Where to stay in Gracia in Barcelona – Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona

I’ve been to Barcelona more than 20 times I think.

Not only I realized that sometimes the first appearances is not what I should rely on (both people and cities), but I fall in love with the Catalonia capital so much it went up right to the first place on my favorite places in the world.

So when after TBEX conference in Lloret de mar in Costa Brava I had a chance to spend some time in Barcelona, I did not think twice. My best girl friend Monika, and Veronika, the blogger from Veronika’s Adventure, wanted to finally visit my top city so decided to join me.

Our trip started when we took a train from Salou to Passeig de Gracia train station in Barcelona and then walked up a very little hill to our Aparthotel Silver which became our home for almost 3 nights. I knew the area a little bit already as a few years ago I stayed close-by at a very fancy Casa Gracia Hostel.

We arrived very early around 11 am and as our room was not ready until check in time at 1 pm, we just changed in the bathroom, refreshed ourselves, drank a sip of free water at the reception and took an apple to go.

The following 2 days and a half we spent super busy walking and cycling around like crazy to visit as much as possible in a very limited time. For an unknown reason, we don’t like to take metro and preferred to see more when moving from point A to point B.

It took us much longer, that’s for sure, but I am a huge lover of both tiny and wide Barcelona streets with trees and wanted to show off to my friends how easy it is to orientate here even without a map.

We walked more than 15 km and cycled for sure more than 5 km each day and did not have much time to enjoy our hotel (all our free time we spent at the beach or eating our way through La Boqueria market.)

And to be honest usually when I’m not staying at a spa or all inclusive hotel with many activities, there is not that much to do anyway.

But Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona surprised me a lot.

What I liked at Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona:

• our Superior room of 35 m² – as it was 3 of us, we had a king size room and a big sofa and a little kitchen (with fridge, kettle, microwave) which came in handy when the girls bought bread baguettes and traditional Spanish jamon (ham.) We also had a 32” TV, DVD, hi-fi stereo and a hair dryer to use.

• a welcome champagne (which made the girls happy) and a box with different chocolates (which made me more than happy)

• big corner bathtub in the bathroom. Sorry, but no bathtub laptop-bikini photos are coming now as I had no time for travel blogging.

• beautiful terrace – we had a terrace of the same length as the whole apartment, with sun beds, different flowers and a table with chairs. Aaaand with artificial (fake) grass where I could walk barefoot, yay! Shame we did not spend any time during the day here to sunbathe and enjoy the views through the red and pink flower petals, but then, hey, we managed to find an hour or two for the beach every day. Better, right?

• free fast wifi around the hotel – it worked perfectly even on our 6th floor most of the time, except for half an hour when I needed to be online for an important chat but the rest worked fine all around, even at the restaurant.

• breakfast – it costs 9 euros so I was a bit scared if there would be something healthy for me to eat as many smaller non-all inclusive hotels offer mostly hot continental breakfast which is far away from vegan or even vegetarian. But here at Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona they wowed us with breakfast menu. The first thing that got me was coconut water and freshly squeezed orange juice which  forms a big part of Spanish breakfast. A lot of different fruits were cut there on plates, such as my favorite papaya, pineapple, melon, strawberries and mango, and we could even take pears, apples, grapes, oranges and bananas. That was pretty much all I needed to start a busy walking day. My friends also tasted fresh ham, bread, cheese, eggs and cereals. And most of all, they were finally happy with coffee which was the best after their 2 or 3 weeks in Spain. At least that’s what they said. And their faces proved it, too.

• 2 computers with a printer at the reception for those without own laptops – we could print out our boarding passes and train tickets before we left. If a hotel offers a free printing service, it makes it very easy to the guests as sometimes it can be pain in the ass to find an internet cafe when busy exploring the destination.

• foot massager – that was TOP! When I found a foot massage machine in our room, I jumped out of happiness. Foot massage is orgasmic so I could get one each and every day of my life. So imagine what I was doing for a few minutes just after waking up and just before going to sleep for the entire 3 days in Barcelona. I said down on a chair or bed and put my feet on the massager.

• Gaudi’s images – making both the hotel rooms and halls to look more interesting. Gaudi’s architecture is one of the Barcelona’s 30 attractions every visitor must visit and seeing the famous colorful mosaics all around the hotel put a smile on my face every day. We even had three of them just on the side of our bed where Monika was sleeping so I could have a look at them pretty often.

•  helpful staff – all of the employees at the reception, restaurant and the managers were super friendly and willing to do anything to make our stay enjoyable

• bicycle friendly hotel – for 2 days we rented Born Bikes Barcelona to go around the main city spots faster and we did so even without checking out first if there was a place to leave them at the hotel. But I figured out that as Barcelona is a very bicycle friendly city, our hotel would be the same. An we were right. Already a label on the main door said so. There was a storage in the garage just for the bicycles where you cold leave them and even clean them when needed. Very happy!

• Gracia location – the Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona is located is in one of the side streets of Gracia neighborhood which is one of the nicest ones, according to the locals. It’s not too busy, there’s a few cool restaurants and both expensive and cheap shops. It’s well connected to La Rambla, port and beach by metro, or you can choose to walk/cycle like we did. There’s also many supermarkets around and some shops with super food and other healthy options.

• Barcelona map, a map of restaurants close-by

TIP: If you happen to visit my favorite city ever, then check out 30 things to do in Barcelona :)

For more information about Aparthotel Silver in Barcelona, please check out their website. Thanks so much again for hosting us.

TIP 2: There’s many things you can do in Barcelona. For many of them, such as museums and other attractions, you would need to wait in line for quite some time just to buy the ticket in person. If you’d like to skip lines, you can book your passes here online to save time. All you will need then is your mobile phone so no printing of documents needed. I recommend you to do the following while in Barcelona:

1. Barcelona museum pass online
2. Camp Nou experience
3. Casa Batllo entrance
4. Casa Milá – La Pedrera
5. Chocolate Museum
6. City tour Barcelona

*Have you visited Barcelona? Would you add anything else to the above things to do in Barcelona?

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Posted in Europe, photo, Spain, travel Tags: Barcelona, Spain