Corral del Rey

Corral del Rey sits on a narrow lane in the Alfalfa quarter, a five minute walk from the cathedral and close enough to the Alcázar that you can be at its gate before the coach groups arrive. Anthony and Patrick Reid, the Anglo Spanish brothers behind the Hacienda de San Rafael in the countryside south of the city, restored three seventeenth century houses here, the main one built around a central patio and two more across the lane. Roman marble columns, Tarifa stone floors, carved wooden doors and eighteenth century shutters survived the work; the rest was quietly modernised.

With seventeen rooms split between the main house and the two annexes, it runs like a private home. Breakfast is included and the ground floor café serves tapas until late, which matters in a city where dinner rarely starts before ten. The roof holds a small plunge pool and a mirador with the Giralda in view, and the Penthouse Suite and the Grand Pool Terrace carry that idea further with private roof terraces and plunge pools of their own.

What you give up is the full hotel machine: there is no gym, no spa and no restaurant with a tasting menu. What you gain is a team who know the neighbourhood bar by bar, and a house that stays cool and still when the city is at its busiest during Semana Santa or the Feria.