Barcelona central hotel or bed and breakfast

Look at the Hotel Gran Via, on the Gran Via. It is an excellent hotel which was completely renovated about two years ago. It is in a great location, only a five minute walk from the Placa Catalunya.

We stayed at the Gran Hotel Torre Catalunya. Great place. Unique hotel and service is excellent. All the feel of a high end hotel. Reasonably priced. Train Station right across street. Only a few blocks from the Olympic Stadium, the bull fighting arena turned into a shopping mall and the art museum with huge fountains and nightly light show.

Not far from Ramblas either.

If you can ask for a corner room and to be placed as high in the hotel as possible. the views are just fantastic. We had a corner room that was all glass on the 14th floor. Awesome.

1.) The centre is around Plaça Catalunya. However, while not being small, the city is quite compact and has an excellent network of buses and metros that allow moving about quickly. They are inexpensive, efficient and clean. Same goes for taxis. Thus, there's no need to "be in the centre" to enjoy your stay since you can easily go from A to B. Furthermore, due to the fact the city of Barcelona has grown over the centuries absorbing neighbouring existing fully-functional towns/villages -which are today's neighbourhoods of the city- each one has its own "life" (bars and restaurants, shops, social clubs, etc.) and we have very few residential-only areas.

2.) There's no "central to the most popular sightseeing" as the city has +150 sites worth seeing, whether you like architecture, history, art, etc. and they're spread across the city. If anything, one of the clusters so to speak is located around Ciutat Vella district (Old Town) and more concretely in the neighbourhood of El Gòtic.

3.) While this is still a city, with all that it entails, Barcelona is one of the safest most popular city destinations in Europe. We have no gun or gang issues here so 'safety' is not really a concept we consider when booking a hotel in the city. Having said that, of course, there are neighbourhoods that are seedier than others, lol!

4.) Guided tours vs DIY is obviously a very personal choice, but so you know, most tourists visit the city on their own and with a good guide book, to have a bit of background on many of the places you'll be passing by. In most areas, there are literally dozens of things to do and see on your way to specific attractions/sites.

5.) If anything, know that the famous Les Rambles, while being a popular place to stroll and see stuff, it's quite a tourist trap these days, always packed to the rim and with tacky souvenir shops and expensive bars and terraces serving unpalatable food and drink. Thus, while a must-go visit, I wouldn't choose to "stay" there.

Enjoy!

We just returned from Barcelona last week. Stayed at the Hotel Gaudi, just off Las Ramblas, about half way up. A block from the Metro station at Liceu across from La Boqueria. Wonderful! Had a rooftop lounge area that was fabulous. Very nice accommodations, excellent breakfast included. Highly recommend.

Hi,
I'm also looking at Barcelona, but we will be there in October. I think if you use the recommendation of the Gothc Quarter as a place to stay you won't go wrong. When you only have 1.5 days have to think about transportation and walking distances.
There is no reason not to book a half day tour with a small group, I have found most tour guides to be very well informed on their city and it's history. You can look at a tour booking company like Viator, or a local company, of course I can't find the one that I like!
(I'll post it soon)

Here is a link for Barcelona Tourism:
http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/index.html

I often read travel articles from English newspapers, here is a budget guide to Barcelona from The Guardian London:
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jul/20/10-ways-enojy-barcelona-on-a-budget, and
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jun/15/top-10-budget-restaurants-barcelona-for-lunch

Celeste... check out http://www.runnerbeantours.com/, they're highly praised. And I shall correct you, the link for the Barcelona Tourism site is wrong, that's a small private company run by an expat. The official site of the Barcelona Tourism Board is: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/ -and you'll immediately appreciate the difference in the quality of the website.

Also, some other resources that can be helpful:

• http://www.timeout.com/barcelona --magazine on what's in and things to do (concerts, restaurants, etc). Unofficial bible for many Barcelonians for "going out".
• http://lameva.barcelona.cat/en --Barcelona City Hall, plenty of info about the city here
• http://www.catalunya.com/?language=en -Catalonia's Tourism Board -for those that don't know: Barcelona is the capital city of the small nation of Catalonia which happens to be within the Kingdom of Spain
• http://www.infocatalonia.eu -- portal gathering videos (an image is worth a thousand words) about Barcelona, Catalonia and the Catalans.

This 3 star is near Placa Catalunya and in Barcelona's top fifty on TA.
http://www.musikboutiquehotel.com/en/index.html

Chic & Basic have a number of good value, centrally located properties.
http://www.chicandbasic.com/barcelona/en/?gclid=CLXoqNKB-8wCFcGTvQodeBkOcw

As do Praktik.
http://www.praktikhotels.com/en/mobile

El Balcon De Born...rated the number one b&b...great location, and lots of things to do within walking distance. Highly recommend it if you can get in!!!

I can second Enric's recommendation for Runner Bean Tours. I have taken a couple of them and the guides I've had were great. This is an excellent way to see the Highlights of Barcelona in only a couple of hours. And, after all, you only have time for the highlights ...