Barcelona- Ecomical staying place
 

Couple over 65 looking for an economical place to stay for 3 nights in October. Place should be safe & clean and centrally located close to sights in Barcelona. Is there a cheap way to get to the city from Barcelona airport and back? What is the most economical way to see the sights for 2 days? Can anyone suggest any bargain tours that cover all the sights?
Thanks

There are lots of good value B&Bs. Consider:

Bonic B&B
BarcelonaBB
Anita's Bed and Breakfast
Marina View B&B

They all have websites.

There are regular train and airport bus services into Barcelona. The best option will depend on where you are staying.

You can take a HOHO bus tour around Barcelona, and you can get a 2 day ticket. See:

http://www.spainbookers.com/en/barce...es/tourist-bus

Can you say your "economical" in numbers?

There's lots of helpful information in Maribel's guide to Barcelona at www.maribelsguides.com.

There is an inexpensive shuttle bus called Aerobus from the airport to the Placa de Catalunya.

We were not happy with our hotel in Barcelona on a recent trip so I will not even mention the hotel. A hotel that was recommended in DK Top Ten is Hotel Jardi. It is in the old sector and overlooks a quiet plaza and many rooms have little balconies. We regretted not checking it for availability. We loved Barcelona and saw so much in just two days. The Aerobus from airport was easy to use. LaPedrera. Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, Boqueria Market, The cathedral, and Las Ramblas were our favorite sites.

<i>We were not happy with our hotel in Barcelona on a recent trip so I will not even mention the hotel. </i>

That's not really helpful. If you hated a hotel for a particular reason, why not tell people and tell them why.

Why not name the hotel? If you have valid reasons for not being pleased then I think it would be prudent for you to let other Fodorites know...that's kind of what this forum is about. Plus it may motivate the &quot;named&quot; hotel to make improvements and then everyone benefits.

Banys Oriental is reasonable and convenient to most of the sights.

We stayed at Hostal Morato.
http://www.hostal-morato.com/

Don't think of it as a Hostal with only college students - we had our own private room with private bathroom. Nothing fancy about it, but it's clean and quiet, is about a block from Las Ramblas, and we only paid 65 euros/night.

We would not stay at Hotel Granvia again because it was way too noisy, staff had surly attitude( did not want to call a cab for us), and there are better hotels for the price. Will this help?? BTW, reviews were mixed on TA. We chose this hotel only for location.

Search Fodor's for past reviews for these:
www.hostalopera.com
www.hostalpalacios.com
www.hostalgirona.com

Keep in mind that the term hostal means pensione and they aren't really youth hostels.

You can train if from the airport and metro or take the bus to Placa Catalunya.

For a list of hostals:
http://www.madridman.com/barcelona/b...nahostels.html

Hi Suresh,
The Hotel El Jardi was mentioned by another poster as a possible economical hotel. We stayed at the El Jardi this past May for five nights.

This hotel has an unbeatable location in the Barri Gotic section of town. It's located on a little square just off the Ramblas near the metro- Liceu stop. The hotel staff was courteous, helpful and always available. The square outside had several restaurants (one being Taller de Tapas--very good) an ATM (just outside the hotel--safe and convenient) a few breakfast places just around the corner and lots of little shops. The hotel served a decent continental breakfast (additional charge) but the nearby places were better. You do have to walk up one flight of stairs to get to reception, but we travel light so our luggage wasn't a problem.

Our room was a standard interior, 89 Euro including tax. It was kept clean and neat by the daily hotel service. We weren't overjoyed with this hotel (I state this in my trip report I posted last week), but it was simply because of the room type that we booked. The interior room basically had no real window to speak of. The &quot;window&quot; opened into a small interior space and was closed off at the very top of the hotel by a glass roof, or something that looked like that. So if you opened the window you got a view of a wall across this small space, and no fresh air. This is what bothered us. We like to open a window in the morning for light and fresh air. Here we didn't bother and the room was gloomy because of it. Now, maybe other rooms had a different interior design, I don't know. If this is a concern to you, we would recommend opting for one of the exterior rooms, with a view and a real window and possibly a balcony . If we stayed here again, we definitely would do so.

Still all the positives outweigh this one negative. We left our room early each day and returned at night so we were there only to sleep. The hotel stayed full of guests, so it is a very popular hotel, probably because of its incredible location. Hope this helps. Enjoy Barcelona--it is a great city.

If you are looking at staying on a tight budget:

-Do not stay in G&oacute;tico, near las Ramblas, or anthing around Plaza Catalunya. Inexpensive places to eat and get groceries are near impossible, with the exception of one eternally busy Carrefour supermarket on Las ramblas.

-Look for accommodation near Sant Antoni, Raval, Gracia, to stay well-connected to metro which will take you to the &quot;sights&quot; as well as being full of cheap grocery stores and little restaraunt bars to eat.

-A vacation apartment or studio is probably the most economical way to be comfortable, as you can self-cater and also bring packed lunches and sample cuisine at home in the evening, which will save you about 50 Euro a day for both of you. Check out www.waytostay.com for Barcelona studios.

-Cheapest way from the airport is to get a T10 (10 journey multi-person ticket) and take the train from the airport. This 10 journey pass is now 7.25 Euro and you can both use it, including on the return journey to the airport.
The remaining journeys you can use for all over the city, including the funicular train that goes up Montju&iuml;c.

-The bus t&uacute;ristic is probably your best bet for covering sights. unsure of the price.
Or you could create your own bargain tour using the metro pass and info found online. Might be more fun too.

Have a good trip.

Regarding places to stay - IF you are a single or a double on a budget, don't stay at the H10 Universitat. The single rooms are no more than a closet with a view of the air shaft in the building. It was so expensive and so small. Their web site only shows their nice double rooms with a balcony so I was very surprised when I was put into this little room. Also they want over 17 Euros for breakfast. It is a lovely breakfast, but it was my bargaining tool and I played that card when I was unhappy with my room. If I'd known then what I know now, I never would have asked for the breakfast in exchange for the rotten room. There were no less than 3 Starbucks within a stones throw of the hotel that I could have had a perfectly good breakfast at for significantly less money, or many other little coffee shops and restaurants.

Personally, I would not stay so close to Placa Catalunya. I would instead find a nice, less expensive hotel a few metro stations away from that, if I could. The metro looked good and easy enough to use.

And a P.S. - I went, very nervous about pick pockets. I'm sure they are there, but I had zero problems with them. Everyone going there should be well aware of their personal space and go with an attitude that they are aware of what is going on around them and be ready to look anyone suspicious in the eye with that look that says &quot;stay away from me&quot; and I think you'll be fine. The few stories I heard were about poeple that were leaving for the airport, had too much luggage and bags to handle, were juggling money and tickets and such outside their hotel door. A scene like that is a problem waiting to happen. Don't go outside your hotel door without having everything in order and knowing where your things are and what is happening in your personal space. These guys are apparently clever, but if you aren't drunk or too confused, you should be able to be OK.

Go and have fun.