Apartment in Santander's Puertochico neighborhood, 5 minutes from Sardinero Beach (pet-friendly)

We arrived in Santander bus station at 11 pm to find the local buses were stopped and taxis were on strike. The owner very kindly came and picked us up. The flat was clean and freshly decorated but very much had the feel of a student flat, not homely and a few minor inconveniences, eg the shower head leaked and did not stay in place, there was a lot of food left in the kitchen, some beyond its sell by date. There were only 2 of us in the flat and the double bedroom was good with a comfortable bed. There was another good sized bedroom with twin beds and a third smaller room with bunk beds. The small room had a slightly musty smell, perhaps because it had been used to dry washing, the smell went away on airing the room. The location was good, 10 mins walk to the nearest beach and the marine life museum. Aquarium at the museum wort a visit. El Sardinero beach about 17 minutes walk and the city centre about 20 minutes. Good bus service to plaza d'Italia from bus stop 3 minutes walk from flat. The immediate area around the flat was multi storey residential and did not offer much by the way of amenities, there were a few small supermarkets close by which were good for bread and other essentials. I would certainly recommend the flat as very good value for a family or group of friends who could make full use of the available accomodation. Not 5 star luxury and not in the nicest area but easy to get to all the local attractions. Santander is quite a small city and most tourists appear to be Spanish. For us the main attractions were the beaches, the Magdelena peninsula, and the walk to the lighthouse at Cabo Faro. Centro Botin was worth a visit to see the building but the exhibition was not to my taste. The climate is temperate, daytime temperatures in the first week in August ranged from 22 to 28 deg.C. It did not rain but was overcast on 2 days. Ideal for people like me who do not enjoy scorching sunshine.