Firstly, we (2 mid-20s females) stayed here during our 3 month Europe trip in a combination of hostels and cheaper hotels and did come here after staying in a hostel in Madrid so may have different expectations to other travelers.

We chose to stay here as most of the hostels were booked out or imposed a two or three night minimum stat over summer and we were only in San Sebastian for one night.

We arrived into town by bus and the taxi to the hotel was only €8 (decided to taxi after reading about the hill!). We did walk the hill a number of times and didn't find it that bad (as said, we're in our mid-20s but we're not actually very fit). It is a bit out of town but only a five-ten min walk to the beach and 30 mins to the Old Town (we managed our walk back into the bus station with luggage no problem).

The receptionist on arrival was wonderful and thankfully spoke reasonable English as neither of us speak Spanish.

The room was clean, not particularly big - our twin room had only a few inches gap between the beds, but it was more than adequate. The bathroom was also very clean and quite spacious.

For the price, it is excellent value for money (only slightly more than our average hostel for our trip and it's private with a good sized bathroom), especially as San Sebastian isn't the cheapest of places to begin with.

Hotel up a steep hill, not for the unfit. No food in hotel besides breakfast buffet, which was excellent, only vending machines, take your own kettle and teabags!! No bar or resturant, take a long walk down the hill into town!! The resturant near hotel was closed.
The garden and terrace was lovely, superb views over town, unfortunatley not permited to sit out after 8.00pm as the door is locked.
Now if you are expecting a good nights sleep, forget it, walls are so thin we heard the guest next door snoring, and we wont talk about the dog in the room above!!!That only kept us awake one night.
This is the first time we have ever complained about a hotel, so you have been warned!!!

Located going up the Igueldo, we found this good hotel. Not modern and not quaint.

What it is though is simple and clean, and a good and scenic walk into the centre. Good value.

My husband and I stayed at the Avenida for 3 nights in September. We ended up there as we were visiting during the film festival and more centrally located hotels were full. Hotels in San Sebastian are very expensive and we were paying a rate for the Avenida that would get you a room in a four star hotel in a lot of other places. Comparing the hotel price with the rates at other hotels in the city it still represented good value. I think that had we been visiting at a quieter time for the city that we would have got a cheaper rate at the Avenida. The hotel also has free parking which should be factored in as the more central hotels will charge a daily rate for parking.

The hotel is a good thirty minute walk from the Old Town and is up a fairly steep hill so if you have limited mobility then this might not be the place for you. It is easy to check exactly where the hotel is located before you book so I would not mark the place down purely because it is a bit further from the centre of things. The beach is about a 10 minute walk away. The benefit of being a bit further out is that you get free parking and the hotel is in a quiet area so there is less disturbance at night.

The receptionist was really helpful. We arrived very early and did not expect to get into our room for some time. The receptionist went out of her way to make sure the room was ready within half an hour of us arriving and was apologising that we had a short wait - even though we arrived a good 4 hours ahead of the advertised check in time.

The room was clean and had a nice view down the hill to the town. The room had a fridge and safe but no telephone. The bathroom was spotless if a bit dated in its decor. The main drawback was the fact there is no air con. The rooms are south facing so get very hot and although there is a fan provided this doesn't make much of an impact. Duriung our stay we had two very warm days and a cooler day. The room didn't change much in temperature even when it cooled down outside.

The breakfast was a buffet. There was not a great deal to choose from but what was there was fresh and pleasant to eat. The hotel has no bar and although there is an excellent restaurant next door you do have to walk down into town for other bars/restaurants. The pool area at the hotel is very pleasant to sit and read a book at and the pool looked very clean.

All in all I would stay at the Avenida again (although not in high summer when the lack of air con could be a real problem).