Barcelona Travel Guide
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Hotel Arts Barcelona Gets Smart...Cars, That Is
Just two months after a popular European urban sustainability exhibit swung through the eastern Spanish city, Hotel Arts Barcelona is now hawking electric smart cars of its very own.
Starting this fall, Club Level guests will have exclusive access to 100% electric smart cars, which will be branded with the hotel's logo (though, better that than Frank Gehry's nearby fish sculpture).
Hotel Renovations / Barcelona Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
El Palace Hotel’s Top Dollar Refurb Is Now Complete
One of Barcelona’s most iconic hotels, the five-star El Palace has just completed a pretty intense makeover--two years in the making and a cost of about 22 million Euros. From the photos, it looks like it has been worth every penny.
Just check out the bedroom above where the designers have paid homage to the hotel’s 1920’s roots whilst creating a grand, lavish feel throughout.
The hotel was originally opened in 1919 by César Ritz and over the years various celebs have slept in the beds - The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Sophia Loren, Woody Allen, Sir Paul McCartney and Whitney have all been spotted there. Kind of like The Savoy London, only in Spain.
Hotel Reviews / Barcelona Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
One Week On, The Reviews Are In For Barcelona's Ohla Hotel
Last week we had the first glimpses of Barcelona's newest five-star digs, the Ohla Hotel, and now that it's opened, the first reviews are trickling in—and they look good.
Writes one TripAdvisor who's already checked in:
The Ohla Hotel is new to Barcelona and its recently opened rooms are immaculate and staff are super-keen as a result.
The exterior may be historic, as is the nature of Barcelona, but the inside is ultra-modern and minimalist. How minimalist? It's tough to find the toilet in your room. It's actually hidden behind a moving wall.
The amenities are new, clean and slick, though. My room had a big TV, a queen-size bed with extra large pillows, a large window and free Wi-Fi (very important).
Hotel Openings / Barcelona Hotels / Spain Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
Searching For the Newest Hotel In Barcelona? Just Look For the Security Cameras
UPDATE: the hotel tells us that the official opening is 18 February. In the meantime, PulsoBCN has found out that room rates start at 170 euros for basic rooms, 190 for interior rooms and 270 for junior suites. To be continued...
Barcelona may have been off our hotel radar for a little while, but looks like things are hotting up in Spain’s city of cool – because, right in time for V Day, a new hotel opened its doors for a soft launch on Saturday.
It’s called the Ohla Hotel, it’s five stars and it’s on Via Laietana, just round the corner from the cathedral and the Gothic Quarter.
PulsoBCN, who wasn’t too impressed with the W Barcelona when it opened, got a sneak peek before the weekend, and from his pictures, we like what we see! It’s in a big old palazzo of a building and they’ve jazzed up the outside with security cameras popping out all over the front, which looks kinda cool. The bar, with its mismatched crates on the walls, also looks fun.
Private Sales / Hotel Booking Sites / VoyagePrive / Hotel Deals / → All Tags
VoyagePrive, Another Hotel Private Sale Site, Comes to the US
Well, looky what we've got here. It's another private sale hotel site! This one—VoyagePrive—isn't anything new, however; it's been around for awhile overseas, bestowing travel deals on its 5 million members in Britain, France, Italy, and Spain. They've just opened up the site to the US, and so far, we're liking what we see. Too bad it's getting difficult to keep all the private sale sites straight.
VoyagePrive offers up a selection of approved hotels for 5-day sales, with room rates slashed up to 75% off. Looking at this week's sales, featuring $59 rooms at New Orleans' Hotel St. James, $135 junior suites with free WiFi at DC's Capitol Hill Suites, 2 nights with breakfast for $259 at Barcelona's AC Hotel and more, we'd say the average discount is 50% off. But then VoyagePrive goes a step further to offer multiple night packages at each hotel, so that the longer you stay, the higher your discount and lower nightly rate.
W Hotels / Barcelona Hotels / Hotel Bars / → All Tags
Ditch the W Barcelona (for a bit) to Explore Barceloneta
We just can’t resist starting out with this playful jab: The Marketing Wizards at the W Hotels have been busy. Check out the W Barcelona website, where the registered trademarks fly fast and furious: There’s Bliss®, Whatever/Whenever®, WET® pool, SWEAT® Fitness Center, and PAW – Pets Are Welcome™ What’s next? Experience the REAL® Barcelona?
Actually, yes. That’s because even though it’s minimally advertised on hotel literature, the W sits just slightly out of the way from the noisy tourist trails (in a kind of a redevelopment area), and near one of our favorite, still pleasantly local neighborhoods: The old fishing quarter of Barceloneta.
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A Hotel With a 'Sole': The Casa Camper in Barcelona
The boho-chic Camper, one of Spain’s best-known brands of footwear, knows how to make great shoes. It turns out they’re also good at hotels.
The Mallorcan shoe company eschewed the normal route of diversifying into, say, handbags or watches because, as co-founder Miguel Fluxá puts it, "Food and shelter, like shoes, are a basic need."
We’re a fan of Camper’s cheeky, comfy shoes, so we were shivery-excited to check in to Casa Camper to see how their signature style – wonderfully silly, a touch subversive – would extend to a hotel. It’s one thing to excel at chunky heels and zany stitching. But to apply that to a living space? Hmm…
Snapshot / W Hotels / Barcelona Hotels / Hotel Nightclubs / → All Tags
The W Barcelona's Eclipse Nightclub is on Strict 'Barcelona Time'
Yesterday our tipster enlightened us on the catwalk at the Mandarin Oriental Barcelona. Today, he returns with a brief review of the brand-new W Barcelona which is celebrating its official opening today. (It actually opened back in October.) Here's what our tipster thought as he passed through.
The W is located on the waterfront, basically a straight shot down from Las Ramblas. However, to physically get there is not that easy - you have to follow the road that passes Barceloneta and keep going until you circle around the inner harbor and get to the hotel.
Once you pass Barceloneta, and in the immediate area around the hotel, there is absolutely nothing at all - meaning you have to cab it, walking is not an option. Surely the hotel is intended to bring additional development to the area, and there is construction ongoing in front of the hotel, but as of now it is the only thing there. The beach has been redeveloped though.
Snapshot / Reader Reviews / Mandarin Oriental Hotels / Barcelona Hotels / → All Tags
Work the Catwalk As You Enter the Mandarin Oriental Barcelona
One of our regular tipsters is filing back some snapshots he took in Barcelona. This is Part One of Two. The next Barcelona hotel scoop will come tomorrow.
I had the chance to check out both the new Mandarin Oriental and W (did not stay at either though, so can not say much about rooms or service quality).
Both looked good - although at 365 Euros for MO and something in the high 200 range for W, I found them both very overpriced for an off-weekend in Feb.
The Mandarin Oriental is located on Passeig de Gracia, one of the most upscale streets in Barcelona. A converted bank, it is across the street from Gaudi's famous Casa Batllo. You enter the hotel through an elevated walkway, labelled a catwalk on the website, crossing the atrium to reception.
Hotel Advertecture / Barcelona Hotels / Microsoft / → All Tags
The Catalonia Hotel in Barcelona Was One Giant Windows Mobile 7 Ad
In case you didn't know, the Mobile World Congress 2010 happened last week in Barcelona and thousands of mobile networkers convened to well...network with one another. And it looks like Microsoft went out of its way to promote the new Windows Mobile 7 platform while staying at the Catalonia Plaza Hotel. (Side note: the hotel has free WiFi!)
Blogger Tam Hanna reports that during the day, the hotel's clock on the exterior was also set to seven. And at night, the hotel brightly lit up a square in the center of the building as well as several windows to create the number 7 which glowed from the hotel's exterior. Hmm...we wonder if the hotel can now say, "I'm a PC and Windows 7 Mobile was my idea."
[Photo: Tam Hanna]
NYT Reviews / Barcelona Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
NYT Finds Plenty To Like (But Not Enough Towels) At Barcelona’s Hotel Denit
It’s not every day that you find an affordable hotel right in the center of one of Europe’s most popular destinations. That’s why The New York Times decided to check in and check out Barcelona’s new Hotel Denit.
The hotel, whose name means “at night” in Catalan, is located right in the city’s historical heart, the Gothic Quarter, mere steps from La Rambla and Plaça Catalunya, as well as the city’s Contemporary Art Museum. Not to worry about the noise level from the surrounding bars and clubs, though, because the hotel is set off down a quiet brick alley, ensuring both peace and privacy.
As for the rooms, “chic” these days seems to be a code word for “white on white,” and the Hotel Denit is no exception. The Times called it “spar and functional, not unlike a massage therapy room,” but notes touches like a flat-screen TV, an iPod docking station, and windows that actually open. The rest of the furniture looks Spartan to us, though, especially the mismatched lamps, the tiny desk with a canvas chair, and the open wardrobe-closet-armoire thingy.
Snapshot / Nude Hotels / W Hotels / Barcelona Hotels / → All Tags
The Naked Truth About the W Barcelona
Does this count as an anti-view?
With all the talk over its late opening, stonking views and questionable levels of service, you’d think you’d heard it all about the W Barcelona. Not so.
A friend of ours stayed there a couple of weeks back, and returned with the revelation that the beach it sits on appears to be a nudist beach. Que?
We didn’t quite believe her until this morning, when she sent over this picture, taken right outside the hotel. And while we’re doing our best to concentrate on the seagull (nice composition, btw) we’re acutely aware that she might not have been exaggerating.
Her verdict:
I didn't see an official nudist beach sign or anything - but there was a lot of naked people and they weren't getting arrested
Kept that one quiet, didn’t you, W? Maybe it’s because middle-aged nudists aren’t quite as sexy as the hardbodied exhibitionists we’re more used to.
She also snapped a more conventional view from her bedroom window here. Good job you can’t zoom in!
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