The best
I'm no novice to five-star hotels, but the Hotel Arts Barcelona was phenomenal and reset my standard for luxe accommodations.
Let's start with the views. We were upgraded to a large panoramic room and were treated to a preposterous look over Barcelona, from the beaches to the mountains. However good you think it is, it's better. If you do some of the standard tourist stuff around Barcelona you will find approximately 500000 people in interminable lines trying to take pictures of views that aren’t even a tenth as good as what you can see from your bed.
But several hotels in the area have similarly remarkable views. What makes Hotel Arts stand apart, then? The service for sure. Everyone is on their A-game, welcoming you with drinks and offering recommendations around town. Even staff we met incidentally around the hotel strove to make conversation and make us feel at home. And they're so effortlessly considerate! Please give a raise (and an acting award) to Sanne, who didn’t so much as flinch when in my jet-lagged exhaustion I dumped hot water into a drinking glass.
Onto the details. "Details" means something very specific in a five-star context, and the Hotel Arts Barcelona gets them absolutely right. There are drinks in the lobby, tiny chocolates with your coffee, and juice shots with breakfast. They have a map with a separate running trail if you don't want to be surrounded by every tourist who's ever existed. Our shower---with a rainforest head, natch---had dark double-paned glass so you could enjoy those amazing views from across the room even while you were washing your hair. The toilet is walled off for extra privacy and there are reading lights in the ceiling over the bed. There are USB outlets everywhere. You have two separate automated blackout curtains (think Smartwings) to block the city lights. The room also had a Smeg teakettle and Philosykos lotions, and if you hear those and think "beautiful, sophisticated aesthetic" and not "so expensive it's stupid" then you're the target customer here. The lamps and light fixtures evoke oysters. Everything is modern, sleek, sexy, white marble and gold. It looks like something out of Industry, the show where hot finance people have sex and do cocaine all day because I guess that's how finance works. The standing tub has a shelf and a little container that I half-expected to have cocaine in it. I didn't feel attractive enough to be staying there, but I'm sure the staff would have lied and reassured me otherwise.
Speaking of details, I want to give another shoutout to their restaurant breakfast. The buffet portion is all serve-your-own or provided in little portions, from tiny pieces of desserts yogurt by the spoonful and small cups of fruit. Obviously this helps reduce food waste but it's also very nice for families with small children, adventurous eaters, who want to try a bite of everything, people on GLP-1s, people with eating issues, etc. It's just an extra element of thoughtfulness; it must be a colossal pain in the rear to wash all those little dishes every day, but it's very much worth it to get exactly the kind of breakfast you want, in the portions you want.
Anyhow, a million thanks to the Hotel Arts Barcelona for turning a quick getaway into an unforgettable one. You'd think you couldn't top waking up to the Sagrada Familia at your feet and the beach at your left, but the lovely people here and their outstanding thoughtfulness really does it. I'd highly recommend it for any travelers to Barcelona.
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