How I chose the hotels was I started with a search on internet for where other cruise passengers were staying in Barcelona, this brought me mostly to Cruisecritic.com, I also got some leads from friends and on Twitter. I made a list of all the hotels, checked their prices (I didn't want to spend more then $200 a night) and locations. I eliminated anything too far from Las Ramblas (tourist center) and over $200 a night. Then I went to Trip Advisor. Most places had good ratings, but I was able to elimiate a few with Trip Advisor. I do not go by one or two reviews, but try to get an overall view, I specifically looked at comments from people who were traveling by themselves as these travelers would have similar concerns as I did - safety.
Taxi to and from these hotels and the port was 10-12 euro.
I eventually decided on Hotel Continental (3 Stars) and Hotel Colon (4 Stars). Both hotels were nice, and suited my needs just fine. The Colon was the nicer of the two, but it was also the better rated and more expensive hotel. I would happily stay at either hotel again if I was visiting Barcelona.
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| Hotel Colon |
The service at the hotel was wonderful. When my taxi pulled up the doorman helped me out of the taxi and with getting my luggage up the steps to the front desk. The doormen did not speak much English, but enough and were always friendly and polite. At the front desk everyone spoke English and were very helpful. They took my luggage to a storage room since my room was not ready, and it magically appeared in my room when I returned that afternoon.
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| Hotel Colon Bathroom |
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| Hotel Continental |
The staff was very friendly and helpful, they all spoke English. The hotel offered complimentary internet which worked, and had a couple computers for guests to use. There was a 24 hour buffet and a seating area with TV. The only food I ate was bread and cereal, the rest of the food didn't look very appealling. They also had free beer, wine and soda and I hear the beer was good. The hotel overlooks Las Ramblas and has a balcony in the public area for those who do not have a balcony in their own room.
The room was small - by hotel standards, not by cruise ship standards, but it was a single room with a full size bed. It had ugly wallpaper, a pink bedspread, and the furniture was Rubbermaid plastic drawer units with nice tops. The bathroom was old and could use some sprucing up but it was clean. All the towels were pink, matching the hotel's pink theme. The bath tub was very high (typical in European hotels in my experience) and my friend with bad knees did struggle getting in and out of the tub. I couldn't get the air conditioning to work, it was warm there, but not hot so I didn't even bother asking the front desk about it.
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| Rubbermaid Dresser |
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| Bathroom at Hotel Continenetal |
