Muralla Ziri Boutique Apartments

Rooms

Muralla Ziri's 12 apartments are divided between two houses.

There are 7 apartments in the four-storey Casa Albero (The Yellow House) where the 11th-century fortifications are visible by a fountain at the bottom of a wall by the entrance, and a further 5 just 50m down the road in the three-storey Casa Roja (The Red House) where the hammam and Turkish bath are also to be found. These 5 apartments have the added advantage of underfloor heating (a real boon during the winter months when icy winds can blow down from the Sierra Nevada) and a lift to whisk you up and down.

The apartments are classified in several different categories and sleep between two and five people.

Those in Standard grouping are the smallest and are located on the ground floor. I'd find the reduced dimensions and more limited daylight a tad claustrophobic and would avoid booking one of these.

The one Upper Standard apartment (in the Casa Roja) has a double and a single bedroom but has the disadvantage of having its kitchenette on a different floor, and no lounge area.

I'd recommend staying in one of the 3 Superior apartments which have their own sitting rooms with a kitchenette to one side, as do the 4 Executive apartments, which are slightly larger and three have swanky circular bath tubs tucked into a niche to one side of their bedrooms, the 4th has a hydromassage shower.

As you'd guess the Penthouse is, both literally and metaphorically, Muralla Ziri's top room. It has a double bed hoisted up on a mezzanine level above its kitchen (rather than kitchenette) as well as a second separate double and a small single. This apartment has the added attraction of a stunning view out to the Alhambra and a small terrace which would be perfect for alfresco dining whilst drooling over that gorgeous vista.

All the apartments have been painted in bright, post box colours and have unusual geometric wooden headboards with back lighting and ornate plaster mouldings similar to those of the Alhambra: chiselled appliqués and hanging lanterns further enhance the mood-of-the-Maghreb whilst the jazzy colour schemes and boxy furniture lend a more contemporary note.

Beds, dressed in whitest of white linen (lightly fragranced with natural Spanish organic lavender) with anti-allergy duvets in winter and light quilts in summer, are all standard sized double beds, apart from that on the mezzanine floor of the Penthouse which is a kingsize, whilst sofas can be made up as additional doubles.

Spick and span bathrooms have hairdryers, hydro massage showers, a magnifier mirror, and a pile of white fluffy towels embroidered with the M.Z. logo plus 'Touch of Charm' shower gel and soap; Superior and Executive apartments also have a bidet.