Hotel Catalonia Portal de l'Àngel — Hotel in Barcelona

Myself and four friends have just returned from 3 nights at this fantastic hotel. The smell as you walk in is gorgeous and the foyer is beautiful. We arrived at around lunchtime and our rooms were ready. The reception staff welcomed us and our cases were taken to our rooms. Two of our rooms overlooked the street and the other two overlooked an inner atrium. My double was small but perfectly adequate. It had a decent size bathroom with bath and over head shower, and lovely fluffy towels. There was showergel, shampoo and hand wash dispensers, plus the usual shower cap, sewing kit etc. A kettle with coffee, tea etc and which were replenished each day. There was a mini bar in the fridge, and a bottle of water and 2 Lindt chocolates on arrival.|The room was spotless and was cleaned each day. The only down side was that my room overlooking the street was very noisy for the last two nights due to the refurbishment of a building next door but one. We went to bed at around 11.30pm and there was still a digger crashing and banging at 2.30am. Ridiculous🤷🏻‍♀️. This was no fault of the hotel and my friends who had internal rooms didn’t hear a thing.|The hotel is in a perfect location. We caught the Aerobus from the airport and a return ticket was just over €12 which we bought from a member of staff by the bus stop. This dropped us off at Placa de Catalunya square and then it was just a 2-3 minute walk to the hotel. (Look for the Movistar building on the corner, and the hotel is down there on the right, opposite Benetton)|We turned right out of the hotel and this took us to the lovely Gothic Quarter and its maze of beautiful streets. We came across the Placa Reial square with its many bars and restaurants. We ate in Rossinis the first night and the pizzas were lovely. There was a pianist playing and the staff were lovely.|We also ate at a restaurant called My Way near the square which was my favourite. We found everywhere to be very reasonable for a major city. The reception staff recommended a tapas restaurant on our last night which was very good. |We were only room only and ate our breakfast out each morning. There are lots of lovely bakery/cafes nearby. Turn left out of the hotel and first right. Breakfast in the hotel was in a building situated in the courtyard of the hotel. This area was a lovely peaceful spot with sun loungers and a small pool. There is a small bar just before you go outside to this area.|We visited Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, which we pre bought our tickets before our trip-a must. Sagrada Familia was one of the highlights of the trip-breathtaking . We also went in La Pedrera-Casa Mila, which you can pay on the door. We caught local buses to these places at just over €2 each way-card only. All buses went from the square. Ask reception for the correct buses.|We ate lunch twice at a fantastic restaurant on Las Ramblas called La Flauta at the top end away from the touristy area. Very popular with local people-a good sign.|We had lovely cocktails in the Skybar at the 45Times Hotel on the Placa de Catalunya square. It was €15 to go in but that included a drink, including cocktails. Great place for a couple of hours to chill in the sun and look at the great views.|Overall, I would recommend this hotel to anyone and I plan to return with my husband...

This hotel is on Avda. del Portal de l'Àngel, which is a pedestrian street in the Gothic quarter. It's very convenient in that it's a 2 minute walk to the Cathedral of Barcelona or the Plaça de Catalunya, and about 5 minutes to La Rambla. At times, this street can be quiet - but you should be aware that it can also be absolutely jam-packed with people yelling and laughing, and very loud street performers playing drums, guitars, etc. For our one-night stay, we got the loud drums - but fortunately they stopped by 10pm. There were a lot more homeless people on this street than there were in the past. I don't fault or fear them, and they were mostly sleeping or panhandling, so they didn't bother us - but I mention it as it's something some people may want to be aware of. ||The hotel itself is an interesting historical building with pretty architecture. We booked the only Suite on the property (only because at the time, it was the same price as a standard room - unclear why). The Suite is an interesting thing, in that it's in the "tower" (La Torreta) on level 4. It's sort of a standalone building on the literal roof of the hotel. It's a two story room, with the living room and bathroom on the first floor of the tower, and the bed on the second floor. The bedroom is surrounded by windows, which fortunately have pretty good long, dark curtains. It took us a little bit of time to realize there are two thermostats; one for each floor. It was a happy discovery, as it was warm on the second floor until we realized we could turn the A/C on up there. :) The bathroom has a large walk-in shower and fluffy towels. There's an opaque glass wall in the shower that looks to the exterior, which feels a bit weird -- but since you're literally on the roof, I'm not sure who would see your outline in the shower anyway. The complimentary WiFi in the Suite worked just fine. ||The room has its own little private terrace outside the front door, with a table and chairs and shade umbrella. The staff brought us a bottle of Cava, which appears to be an amenity for guests in the Suite. ||Overall, the room was quite comfortable. For a one-night stay, it wasn't too inconvenient to have the two-level room, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it for several days. My only issue was that some of the fixtures in the bathroom were rusty or needed a better cleaning, such as the shower head and the shelf for toiletries. It wasn't a huge deal, though. ||We did not pay to include the breakfast in our room rate, as we had an early flight, so I cannot comment on the quality or inclusions in the breakfast. We did order some pizza and risotto from the onsite Gastrobar, which we ate in the outdoor courtyard. The food quality was good, but not amazing. ||The staff was helpful and friendly, which we appreciated. Overall it was a good stay, but I'm not sure I'd stay here again due to the noise from the pedestrian street. Noise will be a challenge anywhere in this part of Barcelona, though, so that's a hard thing...

We stayed at the end of August to celebrate my partner's birthday. Upon arrival the hotel was lovely, beautiful interior, welcoming approach from the receptionist who checked us in etc. We booked a room with a balcony, which was a lovely touch. The location of the hotel could not be better, right in the centre of the shops, restaurants and much more. (Most) staff were lovely and helpful. The pool was lovely, and we spent a lot of time here. I also wanted to arrange a balloon for the birthday we were celebrating of which I think the bellboy (who was lovely to us throughout the stay) was tasked with getting for me. This was so very appreciated from him.||However, we did have some complaints. Firstly, our aircon was leaking (quite a lot) and as it was in the centre of the room, there was a constant pool of water on the floor which was not nice, and we would even get dripped on as we walked round the room which was not nice at all. We raised this with the front desk who said they would sort it for us, but when we came back to the room they had just dried the floor, which was something we were already having to do ourselves, over and over. Therefore, we had to carry on the rest of our stay with the aircon leaking over us, and the floor. It was really quite unpleasant at times.||We also had an issue with the cleaning staff coming into our room even with do not disturb on; we would be getting ready to go out and they would knock once and then open the door before we could even get to it, despite having our 'Do Not Disturb' plaque on the door handle. This happened a few times. Not a massive complaint but it did made us feel quite uncomfortable at times.||Another thing was that when I asked about what we could do to celebrate the big birthday, I was told by receptionists that the hotel provides chocolates and a note complimentary, which sounded lovely and I was assured they had this noted already. However, we received nothing which was very disappointing, and I am glad I paid for a balloon otherwise nothing special would've been done for his birthday, despite me being told there would be. I wouldn't have minded if they didn't offer something complimentary, but to be told they would, and then not receive anything was really disappointing. I chose this hotel specifically to make his birthday as special as possible, but it ended up feeling quite average if...