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A 1914 landmark in the centre of San Sebastián has reopened as a hotel for the first time in four decades. Hotel Palacio Bellas Artes, Curio Collection by Hilton, is now open and taking bookings, with a restaurant from one of the Basque Country’s better-known chefs attached.
Here’s what we know.
Location
The hotel sits in the very centre of San Sebastián, within walking distance of the coast, the Old Town and the city’s pintxos bars, galleries and theatres.
Foodies will already know all about San Sebastián, but for those who are unfamiliar with this hugely popular location, this is a small city on Spain’s northern coast that’s legendary for its food scene – it has one of the highest concentrations of Michelin stars per capita anywhere in the world.
In addition, La Concha bay on which the city sits is one of the more photographed stretches of urban beach in Europe, and the city hosts a major international film festival every September. That last point is especially pertinent here because the building this hotel sits in was once an old cinema.
A cinema restored
The building is a 1914 Beaux Arts structure originally designed by architect Ramón Cortázar, and it housed one of Spain’s earliest cinemas. Now, everything about the property has been restored (the works included a reconstruction of the building’s dome and the refurbishment of the façade) and the interiors have been reworked to give us the hotel we have today.
The cinema theme runs through the whole property. Guests enter the lobby through what was once the stage, passing beneath the proscenium arch (the architectural frame that separates the stage from the auditorium in a traditional theater) and the room categories are named after parts of a theatre.
As a side note: Every one of the 81 rooms holds a piece from a site-specific art collection by Basque artist Lander Andonegi, one work per room.
The rooms
There are 81 rooms and suites. The entry-level category is the ‘Gallery’ room at 291 sqft (27 sqm), spread across all four floors.
Worth noting: the ‘Amphitheatre’ rooms on the top two floors are actually smaller, at 248 sqft (23 sqm), despite the higher-floor views. If square footage matters more to you than the view, don’t use the room prices to guide your decision.
The largest non-suite room is the King Grand Stalls at 355 sqft (33 sqm) and above that sit the suites, named for the best seats in the house, the Front Box and Corner Box, plus the Cupula Suite beneath the restored dome. The suites run from 312 sqft (29 sqm), which seems very small for a suite, up to 1,227 sqft (114 sqm) at the very top.
Dining
The on-site restaurant is Lotu, led by Andoni Luis Aduriz, the chef behind Mugaritz – a restaurant which has held two Michelin stars for years and which is a fixture near the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
We’re told that Lotu “reinterprets” early-twentieth-century classics and that the menu runs from pâté en croûte and beef Wellington through to local dishes like txangurro (spider crab) donostiarra.
The options on offer are deliberately varied, so you can order a smashburger or Oscietra caviar at the same sitting.
Breakfast is a la carte, there’s a street-level bar opening onto the lobby, and an on-site bakehouse produces the breads and pastries.
What’s bookable
The hotel is open and taking reservations now. At the time of writing, the next available date is 14 July.
Cash rates vary a fair amount by season. Expect somewhere around €230 ($250) a night in the quieter colder months, rising to €315–€500 ($345–$545) in August and €360–€600 ($395–$655) in September (currently the two peak months).
On points, standard room awards cost between 70,000 and 90,000 Hilton Honors points per night in the quieter months, and appear to be set at 90,000 points per night through the busier months.
Quick thoughts
A restored cinema with a genuinely serious chef in one of Europe’s best food cities, that isn’t ridiculously priced and that I can book with points sounds great to me.
Sure, the room sizes aren’t the biggest and you’ll have to be careful not to accidentally book the smallest of the rooms (check the room details before you book), but the location in the heart of San Sebastián is excellent, so if you’re looking for a few nights away, in a building with actual history, and with a great food scene on your doorstep, this property will have to come into your thinking.
As far as the award pricing goes, the value on offer is all over the place. A 90,000-point night when cash rates are around €230 ($250) in the quiet season is a very poor use of points – you’re getting well under 0.3 cents per point. But the same 90,000-point night in September, when cash rates seem to climb towards €600 ($655), is a completely different proposition as now you’re getting over 0.7 cents/point. For a Hilton redemption, that’s great.
It’s also worth noting the points-buying angle here. Hilton frequently runs sales offering points at 0.5 cents each (check here to see if a sale is running), and at 90,000 points a night, buying points during one of those sales and redeeming them here could end up being cheaper than paying the cash rate directly. But only during busier times.
Bottom line
Hotel Palacio Bellas Artes is open now, with cash rates from around €230 ($250) in the quiet months up to €360–€600 ($395–$655) when it gets busier. September, and award nights at 70,000 to 90,000 Hilton Honors points.
Overall, I’m genuinely excited about this hotel. It has a great location in one of Europe’s more interesting cities, it has food to die for all around it (not literally!), it’s not a cookie-cutter hotel (it has history and character), and you don’t have to break the bank to stay here. That sounds pretty good to me.
