Finding where to stay in Barcelona is not always easy and even more if we take into account the number of neighborhoods and areas to choose from and the amount of accommodation on offer. With this in mind and after having visited the city hundreds of times, we want to help you as much as possible leaving you with what are for us the best neighborhoods to sleep in Barcelona as well as a selection of the best hotels.
Based on our many visits to the city, in the last one we wrote this guide to Barcelona, we leave you a selection of places to stay in Barcelona and the best neighborhoods. Let’s get started!
Neighborhoods where to stay in Barcelona
The first thing to know is that Barcelona is administratively divided into 10 districts. We will not talk about all of them in this post, but we will talk about the ones that are for us the best options to stay in Barcelona, taking into account the tourist attractions of each of them and the prices of accommodation.
We will do this according to the place generalizing in districts or in some cases in areas or neighborhoods of districts, so you can identify them in a clearer way.
Something important that you should also keep in mind is that Barcelona has a very good and effective transport network, which will allow you to move around the city in a comfortable and easy way, so even if you do not stay in the most central area of the city, you can reach the tourist attractions without problems.
1. L’Eixample, the center of the city and the best place to stay in Barcelona
We could say that L’Eixample is the center of the city and the district where you can find many of the tourist attractions such as Plaça de Catalunya, Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera or Casa Batllo among many others.
Located between Gran Via and Diagonal, here you will also find the modernism route and you can find a wide range of hotels and restaurants, among which are some of the best hotels and restaurants in the city and good atmosphere both day and night as well as quieter than in the Ciutat Vella area, which we will talk about later.
Within L’Eixample you can find 6 neighborhoods: Dreta de l’Eixample, which is the most expensive and most commercial area, the Antiga Esquerra de l’Eixample, which is more residential, La Nova Esquerra de l’Eixample, which joins with the neighborhood of Sant Antoni, one of our favorites in the city. Another neighborhood is La Sagrada Família, which is located around the temple and Fort Pienc, which is located between Diagonal Avenue and the Arc de Triomphe and is one of the liveliest.
The price of accommodation in L’Eixample is usually 100 euros, although the closer you get to Plaça Catalunya the more expensive the prices get, reaching up to 200 euros a night.
2. The Barri Gòtic in Ciutat Vella, another of the best options where to sleep in Barcelona
Considered as the historic center of the city, the Barri Gòtic, in the district of Ciutat Vella, which is the first district of the city, is the best option to stay in Barcelona if you want to be close to everything and enjoy the most local and traditional Barcelona. Although we love it and it is one of the areas where you can see us the most when we are in Barcelona, we understand that it is not for all travelers because at night, the narrow streets that during the day were perfect for the photo, become a little more insecure and not recommended.
Another negative point of staying in the Barri Gòtic is that it is not as well connected as L’Eixample, as there are no metro lines nearby, and depending on the area where you stay you will have to walk to find one.
The district of Ciutat Vella is divided into 4 neighborhoods: the Gòtic, which is the urban core and where the city was born, Sant Pere, Santa Caterina, el Born and la Ribera, which are the medieval area and of course, one of the most incredible of the city, the Raval (which is one of our favorite areas although at night it is not recommended) and Barceloneta, which is a seaside neighborhood next to the port.
The price of accommodation in Barri Gòtic is usually around 75-80 euros per night.
3. La Barceloneta in Ciutat Vella, the best option if you like the beach
Also located in the district of Ciutat Vella, La Barceloneta is the perfect place to sleep in Barcelona if you like the beach and are looking to be in a quiet area but at the same time with atmosphere, especially at night.
Built next to the port in the mid-eighteenth century, this seafaring neighborhood still retains much of the old days, something you can see and experience the moment you walk away from the beach and enter some of its most emblematic streets, dotted with local businesses and clothes hanging on the balconies.
The price of accommodation in La Barceloneta is usually around 150 euros per night.
4. Gràcia, a good choice to stay in Barcelona
Known for being one of the most cosmopolitan, family and bohemian districts of Barcelona, Gràcia is a place where the famous Festes de Gràcia are held and also the place where the Park Güell is located, one of the places you can not miss in the city and one of the most important works of the genius Gaudí.
Although it is not as central as L’Eixample or Ciutat Vella, it has very good communication with the rest of the city by public transport and also has a wide range of restaurants and hotel prices are usually much tighter, so Gràcia is a perfect choice where to stay in Barcelona.
In the upper part of the district are the neighborhoods of Vallcarca, el Coll and la Salut, representative of the life of the neighborhood and places where as the legend says: “once you enter and it steals your heart, it is difficult to leave the district of Gràcia”.
The price of accommodation in Gràcia is usually around 150 euros per night if you want a good location. In any case, in the outlying areas you can find accommodation for less than 100 euros a night.
5. Sants-Montjuïc, the cheapest area to stay in Barcelona
This is probably the district of Barcelona where you can enjoy a marked neighborhood life in which there is no lack of green spaces, crowded squares, markets and stores where the animation is not lacking any day of the week.
Sants-Montjuïc has 7 neighborhoods ranging from the impressive Montjuïc to Paral.lel, one of the main arteries of the city, where you can find some of its most famous theaters and where, as expected, the good atmosphere is guaranteed.
This area, especially the one furthest from Paral lel, has one of the most affordable hotel offers in Barcelona and the whole district is very well connected with the rest of the city, where the Sants Station is located.
The price of accommodation in Sants-Montjuïc is usually around 70-80 euros per night, although in the area closest to Sants Station and Paral.lel prices tend to rise to 100-120 euros per night.
After our experience if you are traveling to Barcelona for a few days, we recommend you to look for accommodation as close as possible to the historic center, opting for L’Eixample or Ciutat Vella, as we believe they are the best areas to stay in Barcelona.
Tips for finding cheap accommodation in Barcelona
Although we hope that with the descriptions of the areas we have made above and the selection of the best hotels in Barcelona it will be easier for you to choose where to stay in Barcelona, we want to leave some tips for you to keep in mind.
- As we have mentioned on several occasions, if your trip is for a few days, it is best to look for an area where to sleep in Barcelona that is centrally located. This will prevent you from having to make many trips and so you can take advantage of the time to visit more places in this amazing city.
- Keep in mind that the districts are very large and the farther you go from some of the tourist attractions, the cheaper the accommodation will be.
- If your trip to Barcelona coincides with a weekend or high season, try to book your accommodation in advance to have more options and better prices.
- Remember that to avoid paying commissions and to always have the current exchange rate we recommend you to use the Revolut card and the N26 card, which are the ones we use, are free of charge and will save you a lot of money.
