Parador Zafra, Extremadura, Spain

Parador Zafra, Extremadura, Spain

Zafra huddles tight, white and bright on the scorched Extremaduran tableland. Towering over it like a caballero among peons, the Parador Zafra is a 15th-century fortress without, Renaissance palace within. As a hotel, it has forfeited none of its ducal elegance. Above the arcaded courtyard, rooms retain the period nobility that suited Hernán Cortés. He holed up there, pre-American discovery, on the run from a jealous husband (though there was no swimming pool in his day). You should follow suit.