Our family of 4 stayed 8 nights in late November, and we love this apartment/hotel. Friendly staff, clean and well maintained rooms, secure, close to metro and to the deservedly famous Sagrada Familia, great grocery market just around the corner, cafes and good restaurants short walks away, and a very fine restaurant (La Cupula) attached to the hotel.
Minor complaints: our room overlooked a busy street and traffic noise lasted well into the night. The windows are pretty thick and good at shutting out most of the noise, and we slept well overall. Ask for a room on a higher floor so you have a view from the cute balcony.
The kitchen could use more cooking equipment, so if you plan to cook in a lot bring along a good knife and frying pan. Otherwise, the kitchen was adequate. The washer/dryer was weak by US standards, but serviceable. Dishwasher OK. Take along some detergents, a sponge, paper towels, salt/pepper, sugar, tea bags, if you can fit it in. The coffee maker is a Delonghi pod espresso type, so ground coffee is useless. Buy pods.
More positives: we ate twice at La Cupula and loved it both times. My teenage sons still talk about the meals we had there. It's a bit pricey, but it is a Michelin rated place and the hotel gives you a 10% discount. They also have a fixed price menu that changes daily for a reasonable 13 or 14 euro (19 dollars), and the wine list is very reasonably priced. The paella we had at La Cupula was by far the best version of several we tried that week.
We would definitely stay there again. And don't let all the chatter about thieves and pickpockets deter you from visiting this fabulous city. Just use common sense. Lock your passports and other valuables in the room safe, hide your money and credit card inside a zippered pocket, avoid La Rambla at night, and enjoy! We never felt unsafe all week. The people were the friendliest of any city in my experience. No one gave us "attitude", even with our very limited ability to speak the language. At our last meal (Maitea Taberna) the server presented us with the bill and a complementary bottle of Rioja! When has that happened to you in the U.S.?
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
8 May 2012
We are extremely happy to read your experiences.
A part of the extensive and complet study of our entire product I would like to make some notes (although your observations are very good and usefull):
* All apartments have Nesspresso coffee maker. The capsules can be bought at the supermarket or at the hotel. The coffee is top quality but if someone prefers the traditional coffee is welcome to ask for a change at the front desk.
* The apartments facing the street can be noisy despite having double glazed for soundproofing. Remember that we are in town and Barcelona have lot of traffic. So we recommend to ask for inside facing apartment for light sleepers.
* The kitchen is fully equipped with appliances and basic items for the day, but if you ever need something extra you are welcome to ask.
* Currently, all apartments have cleaning kits in the kitchen: sponge, rags, detergent, etc..
* For hygiene issues we are forbidden to leave food into the apartment , apart from the minibar, so you should buy all you can need for cooking (salt, oil, etc). We remind there is a quite cheap and big grocery store within 2 minutes walk, with fresh items.
* La Cúpula Restaurant, recommended in the Michelin Guide, has a daily menu for 12 euros, plus a discount on the carta (only for guests staying in the apartments)
* In security issues, Barcelona is a large city, with many people including those that take advantage of crowds and forgetfulness to act. As in any big city, we recommend being careful with your belongings and leave passports and money in the apartment (safe deposit).
We hope that both your comments and our remarks will be useful for travelers.
We would really love to welcome you again if you ever come back to Barcelona.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
