My little family and I just came home from Barcelona where we have spent Christmas with our Spanish (well, Catalan) family. Some of you might ask why we stay at hotels if we are visiting family? Well, first of all my grandparents are getting old and can’t overcome that much anymore, and second, we like to have our privacy. Especially now with the baby. My family has a house up the coast where we stay in summer, but in winter we prefer to be in the city center and try different hotels (remember that both my husband and I work in the hotel industry, so we always look for inspiration when travelling).

We have stayed at various hotels in Barcelona throughout the years, some better than others, but this time we really hit the hotel jackpot. We stayed at the fabulous Casa Bonay, which is a typical Catalan neoclassical house, turned into hotel, bar and restaurant recently.

As I have previously mentioned in other posts, we have started to prioritise to book hotels with visit worthy in-house restaurants, cosy lobby areas and likewise, securing us a nice stay even if the baby isn’t in the mood for touring. Now don’t get me wrong, we don’t stay in all the time just because of the baby, but we like to have our backs covered just in case things don’t turn out as planned.
Take our night of arrival for instance: Due to the holidays there was no direct flight from Copenhagen to Barcelona, so we had to transit in Amsterdam. Absolutely not a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that our suitcase didn’t make it in time for the onward flight… So after a full day of travelling, we had to wait for the suitcase (that never arrived), go and register the missing suitcase, do all the paperwork required, and then take a taxi to the hotel, where we arrived around 7 p.m (we had left our apartment in Copenhagen at 9.30 a.m.). Before our baby entered our lives, we would have changed quickly and headed out for some delicious tapas and wine no matter the time of arrival. But now, with a little super tired boy, the idea of leaving the hotel again after just entering felt exhausting (and wouldn’t have been fun at all), so we had a quick and relaxed dinner in the lobby bar. Super convenient and super delicious as we had specifically chosen a hotel with a great lobby bar and restaurant. I am such a fan of making life easier for myself!

Now back to the hotel: We chose Casa Bonay for the room type, the restaurant, the breakfast, the design and the location. I had high expectations to the mentioned areas and I wasn’t let down. Keep on scrolling and I’ll show you why:

[The lobby bar Libertine feels like a big living room. Here we had dinner on our night of arrival. A very delicious cheese platter with Spanish cheeses, pan amb tomàquet (the typical Catalan toasted bread with olive oil and tomato), salad and olives]

 

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[Our room, a Large Courtyard Room, perfect when travelling with a little one as we could close the doors to the bedroom when he was put to bed. Click for more pictures]

[Breakfast in the lobby by the people from Satan’s Coffee. There was no problem in bringing the stroller and have the baby sitting with us while eating]

[The roof top terrace]

[With outdoor shower]

[After enjoying the pretty view of Barcelona, we put our little one to sleep in his stroller, while we relaxed an hour in the sunbeds]

[Complimentary recycled water is provided daily in the room]

 

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[The in-house restaurant: Elephant, Crocodile, Monkey. South East Asian restaurant and Natural Wine Bar serving lunch and dinner. Click for more pictures]

 

Nice to know about Casa Bonay

• We paid aprox. 160€ per night incl. breakfast for a Large Courtyard Room. As usual we booked via Hotels.com and obtained bonus points (which end up being a 10% extra discount in the end)
• It is not a family hotel, but we felt extremely welcome with our little baby boy
• The lobby bar is “the place to be” at the moment in Barcelona. There are many people, music and a great atmosphere in the evenings (no noise in the room though)
• It is within walking distance from Paseo de Gracia, Plaza Catalunya etc. and the metro station Tetuan is just in front of the hotel
• A taxi from the airport is aprox. 35€
• Paseo Sant Joan is just around the corner with many cafes and restaurants worth visiting (like: Timesburg burgerbar for excellent take-away burgers just 5 min from the hotel, Giulietta Café for delicious cakes and Granja Petitbo for the locals’ favourite)

 

Need inspiration for Barcelona? Find my previous blog posts here, here and here