Hotel Akelarre

This property acted with such grace when I needed to cancel last minute. I was very sad to cancel, but the way they handled my cancellation and communications guarantees I will be back to this beautiful property very soon.

We had lunch today. The best hot vegetable tray ever. A work of art.

Feels like Narnia! The entire property is breathtaking, the rooms are private and so serene, the architecture is so beautifully designed. The hospitality from Victor and the entire front desk staff was honestly so personal, warm, thoughtful and detail oriented. If you have the ability to everyone should experience staying here once in their lifetime! Forever will hold a special place in our heart! Patchi bar was incredible too for drinks!!! Thank you thank you for everything! We will be back!

Just WOW from A to Z.
The design of the hotel beautifully blends into the surrounding nature, the views and sunsets are just mesmerizing, staff takes such good care of you in a highly personal way, food is prepared with so much love and appreciation of quality. Can only recommend a lunch or dinner in their 3 star restaurant. Would book this place again anytime!

Visited the cocktail bar at Akelarre for a drink and it was well worth the trip. Stunning views of the ocean endlessly stretching into the distance while seated on the lounge area. The mixologist at the bar was fabulous and incredibly skilled, and made us some delicious cocktails to accompany the view.

The restaurant is great. The servers are even greater. While I perfer Alinea for a molecular gastronomic dining experience, this place is the bees knees. If you go, you should definitely add the (+$140 per person) wine accompaniment for the tasting menues.
I also recommend you visit outside once you finish your meal, especially if you are enjoying lunch time meals. The patio is equally divine and made some great cocktails.

Absolutely an amazing place to relax and chill. Service and food is fabulous, rooms are well appointed. Highly recommended.

We stayed 2 nights at Hotel Akelarre. Knowing how difficult it is to get a reservation to a 3-star restaurant in New York and Chicago, I booked the restaurant first and then booked the hotel. Yes, the rooms are actually underground, but that's because the whole community is built on a slope. You arrive on the top floor and descend down to lower levels where the rooms are. There is absolutely no sense of being underground, since the entire building is built on a downward slope, facing the Atlantic. The rooms have breath-taking panoramic views of the ocean. We had a great dining experience at Restaurant Akelarre. But the breakfast at the hotel Restaurant Oteiza had been excellent as well. I agree with some of the comments about the hotel being stingy about giving out water bottles (how much does a bottle of water cost anyways!) but it was not severe enough to ruin the experience for me, plus they do replenish a new bottle twice each day. Rooms are comfortable, tastefully designed and furnished and service had been excellent.

This review is just for the hotel, excluding the Akelarre restaurant. It’s is and outstanding hotel in terms of design, service and location great to relax for a couple of nights. We stayed in the Deluxe room which was perfect and very cozy with great views of the ocean. Breakfast is served at the Oteiza restaurant which has a fantastic atmosphere. Regarding negative reviews about how small the pool is or whether the service is stingy with bottled water, in my humble opinion are borderline with pettiness as the pool is part of the spa area (isn’t designed or conceived as a proper lap pool) and the tap water quality in Basque Country is probably better than the bottled one, and obviously better for the environment. In summary the place totally hits the bar of Relais & Chateaux.

They welcomed us with a great care with a nice local champagne and Oshibori (very nicely scented towel) upon our arrival.

we did not make any arrangement for the dinner in advance, which was a big fail for us, then they called in more than 10 restaurants to make a booking for us during our stay. (We wanted to eat at the Akelarre restaurant but we could not make a reservation), they found great basque restaurants and we appreciated their effort so much.

The hotel is crowded around noon and dinner time, as people who do not stay in the hotel come in for the restaurants,

Due to Covid, although it is free to enter when you stay at the hotel, we needed to make a reservation to use the wellness area (Pool, Sauna, Massage space and gym). We wanted to use the pool frequently but the reception was not very positive about making a reservation of the wellness area so often so we only went in a few times, for an hour each time slot. One time when I was using the pool and left my key in the changing room, I assume a cleaner came into the changing room and took everything away including my mask and the room key, but as I called the reception, they brought my room key immediately and I guess it was fine though maybe it's better not to bring valuables to the wellness area (which is also open to people not staying in the hotel).

The room was magnificent, the soundproof room was completely soundproof that we couldn't hear absolutely anything when the window was closed, when we opened the window we heard birds singing and I was rather surprised. They have their own toiletry products (Amenity: Cotton, cotton sticks, soap, hand wash, hair dryer, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shower gel) which were very good. I loved their hair care products.

Whenever we were absent from the room, they came in and supplied water, made the bed and put a very delicious muffin in our room for us, that wasn't only once a day, and we loved those little surprises.

The breakfast was fantastic. They provided basque food options and we loved the local yoghurt and the fish. The staffs explained to us thoroughly about the food too and we loved trying out the menu options.

You need a car to go to the city centre, or catch a taxi as it seems difficult to park in the city centre, so we could not really go to the beach but we loved the ocean view from the window so we had no complaint.

Only had cocktails..but they were amazing and the staff were so welcoming!

Even if it was for one night it was an amazing experience. Really kind staff, beautiful view, peaceful. Nothing to complain about.

We visited the hotel for a few cocktails in the evening, fantastic cocktail and fantastic views!

Because of the beautiful vieuw and also compliments to our waiter Borju...he was very friendly, correct and give us a warm welkom...
For sure we come again..
Kind regards
Léon en Marie-louise from Holland

The service was the best I have received in Europe.

Great location, nothing to say.
I would like to come back again.

Fantastic luxury hotel. It was honestly hard to leave and see San Sebastián, it was so pleasant to be there.

Lovely staff very good cleaning but quite far from the city

Special Place Worth Visiting!

Fantastic and a must visit!

Stunning view on the Atlantic Ocean 🌊