I wrote a lot about different sights but not about Barcelona itself :))
Now some common information about the city:
Barcelona consists of three parts: the Old Town, the New Town and ex-suburbs. A tourist will find all components of a modern city: metro, the University of 15th Century, opera theatre, astronomic observatory, museums, Zoo and many others. Names of streets, stations and etc. can be in two languages both Catalan and classic Spanish. Although these two languages are quite alike, you should be careful as some words may be misleading.
So, the rest of this post I would like to dedicate to shopping-lovers, as there is a hint where it is better to stay if one likes shopping.
My friend often used to stay at the America hotel in the downtown of Barcelona in 15 minutes from the airport. The downtown is the commercial part of the city at the turn of the Old Town with narrow streets and flat-roof houses, and the New Town with right-angled quarters, wide green avenues you will find whatever you like here from super-markets to bars, restaurants with moderate prices. The hotel’s location is convenient also because of proximity to the station Passeig de Gracia and Avinguda Diagonal (Diagonal Avenue). As I did not stay at this hotel myself, I will simply list you the facilities of the hotel and its rooms. A tourist can find the restaurant, outdoor pool, solarium, sauna, currency-exchange, car-rent and comfortable rooms with air-conditioner, TV, wireless phone, and even a coffee-machine in mini-bar.
In this area there is one more hotel in modern style with high-quality service - Hilton. I can tell it from personal experience. As I was there on business trip during cold season, heating and Internet-connection were very important to me, and they were excellent.
The hotel itself is a great place for conferences, congresses and other gatherings of that kind: there are 18 (!) conference-halls at this hotel, all quipped with all necessary computers and video devices. The administration even will assist you in holding of business talks, of course, if you have something to talk about and somebody to talk to.
Well, these were some useful notes about Barcelona hotels.
By the way, do you know that Avinguda Diagonal is named so because of the look of this avenue of the city map: it really divides it into two almost equal parts like a diagonal of some quadrangle, and is the longest and the most beautiful street. Moreover, Diagonal Avenue is an area of business activity, of sky-scrapers, the University campus, and some sports arenas.
One more sight of Barcelona is the biggest oceanarium with a plenty of aquariums and a terrarium. When you going through transparent tunnel, huge fishes, especially sharks, swimming right near and above you… it’s really impressive.
Tags: America Hotel, Avinguda Diagonal, Barcelona, Diagonal Avenue, Hilton, hotels, Passeg de Gracia