Say ¡hola! to Barcelona…

by Karisa

So from Ibiza it was a short flight to Barcelona with Vueling Airlines.  Then from Barcelona airport we caught the airport bus, which was super easy, right to the centre of Barcelona’s old town.  And lastly it was about a 15min walk to where we were staying.  No stress at all.

We had booked an apartment through Booking.com with Apartamentos Barcelona Nextdoor – a company which manages several apartments in Barcelona’s Born, Gothic and Ciutat Vella districts.  Their apartments all come fully equipped and they all have a living area with a sofa bed & flat-screen TV as well as a kitchen with a microwave, fridge, oven, dishwasher & coffee maker.  ALSO, they all come with free Wifi.

Our apartment was in the Gothic district and was very cute & modern inside:

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The only thing that messed with our systems a bit was that it didn’t get a lot of natural light coming in from outside… even though we had those big doors in the lounge (we were kinda in the shadow of the buildings around us).  This meant that we really battled to get up in the mornings because it still felt dark outside, even at like 10am.  Very weird.  But otherwise, we really loved our little spot.

The “terrace” we were told about with our booking confirmation however, didn’t turn out to be as sexy as we thought.  Firstly, it was a communal rooftop terrace.  Not directly connected to our apartment specifically.  And secondly, we were surrounded by antennas, satellite dishes, wires and stuff:

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Hmmmm…  I guess that’s just a negative that comes along with staying right in the thick of things…

Would I still recommend this apartment rental company?  Yes I would.  The terrace was a minor for us.  But if it’s a biggie for you, then just confirm with them before you finalise the booking.  This one at least still allowed one to step “outside” a bit for some fresh air…

The real important thing was that we were in a rocking location, central to pretty much anything & everything.  The rental people were also super friendly, and the apartment was quite well priced.  Ours cost 575 euros for 5 nights and could sleep 3 people.  So that works out to just over 38 euros per person, per night.  Not bad at all.

Now let me show you the surrounding area, cause it really was quite beautiful:

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We were even just around the corner from the Barcelona Cathedral, a major tourist sight (but more about this one still to come):

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AND we had an all organic mini-market just a few steps away from home:

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Keeping things healthy on our travels of course…

So yeah, we were set for a pretty incredible Barcelona adventure, and I really couldn’t wait to get movin’…

xxx

1 comment

garth pool Aug 12, 2013 - 8:30 pm

Hey there, me and two friends from Stellenbosch is also planning our trip to Barcelona in the beginning of October and I stumbled upon your blog. Thanks its very informative. Just a quick question with regards to booking your apartment, it also says they have three apartments available in the following areas (Born, Gothic or Ciutat Vella districts). We would love to be close to the night life so the gothic area or raval is probably where we would want to be) their booking site however doesn’t give you an option to choose, is it safe to book and confirm afterwards where we would like to stay, as it seems a bit risky to me.

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