Gehrig is spot on.

When I'm planning a vacation, I plan out my activities first and then pick my lodging. For example, Sea World is half an hour from the Riverwalk. I might plan a night or two near there if I were visiting SeaWorld.

We were in SA in February - we stayed at the Menger Hotel and can highly recommend it.

It's a beautiful, old world hotel - steeped in history and very well located - an easy 5-10 minute stroll to the Riverwalk. And it's not overly expensive.

Our room was a little bit tired, but fine nevertheless.

Check it out ... https://www.mengerhotel.com/

If you Google 'San Antonio River Walk', click on the map, and zoom in. You can get a great look at the Riverwalk - check out restaurants, hotels, attractions.

Thanks for all the replies. I am finally ready to sit down and plan our trip. Looking at April 13-18 so that the weather will be a little warmer for walking around and sight seeing. We HATE cold weather. Lodging: The Menger was not really our style, prefer modern. Drury and Embassy Suites seemed too far away??? La Mansion seemed nice but rates 154 out of 377 on TA??? Thinking between Hyatt Regency and Palacio del Rio. My question is the Hyatt Regency on google maps does not look like it is on the river walk but pics show that it is. Very confused....anyway, can I get pros and cons for both of these? And I am hoping that by then hotel bar and dining will be open. Read in reviews that so much is still closed.

Thanks for any help. Oh, and I decided to stay 5 nites instead of 4 so we could see all that we wanted to and have time to relax too.

Hyatt Regency is the newer of the two you mention. If you zoom way in on Google maps you can tell that the Regency takes up the whole block.

Palacio del Rio has a unique history - it was built for Hemisphere in 1968 and built modularly - each room was completed, shipped to the site, craned into place, and utilities connected.

Thank you octoboy. Yes zoom def shows more...duh!! Neat history on Palacio. Thanks for your help!!

I'm guessing La Mansion's ratings may have something to do with which room one stays. The hotel is run by Omni and the balcony rooms with river views are excellent. The Embassy Suite is on the river and less than 10 minutes from everything. (stayed there last week... great dinner at Bohanon's)

Personally, the Hyatt is nothing special. I would prefer Palacio del Rio, but I am a Gold Hilton Honors member so partial...

Really, the location should not be a factor as the downtown area is really quite compact.

I've stayed at Hotel Valencia and Hotel Contessa and liked them both. I've stayed at La Mansion and liked the location but was only there one night so got the smallest room. Big mistake. Worst.room.ever. The furniture was oversized and it was physically impossible to open the dresser or get to the coffee maker because the bed was in the way, and there was no closet. Opening the dresser part way meant you couldn't get to the other side of the room without climbing over the bed. They did have a great breakfast buffet though. I suspect any other room would have been fine.

Mokara is highly rated but more expensive as is the Emma.