-clad bathrooms. Some of them come with terraces, others with views of the city, and all are decorated in a historically informed maritime-influenced style.

Beyond breakfast and a self-service bar, you’re at the mercy of San Sebastian, which is full of fine restaurants. And while you probably won’t roll straight out of your room in the morning with a surfboard on your shoulder, you are located within walking distance of the beaches, as well as the photogenic old town.