Catalonia Avinyo Hotel Barcelona

What an awesome hotel! The location is perfect - we were there during a festival and it was only 3 minutes out the door to get to three of the main fest locations. It actually wasn't noisy from our room though - much quieter than when we stayed in Born last year. The view from the rooftop was stunning and the roof was great for sunbathing. There is a small swimming pool up there which was a bit too cold for swimming in September. Everything inside was very clean and stylish and felt much nicer than what I'd expected for 3 stars. One could tell it was built with German tourists in mind - beautifully designed German (I think) fittings in the bathroom including this really cool shower that was very nice to get into to wash off the sand from the beach. The website didn't say, so we were very pleased to find a safe (big enough for a 17" macbook) and free wifi in the room. On the first floor are also some pc laptops for guests to use for free. The room also has a small fridge and glasses but no kettle. A breakfast buffet is included and was good though not with a huge choice for vegetarians. Be warned though - at the weekends when the place is booked up you may have to queue for breakfast. Another thing that worked out well for us was having about six different bicycle hire shops within a couple of minutes' walk (though the hotel doesn't have overnight bicycle storage facilities, unfortunately). It was about 10 minutes' bicycle ride to the beaches from Avinyo. Right across the street from the hotel was a small supermarket open from pretty early until pretty late, so that was handy. Now the downsides - the jacuzzi wasn't working the whole 6 days we were there and the staff never seemed to know when/if it would be fixed. Also, one staff member was a bit unfriendly but the rest were very nice and helpful. When we arrived, we asked for a room with a window (we couldn't request this on the booking site) and I think this is how we ended up with two single beds instead of one big one. The hotel was booked up so by the time we got around to asking, we couldn't get these replaced. Also, the beds are on wheels and it would have been a bit better to have some sort of brake for them (!) because the floor was tiled rather than carpeted. The telly didn't have a great selection of English channels - BBC World and CNN was it, if I remember right, so now I keep associating the Burma monks with Barcelona in September. I'd certainly stay at Avinyo again and have already recommended it to friends. It was a real pleasure staying there and particularly nice to not have to go far to bring back shopping, have a rest etc.

Excellent situation. Clean room and service was fine.