Vacations at the seaside are meant to spend as much time as we can on the beach. However, tours around the urban center of neighboring cities are a classic each season. At Ostende, one of its hotels is worth a visit.
Lying on the corner of Biarritz and Cairo Streets, the Old Hotel Ostende shows off its almost intact façade. Despite being a hundred years old, it still keeps its dignity. It is a symbol of the social circles that used to visit the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires in the past.
We went around the building and tried to take a look inside and get deep into the fascinating accounts it has to offer. It dates from 1914, when reaching Ostende was quite a venture. It implied a journey by train, being carried on a cart and finally getting on a small carriage up to the indomitable sand hills.
In the mid 1940s, the presence of some famous writers was notorious. They would get there from Buenos Aires and abroad and spend long seasons at Thermas Hotel, as it used to be known back then. Its rooms welcomed Adolfo Bioy Casares and his wife Silvina Ocampo, as well as the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Anecdotes of these visits have been printed on objects the hotel still takes pride in showing.
Visit to the Old Hotel Ostende
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Facade looks almost intact
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Data 1914
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First hotel spa
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On the shores of the Atlantic
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Turn back time
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A privileged area
At present, guests may choose to stay at an old room with period furniture and closets. Likewise, they also may opt for rooms featuring all the comfort and technology of today.
Its construction remains solid in spite of having been buried under the sand hills repeatedly. When that happened, guests were invited to enter the venue through the first floor windows.
The elegant atmosphere of its pub, restaurant and halls keep their original style with some Belle Epoque ornaments.
The garden is harmoniously shady, ideal to spend time reading under the trees and having dinner in the fresh evenings. The natural vegetation of the sand hill provides shelter from the sunshine and creates spaces for rest at the private beach bar.
When life was more relaxed than today, the old Hotel Ostende was a key piece at the moment of choosing to rest by the soft murmur of the waves.
Mónica Pons 
Pablo Etchevers
