Akelarre - Relais & Chateaux

This hotel is VERY special : The view, the architecture, the service, the food, the rooms (sshhh…!) Didn’t get to use the spa, but will do in the future. Great breakfast, and service. Thank you. “Eskerrik asko”

I spent a few nights at Hotel Akelarre this past April as I liked the idea of staying onsite while dining at the restaurant. The staff was efficient and courteous overall but the general ambiance felt cold and stuffy. The room was great with a large sitting area, a walk-in closet and a large balcony. Although it felt a bit sterile, it was very comfortable and extremely well insulated. It was convenient to explore the coast and visit some of the other villages like Zarautz and Getaria versus staying in San Sebastian where you have to contend with parking challenges and traffic in and out. Overall pleasant stay.

What a beautiful hotel! Very modern, great service (our concierge who showed us around was fab) and what gorgeous rooms. Floor to ceiling windows and amazing views, dressing gowns that actually fit and lovely quiet air conditioning. We absolutely loved our 2 day stay here. The michelin restaurant was a slightly different matter mind ....

Such an amazing stay here. The hotel and facilities are modern and just stunning. Every aspect of our stay was perfect. The staff were incredibly helpful and kind. The room was so beautiful. Nothing more I could possibly want out of a hotel! Can’t rave enough about this beautiful place. In particular I can say Jose of the concierge team was amazing and several others working the front desk and concierge desk were superb (wish I got everyone’s name!!) cannot wait to go back.

My take on hotel Akelere is specific to an issue that I had when I was staying there with my wife and kids, and how they dealt (rather not) with it. At the time of our stay there was a tiny camera on the TV in the bedroom (we had two separate rooms, both had the same TV that came with an embedded camera that is barely noticeable/top right of the TV frame) We only noticed it around 3:30 AM while in bed, when it turned on and emitted a green light. When we sat up and stared at it, it turned off within seconds. Although we were planning on spending an additional night, we didn’t feel safe, so we checked out in the morning. We told the receptionist and the manager about what we experienced. The manager’s reaction first was that there are no cameras in the rooms. So my wife and I showed her a picture we took of the room and the TV with the tiny camera, and then she said that she will look into it and get back to us. It has been 9 days since we encountered this unsettling experience. I am writing about this so you can all be aware of staying there. Not getting back to us as promised is disappointing.

The Good: The service was top notch and everything you could expect from a hotel of its caliber, from the staff's availability to the details in turndown service. The spa is small, but it has all the basics from hydrotherapy to a hammam. The changing suites at the spa are also so, so incredibly gorgeous. The architecture and interior design is just so strikingly beautiful, not to mention the expansive ocean views at any point on the property. Even if the views were concrete buildings, I would still return. THAT'S how aesthetically pleasing, clean, high quality, and seamless the interiors were. The rooms are so, so well done I want to model my next home after it. The food is obviously fantastic. The included breakfast is fantastic. We didn't try the hotel's namesake restaurant, but we did have dinner at Oteiza. The menu was limited, but very good. I highly recommend getting a package that includes the dinner. The cocktail bar is also very, very good (in taste and theatrics). A lot of non-hotel guests seem to come up to the hotel for cocktails and sunset, so just be mindful of that if you want a specific spot on the terrace. The Weird: Just our room's wifi crapped out one day. The entire hotel and rooms next to us were fine. It took a while to diagnose the problem, but once they realized it was unfixable, the staff was incredibly accommodating and switched our rooms to an identical one. At checkout, they said that they would comp an extra morning of breakfast for us in exchange for the inconvenience which was really nice. The only thing is, we only used 1 of our 2 breakfasts, so it was just a little odd. The Bad: The word gym is an overstatement for what is one treadmill, one elliptical, one bike, and a few other things in a tiny room. It gets the job done, but if you need a proper fitness center, you might want to look somewhere else. Things to note: The hotel's isolated from the city center, so expect a 15-ish minute trip and 15-ish euro fare by taxi each way. To conclude, I really, really loved my stay at Akelarre, and I'm already looking to book my next visit.

Stayed for two nights. The welcome and service from the reception staff was very poor but the concierge was brilliant and very helpful during our whole stay. Rooms were lovely and the whole hotel is very clean, modern but somewhat lacking in atmosphere. All a bit stifled. We were so disappointed with the food. It really wasn't at all special and breakfast was particularly dull.