Friday, February 28, 2014

Barcelona: Accommodations

I started my search for affordable accommodations as soon as I decided I wanted to go to Barcelona... Actually, no, I first considered Paris, and started looking for accommodations there. Prices in Paris are pretty steep (for me, anyways), even for February, so after having searched in vain for affordable accommodations in central Paris, I was pleasantly surprised how much of it is available in Barcelona (and I'm talking walking-distance-touristy part of Barcelona).

The options are plenty - hotels, hostels, inns, condos and so on. Of course, something like a condo might cost $400-500 per night; however, it often accommodates 6+ people, so you're looking at playing max $100 per night, if you travel in a group.

I read reviews, consulted various websites for deals, and eventually ended booking though Expedia.ca, which gave me an option to pay at the hotel (and the ability to cancel 24 hours prior). I ended up choosing Hotel Jazz, a slick and modern hotel just steps away from La Rambla, a busy tourist street, and almost everything else that you'd want to see here. Although this hotel is ranked as 3 stars, I personally feel that is a 3.5 :))) (they could probably make it a 4-star hotel, if they spent a bit of money and gave it a facelift). But we found our room to be comfortable and larger than expected! Even the beds were listed as "single" were wider that one would expect. And the hotel's location is just PRIMO!



You might read comments that it's noisy at hotels in this area because of all the tourist traffic. Though I can't speak for all of the hotels here, ours have soundproof balcony door, which made the room almost completely silent! Finally, had it been summertime, we would've been able to take advantage of the pool and patio on our hotel's rooftop (I did go to check it out - super nice!).

Here are a few photos below of our accommodations.
 





Both the elevator and the lights in our room operated ONLY with the room key card


Six nights ended up costing 560 euros (taxes in). I would say that it's a deal! :)

Cheers,
Nadia R.

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