Barcelona Photoblog: hotel
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts

August 06, 2008

Avenida Palace Hotel, Gran Via, Barcelona





Avenida Palace should be among the first options on your list if you are looking for a strategically located downtown hotel in Barcelona.

Just a few steps away from Passeig de Gracia, one of the most famous streets of Barcelona and Spain, Hotel Avenida Palace is an accommodation as convenient as those located near to New York's Fifth Avenue for example although Passeig de Gracia is not only the street of expensive shops but also of the most remarkable modernist houses that renown Catalan architects ever built, like Casa Mila aka La Pedrera, Casa Batllo both by Gaudi or Casa Lleo i Morera, Casa Amatller and Casa Rocamora.

But not only shops and architecture festoon the surroundings of the prestigious Avenida Palace Hotel, there is also the very center of the downtown area, Plaça Catalunya or Catalonia Square, at a 100 meters walking down in Las Ramblas direction. That's the ridiculous distance that separates you from the old part of town or casc antic. Casc Antic was that part of the city that used to be within the walls.

151 refurbished rooms, including the Sagrada Familia suite with a spectacular 10 meter square terrace or the Beatles suite where the Liverpool band stayed in 1965 make part of the perfect accommodation this great art deco style hotel has to give you.

Rooms with carpeted and parquet floors are comfortable, spacious and well distributed. There is air conditioning, Satellite TV, safe, mini-bar, soundproofed walls, en-suite bathrooms and wifi.

One of the best spots in the hotel is the rooftop bar with pool that overlooks Gran Via Street and from where you can see the unique Sagrada Familia cathedral by Gaudi.

Restaurant Beluga also in the venue might be a good option for a decent brunch although there are much better places in the vicinity. Maybe this would be one of the few things to be improved in the excellent services of Hotel Avenida Palace in my opinion.

By the way, a little bit of history for Avenida Palace's visitors-to-be:

Back in 1952, one of those great events that have skyrocketed hotel reservations in Barcelona, in this case the 35th International Eucharistic Congress, accelerated the inauguration of Avenida Palace hotel, once the legendary chocolate shop, tea salon and restaurant Casa Llibre, owned by Guillermo Llibre and designed by prestigious modernist architect Enric Sagnier in 1924. Only twelve days before the congress the hotel was opened in a rush to welcome important personalities of the ecclesiastic world. All in all, there were 300.000 visits to Barcelona city in less than a week. Another interesting fact is that hotel founder, Joan Gaspart Bonet was the grandfather of Catalan entrepreneur Joan Gaspart Solves. Joan Gaspart the grandson, is not only known for being the general manager of HUSA hotel group but for his successful 22 years as vice president of FC Barcelona and his not so good 3 years of presidency.

Here is an old image for you to compare the old building with nowadays' 4 Star Hotel Avenida Palace located at 605 - 607 Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, Barcelona.



July 14, 2008

Barcelona World Trade Center View From The Sea

Barcelona World Trade Center View From The Sea [enlarge]

Here is a very deceptive image in the sense that Barcelona World Trade Center looks like a small scale model next to an enormous cruiser moored to the pier. Maybe the other ship on the left helps the viewer find out what is huge and what is normal size here. Perhaps if you are an enthusiast of Barcelona Photoblog you remember that picture where I showed the other side of the pier: WTC: A Close Look. To have an idea of how it would all look from above watch it from the Mirador on Montjuic mountain.

May 02, 2007

World Trade Center Barcelona: A Close Look

Barcelona World Trade Center - Grand Marina Hotel

This is a close look on World Trade Center Barcelona (WTCB) at the end of Moll de Barcelona (moll means "wharf"). Built by Henry N. Coob of Pei, Coob, Freed & Partners, also known by his Hancock tower in Boston, WTCB is an eight storey complex divided in four buildings. Three of them, WTC North, WTC South and WTC East hold offices and the fourth is the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel. Grand Marina with its 273 rooms is a 5 star GL hotel. I got this picture from the deck of a sightseeing boat. If you use the cable car or teleferic which happens to have one of his towers (Torre de Jaume I, the intermediate station which is 158m/519ft) in front of the hotel you will have a privileged aerial view of WTCB and the cruiser terminals on the same wharf. Zurbaran is one of the ships that belong to Acciona Trasmediterranea, a company sailing to the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla. There are international cruises in Barcelona port too departing from Adossat Wharf nearby but that is part of another story.


March 14, 2007

Hotel Montecarlo at La Rambla, Barcelona

Montecarlo Hotel at La Rambla, Barcelona


We will still explore La Rambla for some time so why not peek into one the hotels nearby just to show you how it feels when you can afford to pay for good accomodation in the city (money makes the difference). This is the entrance to Hotel Montecarlo at La Rambla, 124. And old palace from the XIX century completely restored. The building was the headquarters of the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona and some newspapers. It seems to be a wonderful hotel according to the good reviews I have read at Trip Advisor. For the time being I show you the entrance and the fabulous lamp (notice there is a different lamp in the picture at Hotel Montecarlo site). Which one do you prefer?

Update 2023: It seems that the place has been closed permanently. 

February 01, 2007

Barcelona Waterfront: Hotel Arts and Mapfre Tower

Barcelona Waterfront: Hotel Arts and Mapfre Tower


Here is a dusk image of the walk in front of Barcelona's Olympic Village. On the right you can see the Mapfre Tower, which is an office building and Hotel Arts. In the background the famous El peix d'or (Gold Fish), by Frank O.Ghery and on the left from this point on, a leisure area full of restaurants, always plenty of tourists, with good, bad and very bad restaurants.

I apologize for any inconvenience Blogger might cause you whenever you try to access my archives. I had in mind to change topic and call it "Shame on Blogger" but they don't deserve that much attention. Now there is a major bug in the beta bloggers' pages, something called error code bX-vjhbsj, which either won't let you see archives or crash the whole site. Unbelievable in this day and age and so far after many thousands of claims yet unsolved, and worse, not even faced in public by staff.

Now, changing subject...today was the theme day in the City Daily Photo group. It is about " What really annoys you in your city". Obviously my image is not related (it must be that I like everything :), but I highly recommend you browse this list to find real curious things and of course to support all the effort behind our daily work.


October 14, 2006

Regina Hotel in Barcelona: Wrought Iron Marquee Detail

Regina Hotel in Barcelona: Wrought Iron Marquee Detail
© All Rights Reserved

Best Western Regina Hotel is just a block away from Plaza Catalunya and not very far from Las Ramblas, at carrer Bergara 2-4. It features 4 stars, has 99 rooms, was built in 1917 and restored in 2002. As this is not a hotel guide I am not going to analize its services but just suggest you admire the beautiful marquee in blue with stained glass, excellent representative of Catalan Art Nouveau or modernisme.

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May 06, 2006

Hotel Arts: Accommodation in Barcelona

Hotel Arts: Accommodation in Barcelona

Today I show you Hotel Arts. Built for the Olympics, it is a predominant building in the skyline of Barcelona and the beach area. A combination of luxury, modern design, and functionality gives this five star hotel a high rank in top lists all over the world. Recently you could see Harrison Ford or Mourinyo staying there. It was the place where Ronaldiño lodged when he came to Barcelona. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Arts Barcelona was designed by the notable architecture firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill and it has 44 floors.
General Statistics for Barcelona Tourism year 2005
In 2005 there were 10.931.637 hotel stays, more than 49.235 hotel rooms and 5.052.766 visitors according to official figures.
See Hotel Arts Picture on a Google Earth Map

April 09, 2006

Hotel Arts and Torre Mapfre: Almost Twins

Hotel Arts and Torre Mapfre: Almost Twins

As seen from Sagrada Familia's "watch tower" these almost twins, Torre Mapfre and Hotel Arts stand all alone overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Though the average height of buildings along the coast is growing bigger there is still a certain concern for following a reasonable criterium that does not alter too much the city skyline.
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