Honeymoon Hotel in Barcelona

[cruisingmoose7]

We will be in Barcelona for 4 nights post cruise on our honeymoon.

 

I would like to find a reasonably priced hotel that has a queen or king bed in or close to the Gothic Quarter and close to (but not on) La Rambla. It looks like the norm is 2 tiny single beds, and if I'm lucky they are pushed together. What's with all the tiny separate beds? :halo:

 

I am looking at Hotel Jazz, Hostal Grau, and H10 Raco Del Pi (despite it looks like they also have tiny single beds).

 

My other concern is that I have some problems with my foot so being closer in walking distance to shops, restaurants, La Bouqueria, etc. is important to me. Hostal Grau and Hotel Jazz look like they are further away, but I can't really tell how far away or if it's a huge distance or negligible. H10 looks like it's in the best location but I read that I need to get a much nicer room there to avoid street and elevator noise.

 

Open to suggestions on the hotels mentioned above or different ones. We will be there at the end of August and early September.

[new_cruiser]

I just booked Hotel Midmost (about the same location as Jazz). One can request a single bed or twins.

 

It is about 200 m to the metro station which you can use to get places that are too far for walking.

[EnricM]

Don't know where you got that, but that's nonsense... you have rooms with a single (one) bed (either queen/king or a bigger size) and rooms with twin beds in most hotels. If however, you focus on small hotels, that might be the case, but the reason is purely business-oriented: it's far easier to rent a double room with two beds than with one large bed, statistically speaking that is, so if the hotel's small and with few rooms they're more likely to prefer those rooms over rooms with one bed only.

 

Maybe it's something to do with this phobia of some visitors to walking :)... but being half a mile away or even a bit more from somewhere seems negligible to me, don't you agree?... moreover taking into account there's no "central point" in Barcelona.

 

This city is made of different neighbourhoods (73 of them), many of which were independent towns in the not-so-distant past, that were "absorbed" when the Old City expanded in the late 19th century and the district of l'Eixample was created, which in fact "connected" the Old City with many of these independent towns that existed in the plain of Barcelona. Thus, there are not "voids" but a continuous flow of lively streets which takes you from one neighbourhood to the next without even noticing you're switching neighbourhoods. Each one has its own history, some dating many centuries ago, also their own "life", restaurants, monuments, shops... and obviously also their own "centre" so to speak.

 

Therefore, while for practical reasons Plaça Catalunya tends to be considered the official centre of Barcelona, that's not necessarily so for the average visitor which will be moving about to different areas of Barcelona to see, not only a few of her many sites (ie. Bellesguard, Park Güell, Sagrada Família, etc) but also to experience the "life" of different areas of the city, from the bohemian Gràcia to the sophisticated Sant Gervasi or Pedralbes to the plain "folks' town" in Poble Nou or La Barceloneta. In fact, one should be aware that the Old City harbours only the historical sites (Roman, medieval, etc) but most of the Modernist gems and the contemporary monuments/sites in Barcelona are not in the centre but in other neighbourhoods.

 

The city has a great public transportation system (metro, bus and tram) which is very efficient, fast, clean, cheap and safe and it's "the" way to move about if you need to go from one neighbourhood to another. Hence the reason one of the most important factors to choose a hotel should be instead that it is located near a metro station or in an area with many bus lines.

 

I feel important to mention this because sadly some visitors that are not aware of this do miss a lot of the monuments and sites of the city AND the "experiences" in other neighbourhoods by limiting themselves to the "historical centre" only, hence having a totally distorted view of what Barcelona is all about.

Edited April 7, 2017 by EnricM

[Clarea]

We've stayed at the Hotel Jazz several times, and have had a single queen bed each time.

[cruisingmoose7]

Maybe it's something to do with this phobia of some visitors to walking :)... but being half a mile away or even a bit more from somewhere seems negligible to me, don't you agree?... moreover taking into account there's no "central point" in Barcelona.

 

Thank you for your response. I have problems with my foot so the differences between walking 5 minutes and 20 minutes, or the difference between a couple of blocks and a half mile can sometimes be a big deal for me if I'm in a lot of pain so I am trying to consider very carefully how long it takes to walk from point A to point B.

 

I have been to Barcelona before and I really want to stay near the Gothic Quarter and be in short walking distance to La Bouqueria. I stayed elsewhere in the city last time and I wished at the time I had stayed in this area so that's what I'm doing for my honeymoon :)

 

I think you're right, due to the nature of the gothic quarter with all the old buildings, it's mostly smaller funky boutique type hotels.

[George C]

We had same problem wanted king bed and most hotels did not seem to have one, we found Hotel Barcelona Universal , we had huge room on 9th floor with separate living area , huge balcony , huge bathroom, 10th floor had pool and bar, great location

[EnricM]

@cruisingmoose7... then you might want to try hotels in the lower part of l'Eixample instead. They're bigger. Map of districts, and for more detail, map of neighbourhoods.

 

Also to mention that if you're into fresh food markets -you mentioned La Boqueria- you might also want to consider visiting the nearby Mercat de Santa Caterina as well. La Boqueria has become more of a theme-park these days rather than a real fresh food market like it used to be for centuries and instead of many locals buying their groceries, you'll mostly find endless stalls of ready-to-eat food for by-passers. In short, it has lost a bit of "its mojo" :)This is not to say, of course, that there aren't some locals and some traditional stalls in the market and that isn't worth visiting, huh?, on the contrary!

 

El mercat (Catalan -the local language- for "market") de Santa Caterina, located to the left of the Cathedral, was the first covered market in the city, built in 1848 it has been remodelled in 2005 by Barcelonian Enric Miralles, a world renown architect who also designed the Parliament of Scotland, the Japanese National Library or the Chemnitz and Dresden stadiums in Germany among many other. Its design is a blast, especially the very colourful tile-based roof. More info: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/page/508/santa-caterina-market.html

 

Each district of the city has one or several fresh food markets, which is where many Barcelonians buy their fresh food, rather than in supermarket shelves -we reserve those for the canned food and other stuff, lol! If you're curious, check out this video and its links... there are quite a few other markets worth visiting.

 

 

Enjoy!

Edited April 8, 2017 by EnricM

[cruisingmoose7]

@cruisingmoose7... then you might want to try hotels in the lower part of l'Eixample instead. They're bigger. Map of districts, and for more detail, map of neighbourhoods.

 

Also to mention that if you're into fresh food markets -you mentioned La Boqueria- you might also want to consider visiting the nearby Mercat de Santa Caterina as well. La Boqueria has become more of a theme-park these days rather than a real fresh food market like it used to be for centuries and instead of many locals buying their groceries, you'll mostly find endless stalls of ready-to-eat food for by-passers. In short, it has lost a bit of "its mojo" :)This is not to say, of course, that there aren't some locals and some traditional stalls in the market and that isn't worth visiting, huh?, on the contrary!

 

El mercat (Catalan -the local language- for "market") de Santa Caterina, located to the left of the Cathedral, was the first covered market in the city, built in 1848 it has been remodelled in 2005 by Barcelonian Enric Miralles, a world renown architect who also designed the Parliament of Scotland, the Japanese National Library or the Chemnitz and Dresden stadiums in Germany among many other. Its design is a blast, especially the very colourful tile-based roof. More info: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/page/508/santa-caterina-market.html

 

Each district of the city has one or several fresh food markets, which is where many Barcelonians buy their fresh food, rather than in supermarket shelves -we reserve those for the canned food and other stuff, lol! If you're curious, check out this video and its links... there are quite a few other markets worth visiting.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you so much for the suggestions! Very helpful! Mercat de Santa Catarina looks wonderful, we will definitely check it out!

[quercus alba]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! Very helpful! Mercat de Santa Catarina looks wonderful, we will definitely check it out!

 

You might try Hotel Colon, right on the cathedral plaza in the heart of the Gothic Quarter.

Very close to Mercat de Santa Catarina, too.