Hotel Rey Juan Carlos by Jamie Dunford Wood

The Juan Carlos has rapidly become an institution in Barcelona. Famously built in record time for the 1992 Olympic Games, the hotel is a massive skyscraper structure on the road out of town, with glass walled elevators climbing up an inside reception space the size of several football fields, which reaches to the top of the building. The architecture is impressive. Rising 12 stories, the 375 guest rooms are uniformly spacious, and are accessed via interior balconied corridors which rise to the roof - so the progress of the room cleaning of the whole hotel is visible mid-morning at a glance. Inside, they have massive picture windows - to the distant, hazy sea, or to the nearer, hazy mountains. Which is the problem with Barcelona - the smog and haze means any views which are not up close will always be slightly compromised. Decor is no-expensespared corporate, in a neutral style to favour the international business executive, and indeed for them, who want all facilities on tap plus a resort area to relax in, this is the perfect hotel. However, it is a cab ride from downtown, and lacks any intimacy, romance or local colour, a transnational resort hotel. The resort area, in landscaped gardens below, is pleasant, with a large pool, tennis courts, a desultory lake with some imported swans, and a shaded restaurant. Hot and cold running staff look after the guests' every need, while airline pilots and sheikhs mingle at every turn .There are shops, several gourmet restaurants, and plenty of conference facilities. One need never leave the complex - indeed, one could be in Dubai.