Hello, Will be renting a car, and driving from Madrid to Barcelona. Would like to have a hotel with an attached car parking/garage where I can leave the car for a few days while walking around Barcelona. Don't need a hotel inside the Ravel, Gothic, etc. areas, but would like a budget hotel near a metro. Thank you for your suggestions (and hotel names). Regards, Karen
I will be staying at a Sidorme hotel, Sidorme Barcelona Mollet just outside of Barcelona, near the Formula 1 racetrack. There are a number of inexpensive hotels in the area, all near metro stops. If you go to www.galahotels.com (kind of like hotels.com here) and search on the one I named (the town is Mollet), it will also give you a list of nearby hotels, and most have parking, generally free. I am traveling solo, but my room is €44/night, with free wifi and a pool, as well. I stayed at a Sidorme last year near Granada and loved it.
Another option would be to look into parking the car in a lot for a few days and leaving it there. I know there are special prices at the World Trade Center parking for stays of a week, and I imagine you can find something if you look online. We were recently surprised that an internet search netted us a great price to park a car in Paris in a monitored garage for a few days - but we didn't have in/out priveleges.
I just returned from Spain yesterday. We stayed at the Hotel Granvia, which was just renovated. It's listed in RS' book, well located (at the beginning edge of the Eixample), near the Metro (right outside the door, basically) and there is a parking garage next door/underneath not part of the hotel. We took the AVE train fom Barcelona to Madrid and found it very cheap and easy (in case you were not needing the car for any other reason). Here is the link:
http://www.hotelgranvia.com/en// If you email them, they will likely give you breakfast with the room if you mention you are a Rick Steves reader.
Thank you for the useful suggestions. I'm booking a hotel now. Karen