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The Mexiterranée restaurant
The other day it was Mexican-Japanese fusion, today it's "Mexiterranean" cuisine being cooked up by a hotel. Barcelona's Casanova Hotel, home to the Mexiterranee restaurant, is offering private gourmet food and wine tours that claim to bring together the best of Mexican, Catalan and Mediterranean ingredients.
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by jennm
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Le Méridien Barcelona is one of the Spanish city's more popular hotels, mostly because of its location off the hotspot entertainment boulevard of La Rambla. (Well, perhaps at least until the W Barcelona debuts later this year.)
But the hotel has not been without its problems. When Starwood, which bought the Le Méridien brand in 2005, began assimilating its Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program to the hotel chain, members complained that their status didn't seem to hold much weight in garnering upgrades at the hotel, noting that staff frequently said suites were not available, despite such rooms capable of being booked online.
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Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
The Casa Fuster.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Barcelona) there was a beautiful princess.
She was born in the rich area of Barcelona, around the Passeig de Gracia and the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, where all the 5-star hotels are. But she couldn't settle. Glamorous, rich, a lover of luxury and a bit of a gourmet: where should she stay?
She tried her father's favorite hotel first, the huge, ugly Rey Juan Carlos I. But the clientele were all businessmen and she got lost in the corridors trying to find her apartment-sized top-floor Royal Suite out of the 432 other rooms. The road below is Barcelona's main traffic-clog, the Diagonal, and the hotel's isolated from any glitz and glamour. The colour scheme made her sick. Who designed the décor? Off with his head.
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
The hippest hotel you've never heard of in Barcelona is the 124-room Casanova, love-child of the concept designer Samir Saab.
Saab's a funny character. His La Pleta Hotel in the Spanish Pyrenees is apparently a favourite of both the stern Spanish King Juan Carlos and the rather less stern Victoria Beckham. So we're on tenterhooks to know what to expect in this one.
The Casanova was there before - the building's been there since the 18th century - but Saab's come in to give the place a make-over. He's ripped up all the carpets, thrown anything soft or fluffy out of the window, spray-painted the floors, walls and furniture with shiny brown and black wood-polish and hired a complement of young, attractive, gel-haired, tight-assed staff to lure in the trendy crowd.
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
All this talk about a room with a view. Here's a challenge: find a hotel with a view as gobsmackingly stunningly superb as that of the hotel Abat Cisneros in Montserrat, near Barcelona.
The hotel itself is a rather standard 3-star affair. Apart from a fairly cosy 16th-century stone-vaulted restaurant there's very little to say about it. But there's an awful lot to say about the view.
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
Barcelona's Gothic Quarter.
We don't mean rubbish lovers, of course. Or people who love budgets. We don't think much of either. We mean lovers on a budget.
Because why assume that all lovers are loaded? Ours never are. Seduction's easy when you're rich. Ask the guy in Pretty Woman. But try making love while you're counting your pennies.
So keep the romance and your dollars by staying at El Jardí, the best budget hotel for lovers in Barcelona for lovers.
Because if all you need is love....
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
We were going to tell you all about the Hotel Arts, the most extravagant, ridiculous, luxury hotel in Barcelona. As everyone knows.
But we're sorry to announce that our Barcelona hotel snoop got hit by the prices while enjoying a G&T at their bar, and is currently in a critical condition in hospital. Our prayers are with her.
The Arts charges €475 ($700) for the cheapest room with the ugliest views. Enough to knock anyone out. €12,000 ($17,600) for a Royal Suite. Bet if it got out that the Spanish royal family stayed there regularly, there'd be a revolution.
So here instead, on a silver tray, we offer you one of the newest, shiniest pearls of the Barcelona hotel scene: the Hotel Banys Orientals.
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned yet again. This time, she's giving us the lowdown on the Barcelona hotel scene. Enjoy.
The Barceloneta
Barcelona is the most butt-smackingly beautiful, hip, trendy city in Europe. Possibly in the world. Also the most hyped. But for a reason. If you haven't been there, go now. If you already have, go again. The city's growing, changing, evolving, faster than its ridiculous Sagrada Familia cathedral by Gaudí.
And if Barcelona is the place to be seen, you want to be seen staying in the right places...
Once again, HotelChatter flies to the rescue, with your top handy hints on what's caliente and what's plain frio in Barcelona's hotel scene. We'll follow on tomorrow with individual reviews.
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