In all the talk of overtourism, it’s sometimes forgotten what an effortlessly cool city Barcelona is; what a place to stroll between barrios, to eat joyously and drift into languid, vermouth-soaked evenings. The city’s sharp, modern hotels tend to be more stylish crash-pads than grand destinations. Many have rooftop pools and smart bars, often with views of Gaudí masterpieces, which act as civilised precursors to city rambles. The Barcelona hotel experience is not to be locked away in a storied grande dame. It is to feel plugged into the warm, gently propulsive rhythm of the city, and to feel similarly alive.
Main photo: Serras Hotel, Raval
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The best luxury hotels in Barcelona are:
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Best for design: Sir Victor Hotel Barcelona
Best for a genteel escape: Margot House Hotel
Best for crisp concrete modernism: Hotel Brummell
Best for adult-only: The Wittmore
Best for luxury: Mandarin Oriental
Best for nightlife: Soho House Barcelona
Best for fun: Cotton House Hotel
Best for foodies: Monument Hotel
Best for sustainability: Hotel Pulitzer
Best for hanging with local trendsetters: Casa Bonay
Best for service: Kimpton Vividora
Best for business: Nobu Hotel Barcelona
Best for making a smooth impression: Edition Barcelona
Best for understated class: Serras Hotel
Best for design
Formerly Hotel Omm, one of the city’s first design hotels when it opened in 2003, Eixample’s Sir Victor still feels strikingly fresh after a renovation by Amsterdam-based Sir Hotels. With its curving brutalist exterior, the hotel follows a certain winning Design Hotels template: muted colours in the 91 rooms, Zen geometry in the spa, and curved leather banquettes in the buzzy ground-floor Mr Porter steakhouse. But the real star is the rooftop bar and piercingly aquamarine swimming pool overlooking Gaudí’s madly surreal Casa Mila; with views left to the Sagrada Familia, there are few better spots in the city.
Spa Y
Pool Y
Price ££
Margot House Hotel
Best for a genteel escape
Margot House may be named after a character in The Royal Tenenbaums, but this nine-room hideaway is less accidentally Wes Anderson than precisely Ibizan-Scandinavian. The Durany family also own the boho-chic homeware brand Natura, and there’s a citrus-scented serenity to the greyscale rooms with concrete floors, oak furniture and cashmere throws. The farmhouse-style breakfast is sublime, but really this is a hushed escape from the busy Passeig de Gracia outside.
Spa N
Pool N
Price ££
Hotel Brummell
Best for crisp concrete modernism
The 20-room Hotel Brummell, all concrete and greenery in the leafy Poble Sec neighbourhood close to the Montjuïc hill, is a place that wears its globe-hopping influences proudly. Owner Christian Schallert says he was inspired by the tropical modernism of his beloved Sri Lanka, but the concrete-set rooftop infinity pool feels like Palm Springs meeting the East Village. Rooms are coolly utilitarian, and the communal areas sing, especially the ground floor that doubles as a shop selling local prints and sunglasses, where staff hand out the daily Brummell News over breakfast on the patio.
Spa N
Pool Y
Price ££
The Wittmore
Best for adult-only
Almost hidden on a narrow, silent street in the Gothic Quarter, there’s a hush-hush quality to the 22-room Wittmore, with a knowing members’ club vibe. Children and photos aren’t allowed into the decadent, dimly lit, red-velvet haven, where there’s an oil painting of the fictional Lord Wittmore in the tartan-panelled Witty restaurant, and usually a well-tended fire in the library/bar (there’s also a lovely rooftop sun deck with plunge pool). Red-accented rooms face the inner courtyard, with oversized beds, Marshall speakers and push-button phones suggesting simpler times past.
Spa N
Pool N
Price ££
Best for luxury
Mandarin Orientals tend to have a sense of occasion, and this 120-room hotel in a former Passeig de Gracia bank is no exception, starting with a sloping bridge from the street through a vast lightwell to the lobby. With creamy interiors from Patricia Urquiola, the MO goes further than most Barcelona hotels: there’s a rooftop bar and infinity pool, of course, but also a proper spa and basement pool. The food is similarly serious, with dishes from Peruvian pioneer Gastón Acurio on the terrace, as well as the two-Michelin-starred Moments by Carme Ruscalleda, the First Lady of Catalan cuisine.
Spa Y
Pool Y
Price £££
Soho House Barcelona
Best for nightlife
A very contemporary arriviste it may be, but the peach-coloured Soho House Barcelona, with its infinity pool overlooking the Marina Port Vell, already feels like a Barcelona mainstay. The overall impression is of a hedonistic country house, with a plush underground cinema and adjoining speakeasy, and there are local influences, from Blanca Miró murals to the tiled Cowshed spa inspired by 1930s Spanish pharmacies. Crowd-pleasing dishes at The Kitchen and rooftop bar run from local tapas to Hawaiian poké, while even the Tiny rooms (there are 55 overall) come with vintage radios, Egyptian cotton sheets and the fluffiest bathrobes. It may be a formula, but Soho House certainly works here.
Spa Y
Pool Y
Price ££
Best for fun
The 83-room Cotton House, in an elegant mansion that housed a 19th-century cotton guild, stands out in Barcelona for its neoclassical extravagance. Prolific Spanish interior designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán (he also did the local Edition hotel) clearly had fun dressing the communal areas of a building with parquet flooring and two grand staircases — one marble, one a 1950s spiral. White-heavy rooms are less remarkable than the playful flourishes in the service: the house special Gossypium cocktails with pisco and blue curaçao at the cocktail bar, say, or the little atelier with walnut cabinets, where a local tailor makes bespoke candy-coloured shirts.
Spa N
Pool Y
Price £££
The Monumental
Best for foodies
There’s a masculine seriousness to the 84-room Monument Hotel, in the neo-gothic former home of the industrialist Enric Batlló, above the Rolex and Hermès stores on the Passeig de Gracia. Many of the crisp rooms feature exposed brick walls, leather headboards and little balconies with views across to Gaudi’s La Pedrera. This being Barcelona, there’s a terrace with rooftop bar and pool, but the main draw is the fine dining, with two restaurants overseen by superstar chef Martín Berasategui.
Spa Y
Pool Y
Price £££
Best for sustainability
Even in a city of crisply cool hotels, the 92-room Pulitzer steals the show. Just off the Plaça de Catalunya and Ramblas, there tends to be a well-filtered young crowd at the leafy rooftop bar, ground-floor cocktail bar and staying in sharp-lined rooms filled with lithographic art and Bose bluetooth speakers. The Greenhouse bar is as plant-filled and locavore as the name suggests (the hotel has a Biosphere certificate for its eco credentials), and there are bikes and scooters to hire at reception.
Spa N
Pool N
Price ££
Best for hanging with local trendsetters
In the up-and-coming area around the Plaça de Tetuan, Casa Bonay has been the fulcrum of a local scene since it opened in 2016. The 19th-century mansion belonging to the Bonay family was renovated by Brooklyn design firm Studio Tack, and there’s a Brooklynesque buzz about the 67-room hotel, which regularly hosts events at spaces such as its Libertine cocktail den, with a pink neon sign, or the beach shack-inspired Chiringuito rooftop bar. As well as natural wines and local tapas at Bodega Bonay, the hotel hosts the painfully cool Satan’s Coffee Corner and Asian-hipster King Kong Lady restaurant.
The Kimpton Vividora
Best for service
Despite the terrible timing of its opening in early 2020, the 156-room Kimpton Vividora already feels like a quintessential Barcelona hotel. The rooftop bar and pool, surrounded by cabanas and stripy towels are as cool as any, and the hedonism is dialled up, from the free daily glass of wine to the Tokyobikes and branded longboards for jaunts around the surrounding Gothic Quarter. Rooms are brisk and bright, with retro phones and subtle Memphis nods, but the overall direction is forward-looking — from the hotel’s vogue-ish pet-friendliness to the fact that staff can be reached via WhatsApp.
Spa Y
Pool Y
Price ££
Nobu Hotel Barcelona
Best for business
By the train station in Sants, northwest of the city centre, the 23-storey hotel with crisp, Japanese-influenced interiors feels primarily aimed at business travellers. The panoramic views from floor-to-ceiling windows are knockout, though, especially from the Skyline rooms, many with sliding screens and onsen-style tubs. It’s got 259 rooms, so the lack of a spa or pool is noticeable. Instead, the focus is on the Nobu restaurant on the 23rd floor, where signatures like jalapeño yellowtail and miso black cod come with views of the Collserola hills and the twinkling city below.
Spa N
Pool N
Price ££
Edition Barcelona
Best for making a smooth impression
It seems curious that it took until 2018 for Barcelona to have an Edition hotel, because Ian Schrager’s socially oriented hotel brand seems a natural fit for a vibrant city. Across the street from the Santa Caterina food market and next to the Picasso museum, the 100-room hotel is all about sly spaces like the Punch Room speakeasy, sexy lobby bar and wood-decked rooftop bar with a slim pool and views across El Born. Rooms are crisp, and many have little sofas inlaid in windows that jut out from the building, giving a sense of being part of the city.
Spa N
Pool Y
Price ££
Serras Hotel
Best for understated class
Overlooking the bobbing yachts in the Port Vell marina, there’s a very modern elegance to the 28-room Serras, a place of white understatement that nails the little details. Take the supremely comfortable beds, using the same Hypnos mattresses the Queen sleeps on, or the subtle Catalan dishes from chef Marc Gascons at the almost-aptly-named Informal Restaurant. Rooms have black accents and free-standing baths, and most have floor-to-ceiling windows over the marina. With panoramic views from the rooftop terrace, this is one of the city’s more quietly stylish stays.
Spa N
Pool Y
Price £££
Take me there
Inspired to visit Barcelona but yet to book your trip? Here are the best getaways from Expedia* and BA Holidays*.
