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The 145-room Gran Hotel Domine is bang opposite Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum. Sensibly, rather than try to compete with Gehry's extravaganza, the hotel reflects it through enormous black mirrored-glass windows. From inside, you get outsize views of the museum, which at times is within 100ft of your Philippe Starck bath (rooms on the other side of the hotel, without the view, are less expensive). The interiors are boldly contemporary, designed by Javier Mariscal, the artist-designer responsible for Barcelona's 1992 Olympic mascot. The colour scheme is bright (reds and blues) with custom-made, Mariscal-designed chairs, Alvar Aalto shower stools, Arne Jacobsen sinks and Ron Arad scarlet sofas. In the lobby, the 26-metre Cypress Fossil - a Mariscal sculpture made from thousands of rocks in a wire-mesh frame - towers up through the seven-storey atrium. There is a bar and two restaurants, the gourmet option headed up by local Alberto Velez and consultant José Ramón Berriozabal, who is considered one of Spain's top five chefs. The food is superlative, particularly the bacalao (salt cod) and merluza (hake).
WHEN TO GO
A long weekend in autumn when the queues at the Guggenheim are shorter, and the weather is still pleasant enough for T-shirts
WHICH ROOM TO BOOK
'Executive' double 418, for close-ups of Jeff Koons' giant Puppy at the entrance to the Guggenheim
CONTACT
Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao, Alameda de Mazarredo 61, Bilbao, Spain
(00 34 94 425 3300; fax: 425 3301; www.granhoteldominebilbao.com). Doubles €216-€235; suites €294-€1,030
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