MY wife and I will be in the Barcelona area for a couple of days beginning September 12. We've been to Spain before (Galicia) and found Hostal's to be the right price and adequate for our needs. We will need a couple of days to acclimate ourselves after our flight. We could stay in Barcelona or a village or town that is within taxi distance of the airport. Suggestions would be appreciated. BS

Barcelona is a party town and the hostels tend to be noisy. Most do not have air-conditioning, so with the windows open, bring earplugs. I stayed in a hostel for three nights this past summer and a drunk British guy was yelling at everyone outside one night. I stayed at the "New York Hostel." According to the reviews at www.hostelz.com, it is one of the better hostels.

There have been several hostals (not hostels) that get consistent good reviews on this board and some have AC.

www.hostalgirona.com
www.hostalopera.com

Madridman.com has listings for both hostals/pensiones and youth hostels. Scroll way down the page - below the ad links to get to the hostal sections. You will see the first section is the hostal/pensione and the bottom section youth hostal.
http://www.madridman.com/barcelona/b...nahostels.html

We also looked at hostals in Barcelona last year, but found them to be more expensive than we thought. We ended up at a nice hotel that was less expensive.

Apsis Aranea
http://www.hotelaranea.com/

It was very clean, quiet, spacious, within walking distance of the Sagrada Familia and close to 2 metro stations. Breakfast wasn't included, but there was a cafe a block away where we could eat for a couple of Euros.

We stayed at Hostal Opera in 2004; it was good.

Thanks to all of you. I will make a reservation with Hostal Girona today.
BS