Bancal Hotel and Spa

The hotel impresses with its modern technology, stunning views, and spa treatments. Guests appreciate the spotless cleanliness, delicious breakfast buffet, spacious and quiet rooms, and friendly, attentive staff.

I left with mixed feelings about the Bancal Hotel. We came to stay as our partners were rowing the Atlantic as part of the Worlds Toughest Row Atlantic Challenge 2024. The hotel is only about 6 months old (note that Google maps will take you to the old location which is much closer to San Sebastián than the new hotel). From a distance it looks like a vast concrete military base. The whole hotel is pretty much concrete... there has however been alot of very lovely planting which will increasingly improve the vista as it matures. There are swimming pools on most levels and they have been done beautifully. The hotel wasn't very busy when we went and there were sufficient loungers.. in the busiest times I would be less sure. Food: We ate in the buffet most nights and the food on the whole was good for buffet food. Note that if you get there half an hour before closing choices will start to run out. Lunch down by the lower swimming pool was very tasty. Gym: Small but new gym which had all the things I needed.. if you are after very heavy weights it might be a bit lacking Yoga Some friends did the morning yoga and said it was excellent Wellness Spa One thing that is fairly well hidden both on the website and when booking is that the indoor pool and spa is extra. For hotel guests it is 25 euros per visit and has to be pre-booked. It has been done beautifully and was a nice way to spend an hour. Rooms The design of the corridors makes you feel like you are entering some kind of space pod..the rooms themselves are as you would expect and the beds are comfortable. Some annoying design features... the smoke alarms are over the bed and flash during the night, the loo and shower are screened with glass only (frosted at the relevant points) but if you are travelling with friends or a new partner you feel fairly exposed using them. Some of the smaller things that make up a good hotel are missing like tissues. Room cleaning was hit and miss... note if you leave any electronics on the bed it won't be made. Tea and coffee's were not always replenished, dirty mugs not replaced with clean . on some occasions the bathroom area wasn't cleaned. The TV's don't have an English setting .. at one point at about 11pm all the tv's received a message which caused them to turn on.. we couldn't read the message so just turned the tv off.. so it popped back on again 5 minutes later. Eventually we unplugged the TV (which also meant the wake up call wouldn't work).. apparently if we had accepted the message it would have stopped but we couldn't read that. Service You very much get the feel that this hotel is still in training mode.. the staff are incredibly friendly and very keen to please but on a number of occasions when we raised issues we were almost argued against instead of just receiving an apology and a fix. Location As mentioned before it is not as close to town as the old hotel. We would run down to town in the morning but it is not somewhere you wo