Top budget-friendly stays in Barcelona's best areas

BARCELONA - With 73 neighborhoods and roughly 680 hotels and guesthouses, Barcelona presents a lodging problem: There are just too many choices.

In my search for a three-night stay in early July, I spent such an exhaustive amount of time researching neighborhoods, I was ready to fall into any bed. Well, almost: I would not be snuggling up with strangers in a shared dorm room.

Goedele Mangelaars, a travel expert and founder of the trip-planning platform Pink Notebook, wrote in her newsletter that Barcelona is one of the easiest European cities to flub.

“A hotel in the wrong area will make the city feel exhausting,” she wrote, “and a hotel in the right one will make you start browsing apartments by day three.”

Mangelaars recommends staying in the Gothic Quarter, Eixample, Les Tres Torres or the central area around Plaça de Catalunya, but she warned that finding a quality hotel for $100 or less anywhere in the city could be challenging. By comparison, she said I would have an abundance of options higher up the scale.

“Barcelona on average punches above its weight price-wise, especially if you compare it to Paris, Milan and Rome,” Mangelaars said. “It’s such a design-driven city that there are a huge number of fun boutique hotels that really come in at the $200 and $300 price point.”

Though many exceptional hotels fall within this range, rates are creeping up. According to CoStar, which compiles hotel data, the average daily rate in June was $227, up from $157 in 2022. In addition to the general higher cost of living, overtourism, and efforts to rein it in, are affecting prices, too.

In 2024, the mayor announced that Barcelona’s roughly 10,000 licensed short-term apartment rentals would lose their permits by November 2028, shrinking the lodging supply despite strong demand. Meanwhile, the Parliament of Catalonia doubled the tourist tax earlier this year, and Barcelona officials approved an annual one-euro increase of the local surcharge until 2029. The amount depends on the type of establishment. As of April, guests are required to pay an additional roughly $10 per person per night (up from about $6.60) at a four-star property and about $14 (up from about $8.70) at a five-star hotel.

To save money, I used third-party booking sites as a research tool but reserved on the hotel’s site, taking advantage of up to 20 percent off plus a lowest-price guarantee. I also signed up for each hotel’s loyalty membership plan, which promised discounted prices, perks and an incentive to come back to Barcelona.

Innside by Meliá Barcelona Apolo: $132

Innside Barcelona Apolo, described online as “in the center of Barcelona,” sits on Avinguda del Paral·lel, a theater district reminiscent of pre-sanitized Times Square. The commercial strip had a slightly scruffy edge. Day and night, I saw an alert security guard patrolling the lobby.

The hotel clearly caters to bulk tourism - the terminal-size lobby was teeming with groups of international travelers and flight crew members between trips - but the experience didn’t feel manufactured. The front desk staff was attentive and engaging, offering budget tips such as paying for the breakfast buffet in advance to save a few euros.

The lobby was upbeat, with boldly colored decor, artful lighting fixtures, plants (real, I checked) and shelves of curios and books (also real). I could order food and drinks from the Bite Box, a pocket-size bar, or construct a tapas tasting menu from the grab-and-go market that stocked Spanish delicacies such as Iberian dry-cured pork, three-cheese boards, ham-stuffed olives and cava.

Upstairs, I passed more lounging opportunities, including an area that resembled a pop art gallery and private huddle rooms, en route to La Terraza. The Mediterranean restaurant serves three square meals indoors and on a terrace with hanging wicker lanterns and a cactus garden that reminds guests, “I‘m not an ashtray.”

I eventually made my way to my room, which featured every shade of neutral, a palette more soothing than bland. In addition to a fridge stocked with free “locally sourced” beverages, I had a full-size electric kettle with coffee and tea. I drank my fizzy water (“con gas”) in a coffee mug adorned with long-lashed eyes. A coaster winked back at me.

The scaffolding outside my window was not very picturesque, and the morning construction awoke me like songbirds with chest colds. But for tranquility, I simply retreated to the restaurant’s back patio. I ordered a coffee from the host, who threw in a pastry of my choosing.

Highlights: The decor was cheerful and uplifting, and the amenities were generous. In addition to the in-room extras, the hotel offered a 24-hour gym (though the bike was broken), e-bike rental and a luggage storage room for a fee. The front desk sold an array of unique gifts, including dog treats and striped onesies, the Smile eucalyptus-and-peppermint toiletries stocked in the bathrooms and eye-embellished towels and mugs. The breakfast buffet was a lavish spread and not too outrageously priced at $22, if purchased in advance.

Lowlights: I was hard-pressed to find flaws, but if pushed, the bed squeaked like a cot, and the surrounding road work was occasionally loud. Though I didn’t want to spend too much time on Avinguda del Paral·lel, I could easily lose myself in the nearby Parc de Montjuïc and its myriad attractions, including the Olympic and Sports Museum and the Joan Miró Foundation.

Worth the price: ¡Absolutamente!

Hotel Granados 83: $213

Derby Hotels founder Jordi Clos collects properties and art, and he decorates the former with the latter. Each of his 12 hotels spotlights a distinct artistic period, place or style. Hotel Granados 83 showcases Hindu and Buddhist works from India and Cambodia, dating from the 8th century.

The hotel, which resides in a mid-19th-century building in Eixample, was serene inside and out. The lobby, with its leather couches, tastefully worn Oriental rugs and artworks on pedestals, could double as a private art gallery or psychoanalyst‘s waiting room. I felt like a philistine asking the front desk for recommendations on bars hosting World Cup watch parties.

My room was a yin and yang of design: classic and industrial, ancient and contemporary, a Nespresso machine beneath a centuries-old stone frieze. Natural light poured through the balcony windows, as did glimpses of a guest sunbathing by her pool. I instinctively avoided that side of the room to give her semiprivacy.

Guests in suites can paddle around their own pool. The rest of us have to squeeze into the rooftop pool, which is better suited for soakers than swimmers. In the early evening, the three couches on the terrace were occupied. I perched on the edge of the pool and drank a sangria from Terrace Bar 8. I passed on the tapas menu because if the small plate tipped over, I didn’t want to have to rescue a ham croquette or prawn in sweet chili sauce from the pool.

The hotel does not have an on-site restaurant, though I could have ordered from an extensive takeout menu. The breakfast buffet (about $30) had a little of everything: fruit, meats, cheeses, yogurt, etc. I sat on the back terrace, which had much better views than my room. No bikini-clad guests, just tropical plants and a server breaking down the buffet.

Highlights: The Zen-like spaces, industrial architecture and Asian art were striking, not staid. The box of truffles and turndown service of chocolate and a rose were a thoughtful touch. The staff was incredibly personable and helpful, assisting with even the most specific requests, such as where to buy espadrilles. Derby Hotels guests receive free admission to Clos’s Egyptian Museum (normally about $16).

Lowlights: The gym was sad, with only two bikes for cardio equipment, one of which was broken. For a real meal, my only options were to eat takeout in my room or go out. The hotel claims to follow sustainable tourism practices, yet in the bathroom, two tiny plastic bottles of lotion sat beside a sign touting its eco-friendly policies.

Worth the price: The hotel is easy on the eyes but thin on amenities. I might pay $50 more to upgrade to a suite with the semiprivate pool but would keep a cover-up within reach.

Seventy Barcelona: $302

The hotel characterizes its style as “Mediterranean guesthouse,” but I picked up an ocean liner vibe, as well. Maybe it was the giant image of a ship’s bow hanging above the fireplace, the nautical color scheme (lots of blues, whites and stripes) or the spiral staircase similar to the ones I have climbed in cruise ship atriums. Among the most arresting features were the bookcases stretching toward the sky. Don’t try to pull a title off the shelf, however, or you’ll be sorely disillusioned. (The books were - gasp! - hacked in half.)

At check-in, I stopped by a table with free champagne and cucumber-infused water, repeatedly refilling my cup without side-eye from the staff. In a classy move, the front-desk employee walked around the desk and stood beside me while I reviewed the paperwork, and he explained the amenities. He didn’t mention the special activities, such as a sangria class, Gràcia neighborhood walking tour or weekend music in the hotel’s La Cors bar, but I had received an email about those events before my arrival. He did, however, go over the hotel’s restaurant options: the Kitchen (Mediterranean fare), Molino de Pez (slow-cooked traditional Spanish cuisine) and the breakfast buffet ($27), a feast of many plates and return trips.

My room was more muted than the public areas, as if a cloud had blown in, blocking the bright Mediterranean sun and casting the space in crisp whites and soft grays. Freebies included a Nespresso machine, an electric kettle with fixings and a brown bag full of eco-friendly toiletries, such as a bamboo toothbrush.

Every booking includes 45 minutes at the fitness center plus a half-hour at the “vegan” spa, where I spent my allotted time on a repeat cycle of steaming and sweating in the saunas and cooling off in the jet pool. (Treatments and plant-based products are extra.) Because the hotel caps the number of guests in both venues, reservations are required.

The rooftop pool and terrace had no time or capacity limits. I could have whiled away the day on the seventh floor, gazing beyond the blue water, striped chaises and sun umbrellas at Gaudí’s Sagrada Família.

Highlights: The whole aesthetic, from the lobby to the rooftop pool, brought joy. When I finally buy that villa in Costa del Sol, I have the decor all picked out. I really enjoyed the neighborhood on the border of Eixample and Gràcia, but the restaurants were worth staying for, too. After hoofing it around in the heat all day, my knotted muscles appreciated the spa tuneup.

Lowlights: I have so few complaints. I respect the hotel’s wish to not pack the gym, but the rules seemed very pandemic-era. And how about a noon checkout instead of 11 a.m., so I can spend more time at the hotel?

Worth the price: It was and, when I added in the perks, then some.