Stay Here: Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas, BarcelonaBy Tom Stevenson
They say in life you should only have things that are practical or beautiful. The implication is that it’s unlikely one thing will give you both, but Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas blends practicality and beauty in equal measure that I’m sure of one thing: I want to keep it.
Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas: The Lowdown
The hotel is located on Las Ramblas Cataluyna in the Eixample district of the city. Barcelona is the home of modernist architecture predominantly from Antoni Gaudi, genius of geometry and volume. The Sagrada Familia and La Casa Batilo are only a mosaic tile’s throw away as are a procession of tapas restaurants so close that you could nudge a child in a pushchair from the top of the ramp (above) and they would glide into plate of croquettas and a jug of Sangria.
Stay in the room with the columned balcony over the entrance. The sun streams from the east in the mornings and you can even make out the sun reflecting from the sea like diamonds sprinkled across the horizon. The hotel shuns the conventional breakfast buffet in favour of a bean to cup coffee machine and fresh croissants. This small breakfast keeps you sated for three hours of sight-seeing before settling into a four hour rose lunch and a calimari-coma siesta a la playa.
Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas: The Amenities
The outdoor terrace is a wonderful place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Guests enjoy sunbathing amongst the greenery as a cool breeze floats through the breaks in the buildings and combats the low lying summer sun. The internal courtyards provide extra ventilation to the rooms and another place to hide from the heat.
Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas: The Accommodation
The rooms themselves are adorned with modern art and a signature black strip through the ceilings and two walls where they meet the original mosaics. The high ceilings and stone floors keep the room cool, often rendering the A/C superfluous.
Yes, cooling down is a my number one priority. We’ve all done it. We sit in a bus shelters in the cold November rain praying we could take a vacation in an oven and a day into a holiday in Spain we’re moaning about heatstroke, sunburn and back sweat. We Brits are no desert nomads and anything about 26 degrees makes us hysterical so a hotel with several structural methods of preventing over-heating meets my holiday needs big time.
Overall it’s a three star price, four star rooms and a five star location. The coffee is great, the architecture matches the standard of the city surroundings and there are lots of nice places to sit. So grab yourself a cheap flight on the BA sale (ends September 24th) and jet off for the end of the summer sun in Barcelona and stay in this very temperate hotel.
Hotel Praktik Las Ramblas, 27 Las Ramblas Cataluyna, Eixample, 08007
