Volume III

Iberia

Madrid and Barcelona, and the Alentejo on the other side of the border.

Written up

Two stays, with the five notes on each.

Madrid, Spain

Four Seasons Madrid

A building on Alcalá that comes to a point like a prow, and a pool under glass that most guests never find.

Melides, Alentejo, Portugal

Vermelho

Christian Louboutin's house in an Alentejo village, thirteen rooms and no two of them alike, where the red in the name is a promise the building keeps.

Outside the groups

Houses here that belong to no chain.

They are a mix. A hotel run by the family that owns it, a villa, a house of a few rooms on an island, and here and there a larger place that sits outside the programmes anyway. No group stands behind any of them, and several appear on no booking portal at all. I have stayed in all of them, several over a number of years. Tell me what the trip has to do and I will say which one fits, and where there is nothing to book online I write to the owner myself.

Striped yellow towels over a timber bench beside tall plants against a white wall — Palma, Spain

Scrambled eggs with ham, pastries and orange juice laid on a breakfast table — Cascais, Portugal

A pale room with a patterned headboard, a timber ceiling fan and built-in shelving — Mallorca, Spain

A balcony with woven chairs and a small table looking over the opera house and the rooftops at dusk — Madrid, Spain

A tall arched hall with a chandelier and a patterned tiled floor running through to a courtyard — Mallorca, Spain

A bed under a dark beamed ceiling on a floor of green and white terrazzo — Palma, Spain

A bedroom with a tall black framed mirror doubling the bed, a pendant lamp hanging on a long flex, pale panelled wardrobes and a glazed partition through to the shower — Costa Brava, Spain

Two low chairs facing a fireplace under a white beamed ceiling, a mirror above the mantel — Mallorca, Spain

A bar and dining room under a deep green painted ceiling, with director chairs at timber tables — Alentejo coast, Portugal

A long timber table and pale chairs under a beamed ceiling with the hills through the window — Mallorca, Spain

A dark stone lounge with buttoned yellow sofas and a lit screen showing a red cliff and the sea — Vigo, Spain

A pale sofa with a row of round cushions at the foot of a bed on a bare timber floor — Cascais, Portugal

Two palms strung with lights in front of a stone farmhouse at night — Mallorca, Spain

A walk-in shower tiled in a green and white abstract pattern behind glass — Palma, Spain

An attic sitting room under a sloped white ceiling with plants and a red patterned rug — Bilbao, Spain

A long curved white sofa in a double height lobby behind a slatted black screen hung with ferns — Mallorca, Spain

A pale green salon with two pink velvet sofas on a red and green patterned tile floor — Mallorca, Spain

A bathroom with a black framed glass shower screen, a round backlit mirror above a white basin on a timber trestle, baskets of towels beneath it, and a floor of blue, black and white tiles laid as tumbling cubes — Costa Brava, Spain

A stone terrace with a green cushioned daybed beside a pool, fields and hills beyond — Mallorca, Spain

A bar and restaurant under a slatted timber ceiling, with cane chairs and a stone stool — Madrid, Spain

Loungers and parasols in a white walled courtyard on a pebbled terrazzo floor — Palma, Spain

A fluted awning over a terrace of pale sofas looking across open countryside — Mallorca, Spain

A passage under heavy timber beams opening through to further rooms, with a drawing on the wall — Mallorca, Spain

A clawfoot bath against white brick tiling in a dark green room with plants at the window — Mallorca, Spain

A vaulted stone lounge with leather chairs and low tables on a green painted floor — Palma, Spain

A bed with a padded headboard and a row of round cushions in white, ochre and rust — Cascais, Portugal

A rendered farmhouse with brick window surrounds and a green glazed tile roof, a slatted pergola shading the first floor terrace, with bougainvillea, pampas grass, yuccas and prickly pear in the gravel below — Costa Brava, Spain

Two timber armchairs lit on a terrace at night with the full moon over the sea beyond the garden — Mallorca, Spain

A sitting room with a built-in fireplace, stacked logs and low tables on a terracotta floor — Mallorca, Spain

Pale armchairs and a round table in a hotel lounge against a printed wall and a blue curtain — Madrid, Spain

A small courtyard pool seen through agapanthus, with shuttered windows above — Palma, Spain

A pool below a scalloped canopy, loungers and parasols along the far side — Mallorca, Spain

A bed against a concrete wall under a wire pendant lamp, with a green curtain beside it — Bilbao, Spain

A long salon under a cane and timber coffered ceiling, with a pale rug and a stone sculpture — Mallorca, Spain

A long pool lit at dusk on a timber deck, the lit house and palms reflected in it — Mallorca, Spain

A lounge with a black and white striped sofa against walls written over in chalk — Cascais, Portugal

A dark green sofa under exposed beams with sheer curtains over a tall window — Palma, Spain

A timber rocking chair in blue and white stripes on a round rug under a woven globe lamp — Mallorca, Spain

A bed in a pale room with the balcony doors open onto the street — Madrid, Spain

A courtyard with two clipped olive trees above a long hedge, large spheres painted in black and white brushstrokes and rattan chairs on pale paving, a narrow water channel in the foreground — Costa Brava, Spain

A long pool on a lawn at dusk with palms and a deep blue sky above — Mallorca, Spain

The names stay off this page. They come with the inspection, or by email. More of them here.

On foot

The ground, where I stood on it.

Navy brogues on Barcelona's flower-pattern pavement tiles

SeventyBarcelona, Spain

Ask about Iberia

Tell me the month and who is travelling.

I come back with one or two properties, the room I would take in each, and the notes that stay off the site. In English, Italian or Spanish.

Write to me →

Or the other way

Book it yourself, with the benefits attached.

Register once through Classic Travel, and where the house sits inside one of the programmes the hotel's own rate comes with breakfast, a credit, and an upgrade when one is free.

Register with Wheresnik →