On a recent trip to Barcelona for a sporting event my family and I decided to stay outside the busy city of Barcelona in a small village Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. We were fortunate to discover a gem of a hotel called the Vilaclara Art Hotel.
One thing that travellers should note is that you need to hire a car if you want to stay here as it is about 35km north of the airport but easy to find if you have a GPS System.

The Hotel is situated in an old house that was originally a family estate and up to a few years ago home to a group of monks...evidence of their mark is visable in the beautiful gardens in the form of various religious statues and altars.
This is a very peaceful hotel, don't expect sing songs at night time but just peacefullness.

The staff mostly all speak really good English and could not have helped us more. In particular a girl called Anna was a great help - she booked us taxi s and rang around to restaurants to check availability. She could not do enough to help us and really made us feel welcome.

We upgraded to a larger room with a full balcony with lots of room to sit out and enjoy the beautiful weather. The rooms are decorated in the typical old Spainish style.

Breakfast was served in the dining room downstairs and could also be taken out on the sun terrace. It was a basic but adequate cold buffet consisting of fruit, yogurts, juices, cold meat, cheese, pasteries, bread, jams etc
We ate one evening in the restaurant and it was brilliant and very well priced at only €18.50 per person for starter, main course, dessert, tea/coffee, water and wine!!!! Great value, only problem was it closed the following evening after our arrival for a week's holiday, so check it is open before you book.
We ate locally in the nearby marina in the Italian restaurant, reasonable and with excellent food.
The small adjacent village is pretty and has a few shops and some lovely bakeries.

If I was visiting the area again I would most definitely stay in this hotel, in fact if you wanted a three or four night break, fly to Barcelona and this hotel is just perfect.
The pool area is also most peaceful and spotless.
When we visited in September the hotel was not at all busy and we felt that we had most of the facilities to ourselves.

The nearby beach in a small cove with some beach restaurants and marina is only 3 km from the hotel. The beach is very clean and the train service into Barcelona runs from this area regularly.

Thank you Vilaclara Art Hotel for making our stay so special.