Pared-down chic, riad-style retreat or starry old-timer – here are southern Spain’s juiciest hotels

Hotel Alfonso XIII, Seville

The Hotel Alfonso XIII is one of Europe's grandest dames on dimensions alone (Handout) Hospes Las Casas de Rey de Baeza

In Seville, oranges are the only fruit, and this calm hotel, an urban nod to 17th-century Andalucía rústica, uses them to full effect: they dangle from trees in the drive, lie squashed by the tyres of arriving BMWs, flow from vases and tumble out of baskets. Unintentionally, their ubiquity has a slow comic effect, like one of those ‘Can you spot…?’ kids’ games. The potted baby spider plants are even funnier, edging the main staircase in long, descending files, like spiky-haired schoolkids heading off for a new term. This non-branded vernacular style (fused with a five-star professionalism from knowledgeable staff who feel like new best friends) is the hotel’s key charm: pebbly courtyards brim with banana palms, ferns and age-old millstones propped against white walls; distressed-leather furnishings submit to your backside with a sigh; and somewhere amid the public spaces a bird sings in a Moorish domed cage. The bedrooms make your stay as meditative as a spell in a mission – enhanced by pale-on-tobacco tones and bare to the point of no rugs – and the Casa does tranquillity to a tee, with the woo-woo of pigeons through the window and, from beyond the rooftop pool, the occasional peal of bells.

Hotel Alfonso XIII is a real movie-star hotel – a place that evokes nothing so much as Gloria Swanson playing creaky old Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Catapulted to fame after opening in 1928, rambling Hotel Alfonso XIII now basks forgetfully in grounds of exotic foliage while the younger competition flies into the 21st century. There’s a dodderiness about the old dear: on this visit the bathtub (a plug-on-chain number) took so long to fill, it might have been quicker spooning hot water from the sink; and twice a maid walked in on us as we cowered in bed. It’s polishing itself up, mind: a major renovation and a spa are on the cards next year. For now, the place ranks among Europe’s grandest dames on dimensions alone: endless marble in epic corridors, and lofty rooms that romp from madly tiled Moorish to ancestral Spanish (check out those Maid Marian-style X-frame chairs). As a refuge from roasting summer Seville, the place has no peer, with its LA-mansion blue pool and calm greenery screening off passing crowds. And with the likes of Madonna and Tom Cruise recently in residence, its star shows no sign of waning.
www.hotel-alfonsoxiii.com/

Casa Romana Hotel Boutique

From insalubrious beginnings sprout great things. Only a few years ago, the area around this hotel was off the visitor’s map (read: grimy). Now, the tarmac’d promenade that is the Alameda de Hércules is one of the trendiest parts of Seville, and Casa Romana, on an unassuming stretch between the Alameda and the main shopping streets, has been flying the boutique flag for the city since 2004. The ‘romana’ part of the ‘casa’ may, technically be a misnomer – the building is an 18th-century house, and the classical statues and friezes in the stairwell and along the patio aren’t real. Yet the ‘boutique’ label is well earned. There are just 26 rooms, and the feel is more akin to a Moroccan riad. Bedrooms – with buttery and beige palettes – look over a communal courtyard with original Moorish tiled fountain. The real treat is the roof, an immaculately dressed, tiled sundeck, with monochrome cushions and loungers on the lower part, as well as a miniature pool raised above it. The view may have more satellite dishes than snaky alleyways, but a dip in the water, champagne in hand, should dilute any feelings of cultural heresy.
www.hotelcasaromana.com

And the best of the rest

Hotel Posada del Lucero
This 16th-century building – a central find – has turned itself into monochrome boutique digs. Rooms mix www.hotelposadadellucero.es

Hotel Dona Maria
The old-school Doña María may not be as trendy as the EME (below), but the views of the cathedral from the rooftop bar are just as spectacular.
www.hdmaria.com

EME Catedral Hotel
Squashed amid the plastic menus of Cathedral Square, the EME has ultra-hip rooms, slinky public areas and a rooftop bar, restaurant and pool area.
www.emecatedralhotel.com

Hacienda Benazuza
Superchef Ferran Adrià’s Moorish farmhouse (pictured), 22km outside of town, has spacious rooms, florid decor and blowout meals. (Six a day: what the guests really come for.)
www.elbullihotel.com