San Sebastian hosts a film festival every September. It is one of the main international film festivals rivalling Berlin’s and Toronto’s. This hotel has been completely inspired by these films. The lobby walls are covered in black and white pictures of film stars back in the day doing glamorous things. Each of the rooms are dedicated to a famous actor, director or producer. My room is the Cohen Brothers room, the last thing I see before I go to bed at night is a giant picture of the two of them staring right at me. If staring at their picture in my room inspires me to see their movies I can. All I need to do is call reception and they will send me up any of the 500 different movies that they have downstairs in their projection room for me to watch.
It’s a fantastic hotel and the breakfast room has the same sort of movie star feel to it. I looked forward every morning to having their omelette with Spanish ham and cheese (my mouth is watering just thinking about it) and of course my hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate they have is a pouch of powder called Cola Cao which they bring to me with a jug of hot milk. I quite liked this, it is the kind of hot chocolate I could have (and was having) every morning. It has a very faint taste of chocolate with a bit of a malty finish to it. It isn’t too sweet, just nice and simple.
Verdict: Despite the main ingredient being sugar I quite enjoyed this hot chocolate and was happy to drink it every morning that I stayed at the hotel. The hotel also has a café that probably serves a fancier version but I didn’t have the chance to try it out. Astoria 7 Hotel, Sagrada Familia 1, San Sebastian, Spain
