Apartments Ciutat Vella

“Rough around the edges, but, with good amenities, good city location.”

After 10 nights on a luxury cruise ship, this was a bit of a shock. However, we were not in Barcelona for 2 nights to lie around, spa-like, with cucumbers on our eyes. We were there to visit La Sagrada Familia and other areas of the city via the Bus Turisto Hop-on/Hop-on service. We just needed a c… more

After 10 nights on a luxury cruise ship, this was a bit of a shock. However, we were not in Barcelona for 2 nights to lie around, spa-like, with cucumbers on our eyes. We were there to visit La Sagrada Familia and other areas of the city via the Bus Turisto Hop-on/Hop-on service. We just needed a clean place to stay, with a good location and some basic amenities and this apartment provided all of that. The apartment is on an alley like street in the Las Ramblas area about a 30 minute walk from the cruise ship terminal. It's a bit of a rough looking area, but it isn't. The street was cleaned by the city one of the days we were there and there are plenty of amenities in the area (cafés, convenience shops, pharmacies, etc.). We also found a terrific restaurant (Tosca del Carme) nearby where we ate twice as we found it so good. Upon arrival, we rang the door buzzer and an operator buzzed us in remotely. The self check-in kiosk wouldn't allow us to check in early, but a luggage room was made available to us, again via a buzzer and we were able to store our luggage and get out to get something to eat. Check in later went fairly smooth: navigating the automated system had a few minor glitches but we got it done. This is an old building and the stairs are narrow, so hold the rail. The apartment had adequate space for three people including two bedrooms. The bathroom is by the main door and so you must navigate 6 or so steps to get down to it from the kitchen area. There is no handrail leading from the bathroom to the upper floor area, so it's a bit tricky for a senior with decent mobility, like us, and could be dangerous for a mobility challenged person. There is a tiny elevator in the building that stops on certain floors but leaves you with steps to negotiate if you are in a certain apartment. We were in room #5 and so had to go down 6 steps to get to our door. The receptionist was present in the mornings (Danilo) and kindly arranged a taxi for us for our ride to the airport 24 hours before departure. Yes we would stay there again.

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