Sercotel Coliseo Bilbao

We chose this hotel because it had excellent reviews, was near the old town to the east, the Guggenheim Museum to the west, and the river on three sides, and we were not disappointed. It is modern, clean, with excellent helpful staff and is ideally situated. As we arrived late evening (from the Santander ferry), the hotel car park was full (we were warned this might be the case); however the receptionist directed us to the public car park which is almost opposite and we left our car there for the stay which was not a problem - plenty of space and good security. Bilbao is a lovely town, especially the old quarter and the gardens. While tapas is available all day, the restaurants only open for dinner at 9pm, which is too late for us. Fortunately we stumbled across the bar/restaurant Berton at 11 Calle Jardines in the old town which serves meals throughout the day and evening; we had an excellent meal there. The Guggenheim is an interesting building with unique architecture. We visited all the galleries but must confess to not getting much out of it. 16 slightly different obscure paintings of Lenin and Stalin hanging upside down in dresses is not for me, however the pretentious commentary from the audio unit does provide some amusement.

Two disappointments with the hotel – the aircon didn’t cool (the maid opened the window for us on the second day), and the breakfast was nothing special but expensive (€15) and there was no normal tea for some reason on both mornings.