Barcelona city areas/neighborhoods

Perhaps our definition of seedy is different, but to me it means prostitutes, drug dealers, strip clubs, graffiti, homeless. I witnessed none of that on any stretch of the Ramblas day or night. Is it touristy........hell yes:) But since I'm a tourist, I didn't mind it;)

Thanks James for that run down.. I think the Hotel Jazz looks good,, the location appears to be central enough, but not right on the strip.
Believe it or not, I am not a Gaudi fan,, we will see the uncompleted church,, but thats about it, we plan on a bike tour on first day, then mostly plan to eat tapas and drink... thats it,, lol Our Spain trip is focused more on the town in on the Costa Brava that we will be visiting, that will also involve tapas and drinking,, with a swim and a walk thrown in here and there. !

Passeig de Gracia is very nice, and only a few (3 or 4) blocks away from the Hotel Jazz. We walked up that way every evening for dinner. Hotels along there, such as the Mandarin Oriental, are considerably more expensive, unless you go way up the avenue to Diagonel. Hotel Sixty-Two is nice and not that far up, but 50 euros more a night than Jazz, and no rooftop pool/terrace. As far as Las Ramblas being "seedy", I suppose that depends on when you go. It is a nice promenade full of tourists, and the scam artists who seek to prey on them. We did not feel the least bit unsafe walking there in the evening (with our valuables secured), nor did we see any prostitutes or druggies. We did see lots of hucksters and quite a few drunks. It's fun to walk once, but that was enough.

I was just in Barcelona two weeks ago and didn't find any of the Ramblas to be seedy...even near the water. I had a good stay at the Hotel Monetcarlo right in the middle of it. They have good deals on single rooms, the doubles are a bit more pricey, it does have AC. http://www.montecarlobcn.com/en

We stayed very near Placa Catalunya and thought the location was ideal. There is a direct connection to the airport by the Aerobus, which is easy and convenient. Placa Catalunya is at the top of Las Ramblas, and is the transition to the wide boulevards of the Eixemple district. It is an easy walk to either the narrow lanes of the Bari Gotic, the market at Boqueria, or the tapas bars and Gaudi buildings in the Eixemple. In fact, we walked to Sagada Familia, down Las Ramblas to the beach and the Gehry fish sculpture, up Montjuec to the Olympic stadium and Catalan Museum, all from our hotel (not in one walk, this was 3 separate walks over 2 days). We stayed at Hotel Jazz, a nice modern 3* hotel with a/c and a pool on the roof. I recommend it highly. (And if you do stay here you can get off the Aerobus at the stop previous to Placa Catalunya, which is Universitat. This is only a block form the hotel.) We were leaving Barcelona by train from the Sants station, so we took a cab from the hotel, at a cost of around 8 euro.

We're staying just off the Ramblas a couple blocks down from Placa Catalunya - Hostal Campi. I was considering staying at the other end of the Ramblas, closer to Barceloneta but didn't find good reviews for the hotels in the area. I'll be back after April, send me a pm reminder and I'll send you a critique after we get back.

thanks everyone,, I just got fed up with research and booked the hotel you suggested Lola, the place looks fine, and got a double for 106 euro per night so good enough! I find sometimes one can overthink the whole process,, its a bed, I want clean and good location, and this place fits the bill. It does help to have someone actually say " yes I have been there and there are no horrible suprises" and thats good enough for me! Its only 2 nights after all!

Brad, does that place have A/C? I just checked mid-August prices for Hotel Jazz. Standard double room (which we had, it was very nice) is 106 euro with advance booking, without breakfast. We did not pay for breakfast at any of our hotels in Spain, as it seemed expensive and we preferred to go to a local cafe/bar. My husband really liked the Brazilian coffee at Cafe Bra in Barcelona; they had excellent fresh croissants and a good selection of tea for me as well.

Brad that place looks good for budget accomadation, at 70 euros a room too, but, since we are going in August, a/c is a must for us,, i am sure in April it will not be a huge issue for you though, do let us know what it was like though..

I think we were posting at the same time. I hope you like it---we would certainly go back there if we return to Barcelona. And we paid a lot more for our room; you got a great price. I suggest you request a room on a higher floor. The rooms face a little plaza between two streets, so there is little traffic noise, but the subway rumble bothers some people. We were on the 6th floor and didn't hear it. It was nice to be that close to the roof terrace, which we enjoyed in the late afternoon. We never tried the bar/cafe, but they were very accommodating in providing a bucket of ice cubes on request.

Apart from some stained glass windows waiting to be installed the interior of the cathedral is finished, and stunningly beautiful! It's now an active place of worship.