Hotel San Telmo

Classy little hotel near the centre of Santa Cruz. Some traffic noise, but overall quite peaceful given its location. Whoever was responsible for the design clearly has taste, even though the room furniture is a bit IKEA-ish. Restful neutral paintwork and spotlessly clean. The bed was very comfortable, other than the wooden headbord. For some reason the Spanish don't seem to go for padded headboards - if they are not wood, they are wrought iron. Managed to bang my head twice in the night! The TV was very small and old-fashioned, but not really an issue as hardly any English channels anyway - just Spanish and German. There is some noise from the room above and also the dining room in the morning - coffee machine grinding the beans, for example. We were in Room 5, which is right next to the reception and the entrance'exit external door, so maybe the other rooms do not suffer this. It's an old building, so to be expected. The staff are lovely - very gentle and polite, particularly Selena and Maria. No restaurant facilities, so only breakfast, which is non-cooked (other than a boiled egg if requsted!) ie cheeses, cold meats, etc. So a bit samey day after day, but always very fresh. The dining room is very small - four little tables in a line against the wall, all close together, plus one larger round table. It was deathly quiet on our first morning, with nobody talking, so rather uncomfortable being right next to the next table. A bit of music would have relieved the atmosphere. It was slightly 'buzzier' the next morning as there was a group of Germans sat at the round table talking animatedly. We chose to eat outside (which we like doing, anyway when the weather is nice) for the rest of our stay, although this is a bit of a palaver, as it meant loading up a tray and then walking down a long flight of steps, and then up some more steps to get to the patio, which is some way away, and also quite small, by the way. Just enough space for two sunbeds. I realise that I have made a few negative comments - these are not really criticisms - I'm just pointing out things as they are, in case the issues I mention are important to other potential guests. I would not hesitate in staying there again.