For the sake of future visitors, I'll report on my recent visit...
We stayed at the Hotel Continental...3 nights pre-cruise in late June...We had a Las Ramblas View Balcony...
First of all, the rate was quite a bargain by Barcelona standards--115 Euro per night...
I'll give you the good and the bad...
The bad first...
--My wide thought the bed was too hard...
--The room was on the smallish side (but so are most European hotel rooms by our standards...
--The decor is very "pink" and the furniture, what there is of it, is plastic...
The good...
--The location is absolutely phenomenal...I have been to Barcelona several times and this hotel has by far the best location of any place I've stayed. In fact, I don't think you could have a better location--right on Las Ramblas, right next to the Placa Catalunya. You can't underestimate how convenient that is--to the sights, to tranportation, to shopping, to restaurants...
--The buffet. Okay, it's not a phenomenal buffet, but it is stocked 24 hours...including free soda, free beer, free wine, free ice cream...bread, cereal, pasta, fruit, etc.
--Free internet, including a public computer in the lobby area...
--Price. Value for the money...
--The balconies...Grab a bear or wine downstairs (okay, it's not great wine...but it's free) and bring it to your room and go sit out on the balcony and watch the crowds on Las Ramblas below...
This is not a "five star hotel"...far from it...But, OTOH, it is clean, safe and convenient...
The security and logistics are a little funky...They share the building with two lesser hotels, which, generally, share the back of the building...You enter ground level from Las Ramblas and take the elevator to the "First Floor" (In Europe, this generally means the floor one up from ground level, not the ground floor)...You push gently on the front door and it opens automatically...The reception desk and buffet are on this level...To get to your room (ours was on the third floor), you exit out to the elevator area and take the elevator to the third floor and ring the bell...The front desk identifies you by the remote camera and open the door by remote...Same thing each time you leave in reverse...You need to check back at the front desk and leave the key when you leave and pick it up each time you return...
In front of the reception desk, they have a large screen TV with separate sections showing the view from each remote camera location...
