Hotels

Barcelona is huge. And safe. How old are your children? Are you trying to fit everyone in one room? What's your total hotel budget for that night?

Are you flying in and then taking a cruise the next day? Folks who know the city well need to know things like that to come up with a choice that is convenient for your family.

My children are college age and most likely will need two rooms. We are flying in with an early arrival. time. The next day we are leaving for a cruise. I am willing to pay more for a safe and beautiful place.

Won't suggest any particular hotel, sorry -living here I have no use for them so I am not really "in the loop"- but I will chip in with additional info (ie location) if you suggest one you like.

In any case, as Ann said, Barcelona is safe (safish, after all, is a large city) so location for that reason is irrelevant. Having said this, there are, of course, some areas with more appeal than others. I tend to recommend this: http://bit.ly/BCNwhicharea

Note as well that moving about is essential as Barcelona is a very decentralized city, with things worth seeing in all 10 districts (subdivided into 73 neighbourhoods). Our public transport network (bus/metro/tramway/train) is excellent: modern, safe, clean, cheap and efficient and you should use it when necessary. This way, it really doesn't matter where you decide to stay, as moving about from one end of the city to the other is fairly quick. Just make sure you're close to a station or bus stop. Still, this city is made for walking so expect lots of strolling. The reason is not necessarily about the proximity of attractions but about the wealth of things to see between attraction A and attraction B.

Enjoy!

One of my friends stayed at Hotel Barcelona House for a couple nights before their cruise. It’s in the Gothic area very near the port and right off Las Ramblas. It was modern, yet a basic hotel. The price was good too. Because of the area, it can be a little noisy. They contacted the hotel ahead of time and asked for a room that would be a little quieter.

Depends on your budget, but I can't recommend highly enough the Hotel Continental. You won't get a balcony on the Ramblas for less. Its a bit quirky, but I like that. Clean and functional and well located. Here is a link if you want to check it out: http://www.hotelcontinental.com/hotel-continental-barcelona/en/default.html