Hotel Gargallo Rialto — Hotel in Barcelona

Booked Easyjet package of flight and hotel. Didn't include breakfast as wanted to try food places outside. Reception staff were friendly and helpful at check-in. Have to pay tourist tax at check-in, standard practice. Gave us a map and top tips of places to visit.

Outside the Hotel: Next door to the hotel was an oyster bar. Hotel is in the Gothic Quarter and 5 mins walk from La Ramblas and metro stop Lucie (L3). Buy a Hola Barcelona card as this covers all modes of transport (bus, tram, metro, train but excludes aerobus). Lots of shops, tapas bars, restaurants, gift shops, cafes, dessert places all in the surrounding streets. 10 mins walk to La Boqueria Market and 15 mins to Placa Catalunya. Barcelona Cathedral 10 mins walk. A 2 minutes walk from the hotel is Barcelona City Hall and also The Government Office in Placa de St Jaume. Lots of security outside the buildings which explains why! A beautiful square where lots of tourists are taking photos. A religious procession also happened here the night before Good Friday. It felt quite safe walking in the evening as lots of people were around. If the streets became quiet we took another route to be around people. Wear an across the body bag and keep this at the front of the body at all times. Or use code protected backpack such as laptop bag so this can be locked whilst out. As with all cities pickpockets are everywhere. Thankfully this didn't happen to us. The hotel is very well placed and makes Barcelona very accessible. A gem of a find!

Inside the Hotel: Had requested a twin room, away from elevators. Given room 507 which was perfect with an added bonus of a balcony. Beds were very comfortable, room had T.V. cooling/heating system, plenty of storage, lockable safety deposit box, extra bedding. Bathroom had a rainfall shower with good water pressure, toiletries, mirror and hairdryer. WiFi was slightly temperamental at times but overall okay. We have 02 so EU roaming is included in the minutes. No tea/coffee making facilities in the room. This would have been nice in the evening to make a cup of tea. We purchased a 5L bottle of water from a local shop and kept topping up the 0.5L bottles we had during the week when visiting tourist sites. Lots of gift shops next to the hotel. Rooms made up daily but bedding and towels not changed daily unless requested. The hotel implements the water sustainability initiative set by Barcelona which was good to see. View from the balcony was great and nice to see Barcelona waking up. Rooms are soundproofed as couldn't hear a sound from the street when the balcony doors were closed. Check-out was 12pm and suitcases can be left with concierge. The standard of the hotel room was super for a 3 star hotel.

Would highly recommend this hotel to travellers whether solo or with...

Third time I was in Barcelona I looked for accommodation near La Rambla since I always enjoy sitting close to the center of the action.

Since I was looking to party at Pacha Barcelona for The New Year Party I wanted something that could be reached by foot and also close to La Rambla.

Luckily for me I got a real bargain on Booking and rented a room for 2 nights at Hotel Rialto on Carrer de Ferran, 40-42.

Down below you can find my review of this hotel:

• Location and access: After we were left by the bus from the airport at Placa Catalunya we headed on La Rambla downwards, towards Mirador de Colom.

After passing by Mercado de La Boqueria at Gran Teatre del Liceu you turn left on Carrer de Ferran and walk for 150-200 metres and the hotel is right there on the right of the street. Metro station “Liceu” is close so you can explore the city easily using the metro.

• Staff: Friendly, communicative and helpful. We had some questions about the schedule for some tourist attractions since the next day was the 31st of December and we were helped fast by the people at the front desk.

• Room and cleanness: After walking thru a small maze of corridors we reached our room and noticed how big it was. We entered into a small lobby, on the right the bathroom, on the left the bedroom with another small closet at the end of the bedroom.

The bed was very ok, the bathroom big and clean and our sheets were changed by room service during our stay.

On the matter of cleanness we can’t really say anything negative about the hotel. Our room who was facing an inner court was quiet so no complains there.

Hotel Rialto is ideally located for exploring the Harbor, the Cathedral, Boqueria, Mirador de Colom, Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar and the Gothic Quarter.

Casa Battlo and La Pedrera are withing walking distance at a maximum of 2 kilometers.

Since the Metro station is close you can easily reach any part of the city(Parc Guell, Placa Espana, etc) , Barcelona’s metro being in my opinion one of the best in Europe.

For me staying at this hotel has been a very nice experience and I will surely look for a room at it when reaching...

You sort of get what you pay for. A relatively cheap hotel in the centre of a busy tourist area.

The rooms are relatively small. No kettles in room (not sure of that is the norm for the area). However they supply a toothbrush and razor (and standard toiletries). If you want a drink you have to go to the vending machine (costs) to get a drink.

Now the big problem is noise. There are structural noise issues such as being able to hear voices in corridors and the doors slam heavily. It is possible to make out conversations in neighbouring rooms. Some of the outside frivolities are also audible. The non structural issues are the 'noisy neighbours'. Whilst it is not always in the hotels hands, being in the city centre and being cheap seems to attract younger clients who party to the early hours. On my first night there there seemed to be a party in one of the rooms and the reception team had to make enquiries of that room several times. Intermittent noise interruptions occurred throughout the night and the next night. Thus if you are a light sleeper, this isn't necessarily the best place for you.

The breakfast buffet was decent. A wide selection and certainly worth the 10 euros. Indeed a better continental breakfast than places I've been to in Europe. The eggs were nicely fried and a massive selection of hams and sausages. Also cereals, and cake/Donuts (who has these for breakfast???). Just a word about the bacon ... Send to have been deep fried as a slab out of the packet so you can't easily get a single slice, you have to get all 5.

Waitress staff are friendly, helpful but understandably overrun. If you go breakfast later and it is busy you might have to be looking for clean cups.

The location is very central and within walking distance to the boqueria market (approx 7 mins) and 2 metros (5 mins). Also basilica, cathedral and las ramblas also...