Thanks to all of you for your comments. I think the area will work well for us, but I'll also check out Habitat. Las Ramblas sounds less appealing the more I hear about it, but I'm sure we'll check it out.

We loved Las Ramblas. Then again we are not very sophisticated. And we had teenagers.

oopsy, which exact apartment did you stay in? Would you recommend it?

We stayed in Born 1 and yes, we would recommend it if you aren't looking for anything particularly luxurious. A description:

Enter apartment at the living room/dining room. Small but enough room for us. A small balcony off the living room, where we could watch people stroll by and hang our clothes to dry. The kitchen is off to the right. It's small but had plenty of counter space for us to make a few dinners. The bathroom is the oddest part. In the hallway from the living room to the main bedroom, there is a sink. The bathroom is a separate room to the left, with toilet and shower. One bedroom off to the left, with full bed and dresser (and door). The end of the hallway opens up to the main bedroom, with full bed and wall of closet space (and safe). There is a door on a track to close between the hallway and that bedroom. The terrace is off of this bedroom (oh we did love that terrace!).

The floors needed a bit of a cleaning when we got there, but otherwise the apartment was quite clean. (We didn't mention this to Habitat. Given the level of service they gave us with other issues while we were there, I'm guessing they would have sent someone over. I just gave them a quick mop with a rag.) It was also quiet. In the back bedroom, we were not at all bothered by noise.

It was very convenient to Passeig del Born, Jaume 1 metro station, Mercat Santa Caterina, our favorite evening stop Bar Zim, and the lovely shops of El Born. We really loved the neighborhood. Habitat folks that checked us in were lovely, helpful, and very very very patient as we dealt with a problem with our credit card company.

http://www.habitatapartments.com/en/...iew/born-1.htm

Colduphere, I don't consider us very sophisticated either. We just didn't get much out of Ramblas. I think in part because it was so very very crowded.

We stayed in the Eixample district, it was nice a little walk to Las Ramblas which was fine because we only had to go to it once and knew there were much better places to go in Barcelona. Don't let the warnings deter you from going there just watch yourself, even some shopkeepers will try to run scams. There are things to see there; the opera house, the market.

I stayed at a hotel called Hotel Barcelona Universal. At first glance, it may seem off the beaten track, but the metro stop is right outside the door - making every district almost immediately available.