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).