The Best Spa Hotels in Seville

Built in the 18th century for a distinguished local merchant and subsequently renovated and turned into a hotel, the Palacio de Villapanés mixes baroque elegance with modern comfort. Top features of the wood-panelled rooms include high ceilings, Philippe Starck-designed bathtubs, views of cobbled streets and Molton Brown toiletries. The extensive wellness area has a steam bath, massage room, warm and hot contrast showers – and there’s even a plunge pool on the roof. The inviting outdoor spaces include the Patio de los Naranjos, rich with the scent of orange blossoms and a beautiful setting for a cold drink.

In the medieval Jewish quarter of Santa Cruz is Hotel Casa 1800, a former mansion-palace converted into a hotel following a two-year restoration project. Built in 1864, guests rooms surround a three-storey central courtyard flooded with sunlight. It has two solariums, a rooftop pool with views of the royal Alcazar, Hospital de los Venerables and vistas of the cathedral and La Giralda bell tower. Premium rooms here have outdoor patios, while the top-end Suite 1800 has a private rooftop terrace and Jacuzzi.

This 18th-century boutique hotel is arranged around a series of cobbled courtyards. It hosts the Bodyna rooftop spa with its sun-drenched deck for massages and beauty treatments on wicker loungers, an outdoor swimming pool and a solarium terrace where you can enjoy fresh juices prepared at the pool bar. The Azahar restaurant serves Andalusian cuisine with a modern twist – the crispy Iberian cheek lasagna with sweet potato puree and old cheese is a delicious indulgence.

There are plenty of beautiful rooftop terraces in Seville but perhaps none so glorious as at the EME Catedral Mercer hotel, directly overlooking the cathedral and Giralda bell tower. It’s an amazing spot for a cocktail or glass of champagne. There’s also a pool and solarium on the roof if you fancy a dip. In the sparkling wellness centre you can enjoy hydrotherapy in the heated pool, a Turkish steam bath, and an ice fountain for contrast; old and new luxury combined.

A boutique hotel with 18 individually-decorated rooms, Casa del Poeta is another gracefully converted mansion in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood – this one built in the 17th century and arranged around a central patio with fountain. Here the spa comes to you, with hairdressers and massages available in your room, where you can also expect Egyptian cotton sheets, courtyard views and private terraces overlooking the surrounding streets. There’s live Andalusian guitar music every evening and a communal rooftop terrace for relaxing.

This genteel five-star hotel is renowned for the bullfighting paintings which adorn its walls, reproduced from 17th and 18th-century masterpieces. If that’s not your thing, try the heated plunge pool on the roof with city views, adjacent to the sun terrace with loungers and Bali beds. There’s also a spa by Clarins with a sauna, Turkish bath and bi-thermal showers. Most of the rooms have street views of pretty Calle Canalejas and Cristo del Calvario, and the ornate Magdalena church. The hotel’s El Burladero restaurant specialises in traditional Andalusian cuisine with avant-garde flair.

As much labyrinth as hotel, Las Casas de la Judería (houses of the Jewish quarter) is made up of 27 properties containing 134 rooms linked by 40 patios, gardens and a series of passageways. Original furniture and remnants of amphoras (Greek vases), Roman statues and pedestals decorate nooks and crannies. Hispalis – as Seville was known when it was founded by the Romans – lends its name to the hotel spa, decorated with marble tesserae representing Roman gods and animals. It includes hot and cold water pools, a Turkish bath, relaxation hot bench and a “flotarium”.

The Eurostars hotel occupies the top 19 floors of the Torre Sevilla, the tallest skyscraper in Andalusia at 180m (590ft). As such, great views of the city are a given, though the Presidential Suite on the 33rd floor with its panoramic vista has the best of them. The spa and health club includes a hydrotherapy centre with a pool, Mediterranean bath, hydromassage hammocks, sauna, cold-breeze shower with aromatherapy, and an ice fountain. In the El Duende restaurant try the decadent surf-and-turf with confit Iberian salt pork and chestnuts.

On the banks of the Guadalquivir river, Hotel Ribera has views of the Triana Bridge, a beautiful 19th-century arched construction. You can choose between city and river-view rooms and suites with their own terraces; all have decorative nods to the Moorish heritage of the city. The glass-ceilinged spa and wellness centre with Jacuzzi is on the roof and has the best outlook in the hotel – that is, apart from the open rooftop pool and solarium, which has some of the finest city views from any pool in Seville.

Next to the ornate Basilica of the Macarena, Alcoba del Rey was once home to Al-Mutamid, an 11th-century poet and ruler of the kingdom of Seville. One thousand years later and there are delicate architectural flourishes in this hotel conveying its Moorish influence, including intricate tiling in the bathrooms, and an atrium built around Andalusian archways. The decked rooftop terrace has a free-to-use Jacuzzi and sunbeds (if the Spanish sun isn’t hot enough for you).