Hotel Londres in San Sebastian

There were two hotel options for our short two-night stay in San Sebastian during our Spain road trip. The first one, Hotel Maria Cristina, and the other, Hotel Londres y Inglaterra by the water.  My dentist friend Teresa recommended we stay at Maria Cristina since her family recently stayed there. She gave it a glowing review saying that it was centrally located and beautifully interior-designed. I looked at the hotel website and loved the traditional design.  But Beng, savvy traveler and the person in our group in charge of booking our accommodations for the road trip, had found Hotel Londres.  Beng has this knack of finding unique lodgings and amazing deals without sacrificing style and quality.

Since we were traveling off-season, she was able to get a really good deal at Londres for our full-sea-view rooms, something Maria Cristina couldn't match. Hotel Londres  fronts the famous La Concha beach.

Belle Epoque interiors

We arrived at twilight and quickly checked into our rooms. We couldn't fully appreciate the view because it was dark, but I already liked all the period details I saw.  Although it looks like a fairly big building, Londres considers itself a boutique hotel.

 

I didn't take many pictures of the room since we were rushing to meet the gang downstairs for dinner. We were going to over to the pintxos bars, a short walk from the hotel.

Edna and David

It's a romantic walk by the beach from Hotel Londres to the pintxos bars.

We woke up the next day to this lovely view.

I even spotted this couple, whom I thought I recognized as my friends Larry and Roselen (Larry gets up very early, and also wears a red jacket). I took many shots of their romantic early-morning stroll, planning to surprise them with some journalistic candid photos.  Turns out it wasn't them!  Haha!

 

The expansive La Concha beach at low tide. This was also taken from our little balcony.

Later in the day, the tide comes in.  It's all very pretty.  Look how empty San Sebastian is in February. I love traveling off season.

Our goal in San Sebastian, however, was not the view. San Sebastian supposedly has the most Michelin-starred restaurants per square kilometer in the world. We were here for a gastronomic experience. We were booked for lunch at the three-star Arzak the next day. At night, we were going to "slum" it  pintxos-hopping. We were all ready and very excited to pack on all those pounds.

 Coffee table book displayed at the reception desk