hotel near Sants train station or near Las Ramblas? dinner choices?

Both Sants and Las Ramblas are ok to walk around, but not too desirable for food options, overpriced and low quality.

You may be surprised to hear that most places in Barcelona don't open for dinner until 8:00 pm at the very earliest. At 5 pm some people will be finishing a late lunch lol!

Your best bet is to try to find a tapas bar that might be open by 5 pm, el Poble-sec neighborhood has a number of good tapas bars, Quimet y Quimet is one I know off the top of my head. El Born neighborhood is great too, but a little further out.

If wanting something closer to Sants, you could try the Arenas de Barcelona, it's an old bullfight ring that's ben renovated into an upscale shopping mall, there are a few restaurants at the top that cater to tourists and might be open by 5 pm.

thanks. not eating at 5--just arriving then.

why limit yourself to those places? I mean, Barcelona is compact enough to literally choose any other part of the city and still be very well connected to any site/attraction you want to visit. Furthermore, know that the geography of the city is quite different from the typical US city, there are no "suburbs" per se, and nearly all neighbourhoods have their own "downtown" so to speak, which means restaurants, shops, places to stroll, etc.

Despite most visitors indeed tend to limit themselves to the neighbourhoods of the Old City (Ciutat Vella) because they wrongly think "that's where the action is" -your loss if you ask me- there are many more areas of Barcelona worth visiting (and staying) -Gràcia, Sarrià, Poblenou... where "action (suitable to interest a visitor) happens too". Just sayin' :)

thank you. Enric, where do you suggest for an area with easy public transit from Sants to stay for the evening? We'll be departing the next day. We've been to Barcelona twice, but just as a stopover. Lovely city!

Where do you depart from on the next day: the airport? the port? taking a long-distance train perhaps?

Also, when would that be? on what date I mean?

arriving via train to Sants on a Wednesday, leaving for a cruise the next day. Mid-sept.

Then I personally would stay somewhere in L'Eixample district (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_aug2mLQ4), there are plenty of options to choose from, both in terms of accommodation as well as restaurants and bars to choose from. It's an elegant classy area full of Modernist buildings. The video above is just a good example to show what the area is like, I have no relationship with (nor I endorse) the publisher of the video.-

If you are coming from the airport, you have several options to reach l'Eixample, cheapest to more expensive: (1) train from Airport T2 to Passeig de Gràcia station, (2) from T1 or T2 at the airport, taking the bus "Aerobus" to Plaça Catalunya or (3) taxi (approx 35€ to anywhere in l'Eixample -traffic permitting. Of course, you'll choose one or another depending on where in l'Eixample you need to go.

I don't know which type of accommodation you are looking for -nor I am in the loop as I live here and don't work in tourism- but you have a range of options, from the top hotels (Mandarin Oriental, Palace, Ritz and the like) to guesthouses, airbnb and hostals. Don't confuse "hostals" with the English word "hostels". Hostals are kind of basic hotels and it's an excellent alternative for those willing a nice place to crash without all the bells and whistles of traditional hotels. Here are some examples: http://bit.ly/hostals_and_BBs_in_BCN --note I created this map a while ago and some info might have changed. Located right on the lovely Passeig de Gracia avenue, Hostal Oliva https://www.hostaloliva.com/en/ is a great choice.

As per traditional hotels, these are, IMHO, some of the loveliest non-modern skyscraper-type and non-business-y in town: Mercer Barcelona: http://www.mercerbarcelona.com/ | Neri: http://www.hotelneri.com/en/hotel-en | Cotton House: http://www.hotelcottonhouse.com/ | Circa 1905: http://www.circa1905.com/eng/home | Duquesa de Cardona: http://www.hduquesadecardona.com/ | El Palace: http://hotelpalacebarcelona.com/en/ | El Palauet: https://www.elpalauet.com/en/ | Casa Fuster: https://www.hotelcasafuster.com/en/ | Hotel Market: https://www.hotelmarketbarcelona.com/ | Primero Primera: http://www.primeroprimera.com/ | Bagués: http://www.hotelbagues.com/#!en/the-hotel/ | Hotel 1898: http://www.hotel1898.com/ | Praktik Rambla: https://www.hotelpraktikrambla.com/ | Praktik Garden: https://www.hotelpraktikgarden.com/ | Continental Palacete: https://www.hotelcontinental.com/hotel-continental-palacete | Espanya: https://www.hotelespanya.com/en/ | Gran Via: http://www.hotelgranvia.com/ | Arai Monument: http://www.hotelarai.com/

(PS all of these are not necessarily in l'Eixample, some are in other districts of the city)

Enjoy!

@elaine, incidentally, if you're arriving "mid-Sept", note that Sep 11th is the National Day of Catalonia (a.k.a. "La Diada"), sort of like your 4th of July. Saying so because (1) it's a festive day, so businesses are closed (shops for example and also many restaurants -albeit you still have plenty to choose from that are open), (2) there are activities you might want to consider going to see (https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/solo-traveler-in-barcelona-on-catalunya-day, note this is a post from 2015, and the programme changes every year) and (3) there are traffic diversion measures in certain areas of the city

thank you for you very detailed reply. I'm going to save it for future visits, as well. We are arriving via train into Sants and not on Sept 11. But, thanks for the heads up. I agree, Eixample is a lovely area. I'm going to look for one of the places your mentioned. thanks, again. Elaine