Hello again - I have a hotel question for Barcelona.
We will be there over Christmas and are wanting to attend the midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the Santa Maria Del Mar church. As we will be traveling with a bunch of kids, we would like to find a hotel that would make it feasible to get t here and back to the hotel within a reasonable distance. Having never been to Barcelona, I don't know at all the distance of this church in relation to the Sagrada familia (the other place we were looking to set up camp near).
Those of you familiar with the area, what hotels would you recommend that would be situated close to either of these areas? (We are also visiting Park Guell, and the Picasso Museum (possibly - only if enough time) on Christmas Eve, so that is going to be a packed day).
Another alternative - have any of you done midnight mass there by chance? Were there taxis available after? (I would like to stay closer to Sagrada Familia, but the only hitch is being in the other Cathedral area after midnight and trying to make our way back).
Thanks for any insights!
Most hotel booking sites have a map view. You should be able to locate hotels that way. For example, here's Google Maps.
We stayed at the serviced apartment BCNGotic in El Born. We loved the area and the apartment. It's steps to Santa Maria Del Mar and 3 min walk to Picasso Museum.
We took a taxi to Park Guell for our timed entry in the morning. It's possible to take public transportation, but we have little kids so the taxi seemed easiest. After, we walked downhill through the Gracia neighborhood for lunch, then our timed entry for Sagrada Familia. We took the metro back to the apartment (which required a transfer). The closest metro station, steps away from the apartment is Jaume I.
Here's a post about the Park Guell to Sagrada Familia route from the resident Barcelona expert, Enric:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/barcelona-park-guell
From your profile, is it 9 of you? Most taxis in Barcelona only fit 4. We had 5 people, so we used the myTaxi app to order a large enough taxi. It worked reasonably well. We did have to wait a little and one time the app GPS didn't have us at the correct location (so just remember to check if you use it).