We are in the process of planning a trip to San Sebastian with our adult daughters and sons-in law. We will be taking part in cooking school classes as well as exploring the area. We are looking to rent a 3 bedroom apartment and would appreciate anyone who may have suggestions. Would you suggest the old city as a good place to stay or someplace else? Any suggestions regarding the area would be appreciated. Thanks.
Linda
Posted by
OP
USA
23 posts
By the way, most all of the apartments we have looked at seemed to not have air conditioning. Is that normal? Since we will be there in July this is a concern for me.
Posted by
Washington DC
28083 posts
I think the old city would be a very good place to stay from the standpoint of access to sights. The area just to the south of it is also nice, with handsome apartment buildings. SS isn't large and is quite walkable.
I do have one thought: The old town is the entertainment district, full of restaurants and bars. The locals do not eat dinner before 10 PM and are out and about until all hours. It's possible noise could be an issue if your apartment is on a street with a bunch of late-night spots. You probably need a specific address to check this out.
As for the a/c issue: What are the dates for your stay?
It wouldn't surprise me to be told that it's normal for apartments in San Sebastian to be un-air-conditioned. The question is: Is it prudent for you to book such a place? While I'd usually say "No", the Basque Country is a different sort of beast where weather is concerned. San Sebastian can be cool and wet even in mid summer, though I see that its record highs for the months of June through September are all over 100F.
You can look at actual day-by-day weather data on wunderground.com. That link should take you to data for June 2016; scroll down to the line graph showing temperatures. As you can see, it didn't actually go much over 70 very often that month. But I don't know what month you are traveling. Change the month to match your plans, and also go back several years to get a feel for how much risk there is.
Posted by
OP
USA
23 posts
We need to travel in July due to teaching schedules. If it were just my husband I traveling, I can assure you we wouldn't be going in July. I spent one month in Spain during September of 2010 and it was extremely hot. We were, however, in Barcelona and Andalusia and everything was air conditioned, except for one hotel. When I noticed that the SS apartments seemed to all be not air conditioned, I thought perhaps the temps were cooler. The weather forecasts do not go into July.
Posted by
Washington DC
28083 posts
Even if available, forecasts beyond 10 days out would be of limited value because they are just based on historical averages and give no information about variations from day to day. I can tell you that air conditioning is probably not necessary in San Sebastian on the average day in July. The question is whether it is needed on the hottest day you might reasonably expect to encounter. You can either be conservative and insist on an air-conditioned place (which might need to be a hotel) so you don't have to worry about it, or you can look at actual day-by-day July temperatures in recent years and play the odds.
You could try to book a cancellable non-airconditioned place, check the forecast five days out and scramble for a replacement at that point. But I wouldn't advise that in July because it is peak season in the Basque Country and I think it would be hard to find an apartment you could cancel that close to your arrival date.
Follow these Wunderground.com links and scroll down to the line graph showing temperatures.
2012 was the worst of the five years.