La Galería, the hotel on Ondarreta beach.

Meet the Hotel la Galería, a great hotel located on the beachfront of Donostia San Sebastian.

The Hotel la Galería in Donostia San Sebastian is one of those hotels that surprises the traveler. Or at least, that’s how it has been in our case. A tourist accommodation, which, although on paper has been classified as a 2-star hotel, deserves more. And, after our visit, we can confirm that the user experience is much greater than what its cataloging indicates. A fact that, together with its incredible location, has contributed to it becoming one of the hotels that we most recommend to the more than 1 million users who read us throughout the year. The capital of Gipuzkoa, one of the most beautiful cities of the Cantabrian coast, makes all the people who visit us fall in love with some of the sandy beaches it has. And no wonder, the beaches of Donostia have been awarded for representing some of the most beautiful urban beaches in Europe. Do you know any of them? The beaches of Zurriola, La Concha and Ondarreta, the 3 beaches of Donostia San Sebastian, are simply overwhelming. It is in the latter, a few meters from Ondarreta beach, practically on the beachfront, where we find this beautiful small Basque hotel. A space, in which the rooms facing the sea, give us an epic, idyllic, movie-like awakening. These views over the emblematic Bay of La Concha make everyone who rests within its walls fall in love. A true wonder. Throughout this article we are going to describe every corner of the Hotel La Galería, trying to argue with photos, words and videos the pros and cons that we find in this charming accommodation in San Sebastian. Pay attention because they do not have any waste.

The Hotel La Galería is located in a historic building, in a striking French-style structure. A building built in the nineteenth century next to the promenade of Ondarreta beach that attracts the attention of everyone who visits this area of the capital of Gipuzkoa. Although the exterior makes it clear that it is not just another hotel, its interior confirms it. And the fact is that, far from following the standard design of today’s hotels, minimalist and modern, this tourist accommodation welcomes us with a very strong personality, surrounded by period furniture and works of art. These elements, combined with current technologies, provide us with the most comfortable stay.

After learning about this incredible accommodation through their social networks, we decided to visit it in person during one of our many trips to Donostia. A very wise decision. And this hotel, elegant and humble at the same time, has shown us how a 2-star hotel can welcome us with practically the same comfort of a 4-star hotel. Of course, like any hotel, La Galería also has several aspects in which to improve, we tell you all about it below.

Location: Hotel La Galería is located on the beachfront of Ondarreta, at one end of La Concha Bay. A perfect location for all those who want to enjoy the city on foot, walking on the beaches of Donostia San Sebastian. And is that, although from the hotel to the city center (the Old Part), we have about 20 – 25 minutes walk, the way to go is one of the most beautiful walks throughout the Basque Country. It is worth it. In addition, the promenade along which the hotel is located, has trees that create a beautiful green area before reaching the beach, a small park where it is nice to walk. If you do not want to waste time in displacements, you have several options: use the bicycle rental service of the hotel or use the bus stop that we found about 500 meters away. There is a wide range of colors to choose from. On the other hand, the proximity of Donostia to the towns of Iparralde (French Basque Country) and the rest of the coastal towns, makes it possible to take advantage of this opportunity to visit some of them. We are sure you will remember this area of Donostia San Sebastian from the getaway we made to the NH Collection San Sebastian Aránzazu, better known as the NH Aranzazu Hotel. Another great option to stay in the Ondarreta neighborhood, close to the main beaches of the city.

Rooms: Spacious, practical and decorated with period furniture. Both the rooms and the common areas flee a little from current trends, a proposal that we applaud. Lately it is difficult to find a different hotel with personality. A fact that makes most of the hotels we visit seem practically the same: minimalist, modern and with no style of their own. In fact, as we were told from reception, all the rooms at Hotel La Galería have an exclusive, different decoration. As you can see, this small hotel places special emphasis on art, decorating every corner of its interior and exterior with a sculpture, painting or other decorative element. Of course, the period decoration is not at odds with the comforts of today. Practical 100%. In addition to having a private bathroom, all rooms are equipped with technological facilities such as air conditioning, TV and free Wi-Fi. The 23 rooms of the hotel have a plaque on the door that indicates the name of a well-known artist, in our case, room 406, had the name of Moraza. A small nod to the art that continues behind closed doors, and is that, at the head of the room we found a reproduction of a work of his next to a showcase full of historical objects. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the field of art, even so, we liked it. The only “but” we found in the room, was a problem that occurs in almost every hotel we visit, the power of the dryer. The rest was perfect.

Common areas: The small size of the hotel means that the common areas are very limited. Moreover, during our stay, the only common areas we saw / visited were the reception and the bar / cafeteria. Two very coquettish and small spaces that attest to the fact that this Basque accommodation is part of the charming hotels in the Basque Country. As always, art is again present in each of these spaces through different objects.

Parking: Although outside the summer season it is very easy to find a place to park our vehicles, in summer, Easter and long weekends, it is usually a bit difficult to find parking in the vicinity of Ondarreta beach. Although the hotel has a small free parking lot in front of the hotel, we must emphasize that it is quite difficult to find a place. In this regard, we must point out that there is an OTA (Ordenanza Municipal Reguladora Del Servicio De Estacionamiento) in the vicinity of the Hotel La Galería, so we recommend that you pay close attention to the schedules established by this ordinance and the area in which you park your vehicles. We do not want you to be fined when you return.

Accessibility: The stairs we found at the entrance make it clear that Hotel La Galería does not have the best accessibility. When we asked about it at the front desk, upon further inquiry, we were told that there is an entrance at the back of the hotel that allows people with reduced mobility to use the elevator from the lower level, thus avoiding all the architectural barriers that we found at the entrance, on the main facade.

Our opinion of Hotel La Galería: Although the arguments we have presented so far for staying at this hotel may have been more than enough to convince you of its quality. The situation we experienced and the way in which the people in charge of this hotel responded was simply 10. After booking a room with a sea view well in advance, we found that there was no such room, but one without a view. We must say that they tried to locate us by all means before our arrival but it was impossible, we were in the charming Valley of Lastur and we had no mobile coverage. Upon arrival, they presented the situation to us and kindly proposed 2 ways to solve this little mistake they had made.

We opted for the first option. And seeing how well we rested, we have the pleasant feeling that we were right on the money. It is when problems of this type arise that the true nature of a hotel accommodation is revealed. When there is a mistake, there is a guaranteed solution. In any case, the room we enjoyed (double room without view located on the 4th floor) had everything we needed to enjoy the city to the fullest. In fact, it served to prove that not only the rooms with sea views are worthwhile. And if we loved this room, we don’t even want to think about what our next stay in this hotel will be like while enjoying the incredible views of La Concha Bay. On the other hand, many of our readers always encourage us to look for a “but” to all the services we tried, well, if we had to put a but to our stay at the Hotel La Galería, we would put it in the breakfast, and is that, although this service was correct, the huge variety and quality with which we are not used to hotels today, makes us find the breakfast of this accommodation in San Sebastian somewhat lacking in variety and quality. An aspect to improve. Price of breakfast: 10€ / person.

Attention: No complaints, on the contrary, we were very well attended. Upon arrival, after the confusion of the room, we asked a thousand and one questions, to which Erlantz, a very nice and attentive guy who was at the reception of the hotel, did not hesitate to answer. This is how we discovered all the aspects that we will tell you today related to this hotel, talking to him. We must say that although all the people we met in this establishment treated us correctly, Erlantz’s friendliness remained engraved in our minds. A 10 for him! A professional as the top of a pine tree. Eskerrik asko! In our opinion, the fact that it is a small hotel, makes communication more human, authentic. Different from the ones we have with the workers of the big hotels.

Price: Very competitive. The price of Hotel La Galería is one of the most surprising we have found on the coast of Donostia San Sebastian. Although we cannot compare it with most of the hotels we found in the coastal strip of this city due to its 2 stars, we must say that the price surprised us. In our case, after comparing several reservation centers, we realized that the price available on its own website was the cheapest of them all. Of course, without the possibility of cancellation. Finally we booked directly through the website of Hotel La Galería. Very comfortable.

What to see in Donostia San Sebastian: Very close to the Hotel La Galería we find great places of the capital of Gipuzkoa, among them, we highlight the Ondarreta beach, the Peine de los Vientos, Mount Igeldo, Santa Clara Island, the Miramar Palace, the Antiguo tunnel, Mount Urgull, Mount Ulía or the beach of La Concha. For options it is not going to be. In addition, thanks to the beautiful and familiar route along the coast of Donostia San Sebastian, we can recommend you to enjoy each and every one of the charms of the city on foot, including the beaches of Donostia San Sebastian. A very popular plan for those days when the sirimiri and rain give us a break. Anyway, we leave you a small list of places that perfectly represents everything you can see and do during your stay at the Hotel La Galería.

Videos: We want to complement the words and pictures of this article with a small video that we have uploaded to our YouTube channel, one more tool through which we try to show you the reality of this accommodation. If you like it, we recommend you to subscribe to our channel, we are sure you will find more than one video that catches your attention. Also, in case you dare to walk along the promenade of the coast of Donostia, we leave you a video to give you an idea of what awaits you. Enjoy!

In conclusion, we can summarize that Hotel La Galería is a very good option for all those people who are looking for a place to stay in Donostia San Sebastian. Especially for people traveling as a couple, like us, where tranquility is one of the points to take into account. After comparing with the rest of accommodations that we have known in the capital of Gipuzkoa, we can confirm that it has a more than recommendable quality – price ratio. An aspect that in our humble opinion is essential when selecting a hotel. As we say around here… Ondo pasa!