Hotel Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain
Hotel Gran Via 3 Stars
"Simple period charms at a great price, this family-friendly hotel in Barcelona also boasts an excellent location."
Hotel Overview
Review of Hotel Gran Via, by Jenny Pidgeon
The Gran Via is a unique boutique hotel, offering traditional, grand style and a quiet Barcelona atmosphere at reasonable prices. Situated right on the Gran Via itself, just by the Passeig de Gracia, this boutique hotel is halfway between the Diagonal and the sea. The 19th-century modernist facade gives way to a quaint reception area, dominated by a white balustraded staircase, lined in the same florid carpet as the entrance hall. The wide staircase, with its stained glass apex, leads to a first floor gallery and the main salon, referred as the 'hall of mirrors'.
The facilities
This boutique hotel's green walls, huge chandelier, dark regency-style wooden furniture and large gilt mirrors create an impressive, if faded, grandeur. The sunny terrace beyond the salon is tiled in terracotta and dotted with plant pots and tables for al fresco breakfasts around the central dolphin fountain.
The rooms
Boutique Hotel Gran Via's 53 air-conditioned guest rooms are plain in comparison to the opulence of the public areas, but they are clean and nicely decorated with 19th-century antiques, dark wooden floors, pastel bedspreads and small bathrooms. Couples should note that the majority of rooms have twin beds, some with hand-painted headboards matching painted cupboards. Best views are over the Gran Via, which can be admired from a small balcony, but noise pushes many guests to the rooms overlooking the patio or terrace at the back of the boutique hotel.
Facilities
Who stays here?
This hotel is popular with business travellers and those in search of value in a central location.Come for...
- Shabby baroque chic, especially the sweeping Modernista staircase and Hall of Mirrors breakfast room
- A break from Barcelona's design hotels
- A good value urban bolthole
Not Suitable for...
- Silent nights: some weekend noise
Children
No babysitting services available at this hotel, but cots and extra beds can be requested.Eating in
No restaurant; but breakfast in an attractive breakfast room provided.The Press Say
"This 19th-century town house is a Moderniste enclave, with an original chapel, a hall-of-mirrors breakfast room, an ornate Moderniste staircase, and Belle Epoque phone booths."FodorsReviews
Review of Hotel Granvia, by Jamie Dunford Wood
Excellently located just by Barcelona's Catalunya Square, Hotel Gran Via still retains plenty of character, and the price, for the position of the boutique hotel, is hard to beat. The public rooms remind you of a faded baroque London club, hung with long forgotten portraits, with a wonderful parquet-floored dusty green sitting room stuffed with Spanish antiques and ornate gilt mirrors on the first floor, and a delightful rooftop terrace of potted plants away from the traffic at the back.
The rooms
The guest room corridors of the boutique hotel are wide and light, wood panelled, while the rooms are basic but comfortable - again panelled, with basic furnishings, simple marble bathrooms and pink and cream stucco-work. Colourfully patterned bedspreads and rugs complete the old world Spanish feel of Hotel Gran Via.