Barcelona's Not So Hidden Secret

Advantages: A beautiful setting with some amazing animals
Disadvantages: Is perhaps overshadowed by other attractions

...Whilst in Barcelona earlier this year we were looking for somewhere to visit that hadn't been on my tourist's agenda on my previous visits. Having spent a morning at the aquarium in the port are we headed for the Zoo. Located in the middle of the City it is well signposted in every direction and features as one of the main stops on all of the sightseeing tour buses routes. There are a couple of car parks located near to all of the entrances and again this is all well signposted from the city's main access routes. Over the last couple of years we've visited a few Zoos and Aquariums and it would be fair to say that Barcelona is one of the biggest Zoos. Like many Zoos these days they are signed up to the World Zoo conservation strategy and are committed to breeding programs for endangered species. Having opened for the first time in...

Andy.mack 25.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Zoo (Barcelona)

Europark Hotel, Barcelona

Advantages: Great Location
Disadvantages: None

...The Location Of Europark Hotel The Europark is a three star hotel in L'Eixample district on Arago. It is in a fantastic location very close to the Passeig de Gracia and a short walk to Las Ramblas and the Barri Gotic (about fifteen minutes walk). The metro and trains get you anywhere you want to go in Barcelona and its only a five minute walk to the nearest station. The metro and trains are reasonably priced. Metro is 1 euro per ride. Train from airport to bottom of Arago was 6.50 euros each way. Address: Europark Hotel Arago 323-325 08009 Barcelona Telephone:93 457 92 05 E-mail: heuropark@nnhotels.com Checking In Checking in was really smooth, I had booked online and been e-mailed an accomodation voucher which you need when checking in, you also need your passport which they give you straight back. We were...

debmercury 04.10.2009 (05.11.2009) · Read review
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Review of EuroPark Hotel, Barcelona

Lewd and Lurid in Barcelona

Advantages: Fab cinematography, great performances from Cruz, Bardam and Rebecca Hall
Disadvantages: All a bit lewd and lurid

...If you remember in 2007 we saw Javier Bardam, a ferocious villain, wearing a bad haircut, roaming destructively around the county of Texas in the film 'No Country for Old Men.' He played the role of one of the most frightening men in the history of film. In Woody Allen's new comedy, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Bardam has a new hairstyle and is wearing some trendy and very stylish shirts but I still find it difficult to blot out the vision of that indelible and formidable performance. Even in Allen's new film, Javier is still playing a rogue. His good Latin looks are impressive but this time he is even more scary. He plays the role of Juan Antonio, a stylish dressed, Lothario, who has women falling at his feet. Whether they are women of a promiscuous nature or have high morals and are principled, they are seduced by him and he teaches...

Praski 08.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (DVD)

Hotel 1898 - Barcelona

Advantages: Location, Location, Location
Disadvantages: Bar prices and breakfast

...Hotel 1898 ? Barcelona ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hotel 1898 is a mid priced hotel situated on the main tourist strip Las Ramblas in Barcelona?s Gothic district. Built in the former building of the Philippines Tobacco Company it has been converted to a very high standard with all the facilities you?d expect from a modern city centre hotel while maintaining the character of the pre-existing architecture. Part of the Nunez Navarro chain it is one of several hotels they have in Barcelona and like their other properties offers a high standard of accommodation geared towards the modern traveller. Location~ Hotel 1898 is sited a couple of hundred yards south of Plaza Catalunya, the dropping off point for coaches from the airport and a hub for public transport and has entrances on Las Ramblas and Pintor Fortuny. The central location means...

brereton66 27.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel 1898, Barcelona

The Sacred Heart Church, Tibidabo, Barcelona

Advantages: Beautiful church, great views of Barcelona below.
Disadvantages: None

...On a recent trip to Barcelona, I went on a city tour to take in some of the sights that we had missed on our last visit. A place I was really looking forward to visiting was Tibidabo Mountain, which is the highest peak in Barcelona at over 500m above sea level. Anyone who visits Barcelona will not fail to notice Tibidabo, and this is due to the imposing church of Sagrat Cor (Sacred Heart) which stands at the top of the mountain, and the impressive statue of Jesus Christ on the highest spire of the church. On travelling in and out of Barcelona, seeing this church and statue on top of the mountain is a fantastic sight. The church is the work of architect Enrique Sagnier, and building commenced in 1902 and took 60 years to build, so it is actually not that old! The church is unusual in that it is built as a church on top of a church...

JEFFJEN 20.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Sacred Heart Church, Barcelona

Right in the heart of Barcelona

Advantages: great location, swimming pool, friendly staff, clean, tidy and attractive
Disadvantages: no kettle! pool closed not in summer, expensive resturant

...I stayed for 3 nights in the 4 star Sunotel Central hotel in Barcelona in March 2008 with my partner and almost one year old. LOCATION Sunotel Central is situated in Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes which is one of Barcelona's major avenues. It is a great location which is right in the heart of Barcelona and a 5 minute walk to Las Ramblas, which is the main strip in Barcelona. It is also a 15-20 minute walk to Port Vale beach and harbour, and a 2 minute walk to the nearest metro station (that's underground station to you and me!) - 'Universitat'. There is also a bus stop outside the hotel which can take you all over the city. The staff at reception are happy to call a taxi for you and the taxi's are generally quick and reliable. It's set on a main road so is easy to find and easy to get dropped off and picked up right...

karalouk 05.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Sunotel Central, Barcelona

He's from Barcelona

Advantages: Everything you want on a city break
Disadvantages: Too many things to do

...Barcelona ^^^^^^^^^ Barcelona is one of the most popular city break destinations in Europe, and for several very good reasons. It is only a short flight from the UK and with budget airlines can be very cheap to reach. Being a coastal city the climate is not too oppressive for our sensitive natures and there is a little bit of everything available to keep just about any kind of visitor entertained. There are bars, restaurants and night life if that?s what you?re after. There are museums, galleries and spectacular architecture if that?s your bent and there are beaches, parks and shopping to fill in the gaps. Whatever type of break you?re after; chances are you?ll find it in Barcelona. Having recently spent four days in the city what struck me most was just how much there was to do and how much I?d left undone. I?ve been on several...

brereton66 20.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Barcelona (Spain)

I was tickled pink on the outskirts of Barcelona

Advantages: Fantastic rooms - they thought of almost everything
Disadvantages: A long way from the centre of the city

...experienced at the Hesperia Sant Just on the outskirts of Barcelona. Apparently you can pre-book a pink room at no extra cost so I'm not sure if that's what our secretary did or if I was just randomly assigned to a Pinkie. I'd probably been in the room for about an hour before I twigged that something odd was going on. I'd vaguely registered that there was a glossy magazine on the coffee table but since it was in Spanish and since a lot of hotels have magazines, that hadn't triggered any thoughts. I'd clocked the immense number of freebie toiletries in the bathroom including such non-standard delights as a bath sponge, conditioner, make-up removal towel, lip balm, deodorant, nail file and cotton buds but even with the discrete little box with tampons and sanitary towels, all I'd registered was 'hmm, I wonder if that's standard?' I'd marvelled...

koshkha 01.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Hesperia Sant Just, Barcelona

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Advantages: Great acting, good story, great atmosphere
Disadvantages: Maybe the ending

...This is a film-only review. There are a lot of things that I have never done. I have never seen any of the Indiana Jones films. I have never seen a James Bond film. And I had never seen a Woody Allen film. The main reason was ?don?t ask me why- that I always assumed that his films were weird and that I would not understand them. So when my boyfriend told me he had got Vicky Cristina Barcelona for me to watch, I wasn?t too sure that I was going to give it a try. However, one very boring evening with nothing better to do, I thought I would start the film and see what it was like. The film opens up as Vicky and Cristina, two best friends, arrive from America to spend the summer in Barcelona. A narrator (Christopher Evan Welch) tells us how different the two young women are in their conception of love. Vicky (Rebecca Hall...

Pomcamgirl 08.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (DVD)

Barcelona es teva.

Advantages: A good transport system.
Disadvantages: none

...What I really wanted to write about was the 'Barcelona Card' (see below), and I proposed this product months ago, but it wasn't added by Ciao, so I will try to widen the scope of this review to include all transports (well, all the ones I can think of?). This review will not include information on driving in Barcelona, as we had no first-hand experience of it. First, let me give you some general information about Barcelona by way of an introduction. Situated in the northeast of Spain on the Mediterranean coast, Barcelona is the second city in Spain, but this fact matters little to the Catalans for whom it is the capital of Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan). One and a half million people live there. The city's development is arrested on two sides by the hills of Collserola and by Montjuïc Mountain, and it has had to expand into...

weetoon 30.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Getting around in Barcelona