The stately facade blends well with its tony Eixample surroundings, on the Passeig de Gràcia and it’s not until you’re inside that you enter another world entirely. The central atrium is something out of the original Star Wars, a deep white void lined with interior windows. The lobby and restaurant are lined with patterned screens that suggest a 22nd-century version of traditional Islamic architecture. The spa is pure moody futurism, a darker sort of sci-fi, more Ridley Scott than George Lucas.

Serras occupies a building of some distinction on the Passeig de Colom, where the Gothic Quarter meets Port Vell, which accounts for one of its most desirable attributes: the marina-facing rooftop pool deck, restaurant, and bar. In its interiors the Serras confidently spans a century of architecture and design. The 28 rooms and suites start out cozy but quickly grow to generous proportions; the suites find space in their bedrooms for freestanding bathtubs.

There are a lot of great hotels in Barcelona — after all, this is a city that handles a staggering amount of tourism. So why is this the One? Well, for our money, there’s no better location in Barcelona, situated at the point where two of the city’s best neighborhoods meet. You’re within walking distance of all the major sights — Gaudí’s Parc Güell, the Sagrada Família cathedral, the Gothic Quarter — but you’re firmly on the locals’ turf. And that makes all the difference.

Just off the Passeig de Gràcia in the upscale Eixample district, the Almanac Barcelona is an example of the second type: an elegant 19th-century edifice whose interiors, recall several well-loved eras of design history, from Art Deco to mid-century modernism to the present day. The elegance of the design is matched by some substantial comforts; the beds are custom-made in Austria, the bath products made in Barcelona, and the hyper-modern bathrooms are clad in classic white marble.

Between the cute modern name and the youth-oriented bells and whistles — there’s a photo booth, shuffleboard, and a juice bar called Flax & Kale Passage — it’s got all the trappings of a hotel designed for millennials. But Yurbban Passage Hotel & Spa is also rooted in Barcelona’s history: this boutique hotel is located inside a 19th-century former textile factory. The look is industrial-chic, and the guest rooms are stylish, with smart wood paneling and glass to let the Spanish sunshine in.

What began just over a hundred years ago as a family-owned restaurant in Barcelona, in a central location where El Raval meets L’Eixample, is now a stylish and memorable boutique hotel. Antiga Casa Buenavista is still family-owned, but it’s an impressively professional operation — its rooms come with modern necessities like Nespresso machines and smart TVs, as well as luxurious bathrooms stocked with Natura Bissé products.

The façade, with its repetitive geometric patterns, announces that this is no ordinary hotel. And what’s behind that façade is modernism of the most utopian, optimistic sort — if not for the blazing Mediterranean sun outside, you might just wonder if you were in Stockholm or Copenhagen. It’s more than just eye-catching, though — while the rooms perhaps stop short of pure luxury-hotel extravagance they’re highly efficient, livable, and more than comfortable enough.

Just off the Passeig de Gràcia in the upscale Eixample district, the Almanac Barcelona is an elegant 19th-century edifice (plus 20th-century addition) whose interiors, by designer Jaime Beriestain, recall several well-loved eras of design history, from Art Deco to mid-century modernism to the present day. The rooms are high-tech and clean-lined but still warm and enveloping, and admit plentiful sunshine through full-length windows.

Here Soho House trades central London for the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, in an 18th-century building whose architecture and interiors put an unmistakably Catalan accent on the eclectic, bohemian-inspired house style. The guest rooms here range only from Tiny to Medium, and they’re aptly named at both ends. The Soho House experience, of course, is not about the pleasure of sheer square footage; these rooms make up for their stature with plenty of style and plenty of thoughtful little luxuries.

Monument Hotel is an elegant five-star hotel that’s opened on the same premises as Restaurante Lasarte, a three-star restaurant by Martín Berasategui, the Basque chef who holds more Michelin stars than any other chef in Spain. Both are located in a grand 19th-century building on the Passeig de Gràcia, a few minutes’ walk from a pair of Antoni Gaudi’s dazzling architectural projects, Casa Battló and La Pedrera. So it seems natural that the Monument Hotel’s striking modern interior.

The hotel leans all the way into the neighborhood's dark, romantic vibes, especially on the ground level with its rich wood paneling, red velvet loveseats, cozy fireplace, and French doors opening onto a courtyard patio. The atmosphere lightens up a bit in the rooms and suites: botanical wallpaper, vintage telephones, and floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto the patio's greenery. Up on the rooftop terrace, the atmosphere is downright cheerful, and it’s especially enchanting at sunset.

Barcelona, already one of Europe’s hottest destinations, has in recent years consolidated its position as a worldwide culinary capital. And so we see hotels like the Àbac Restaurant Hotel, hotels that quite literally put the restaurant first. And why not, when you’ve got a kitchen that’s been awarded three Michelin stars under chef Jordi Cruz. A restaurant of this quality doesn’t depend on walk-up business, and the slight remove contributes to the hotel’s atmosphere of privacy and exclusivity.

It’s not easy to up the ante in a city this full of stylish hotels, but that’s just what Seventy Barcelona did when it opened its towering front doors in 2019. Its larger-than-life ambitions are visible from the street, just off the Passeig de Gràcia; peer through its floor-to-ceiling windows and you’ll see an airy modern lobby, an industrial-chic space that blurs the lines between bookstore, coffee shop, art gallery, and co-working venue.

Unlike the majority of Barcelona’s luxury hotels, Hotel Mirlo Barcelona isn’t in the city center. “Mirlo” means “blackbird” in Spanish, the concept being that guests explore the city by day and return to the nest when they please. In addition to greenery and tranquility, this stately villa-turned-hotel offers romantic but modern suites, each with private spa features (some combination of hammam, Jacuzzi, rainfall shower, hydromassage tub, and sauna).

Barcelona’s Hotel Arts was tied with the Torre Mapfre for the tallest building in Barcelona until the continued construction on Gaudí’s Sagrada Família placed the church just a couple of meters higher, knocking both down to joint second place. This 44-floor skyscraper is a striking feat of architecture, its inside-out steel superstructure gleaming in the sun. The inside is impressive as well, especially the pricier sea-facing rooms — though rooms have views of the city or the waterfront.

Walking the halls of the Mercer Hotel Barcelona is a bit like hanging out in a forward-thinking gallery of modern design, except here, the impeccable modernist furniture and glass partitions are housed in an ancient defense tower. If the thought of all that history in the stones beneath your feet and the archways above your head gives you pause, rest assured that the archaeological treasures scattered throughout the twenty-eight guest rooms don’t make the place feel at all unwelcoming.

First, a word about the name. Little Beach House Barcelona is set not in Barcelona proper, but a half-hour away in Garraf, a fishing village turned holiday spot. And with 17 rooms it’s really only little when compared with the urban properties that are the core of the Soho House collection. It’s a restoration of a Fifties hotel which leaves just enough of the original intact for a bit of retro atmosphere. The rest is pure Soho House, which is to say easygoing, bohemian glamour.