GRAN HOTEL LA FLORIDA

Best Service and excellent location. I have rarely enjoyed a hotel this much. Full of modern art and the pool is huge and gorgeous. I was so impressed with the staff and they genuinely enjoy working there. A romantic hotel too.

Located on mount Tibidabo, Barcelona’s highest mountain that also hosts the famous amusement park, La Florida comes with stunning views over Barcelona, its neighbouring cities and the Mediterranean. The rooms come with comfy beds, walk-in showers (and extra bathtub if applicable), high-class bathroom products, free WiFi, and very attentive service that also includes a turn-down. The hotel has both outdoor and indoor pools (heated, for a comfortable temperature), again with the respective views, or surrounded with further spa and gym facilities, if the latter. According to the staff, this is where the Barcelona FC team used to come to prepare, celebrate or wind-down from matches. The bar & outdoor terrace restaurant serves quite nice food, but fails to produce a few classic drinks just right (think dry gin Martini, Margarita etc), which is something you would expect at this James Bond-like location. The gourmet restaurant, “Barcelonas”, inside, is a beautiful stage for chef Ivan Jiménez’ colourful creations. Tasting menus — ambitious, although a little short of flavour depth at times — don’t cost the world here and are a fun way to end the day up on the mountain. As La Florida is almost at the end of the road that leads up to Tibidabo, taxi rides are expensive (ca. €30 one way from/to the city, €50 from/to BCN airport). However, if you want to down into town during the day, there’s the T2A bus (not: T2B!) that takes you straight to Plaza de Catalunya for only €3, running every 20 minutes. This is a perfect luxury break away from busy urban centres, basically on the countryside, but right by Barcelona, if you prefer the hustle and bustle of the city. The only sound you’ll hear every now and then, when the winds are right, are the screaming crowds of the amusement park in the distance.

The hotel could be charming with his nice old building and beautiful view but there has been a lot of carelessness : - the outside part is quite damaged (tiles are not pasted anymore) - the rooms are not very clean (coffee taints that were not wiped, quite old towels, faucets not working very well, a/c working quite badly) - food is really bad, not tasty at all. - the service is poor : people are nice in front of you but don't care at all about customers. If you order at the bar go pay to the bar, no way they bring you the bill directly - We were told to order at least 2 hours in advance our taxi at 4:30am...it arrived at 5:00 : why don't they order it at 4:15 if it is "always difficult to get a taxi around 4:00 with the clubs" as we were told while waiting ' Better pay 5€ more than miss a flight !!! Anyway Barcelona is a very nice city but never ever again at la florida

On arrival, we dropped the car off at the entrance and was shown to reception with a glass of Cava to welcome us. Paperwork completed, the parking charge is a bit steep, but we took full advantage of using the valet facility so I was happy to pay. Shown to the room which is outstanding. We requested a city view corner room (room 208) and was not disappointed. My wife rates it the best view ever (however it's my second place below the city view of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore). We are blessed with fantastic weather which certainly helps. It took three attempts to get our suitcases delivered to the room - a shift change over meant the tags were allocated to the wrong room. There was a conference on the day of arrival so we were restricted access from the spa/indoor pool area. When we asked to have lunch on the terrace, that too was out of bounds. As others have stated, forget about the shuttle, it'll be fully booked. We used the car to get to the city one day, parking was easy enough but the bays are tiny and the other drivers/scooter riders are crazy. Second day we tried to use the bus but got fed up waiting so just used a cab. Depending on where you get dropped off it'll be €16-€22 on the meter. Having a relaxing time on the terrace sunbathing today, well it would be if it wasn't for the noise of the amusement park next door. Dinner tonight will be in a separate review. It would appear as if there's more restrictions today, looks like they're setting up for another conference. I realise that these events are good for a hotels income but they shouldn't impact on other guests at all in a 5* hotel. The staff are all friendly enough, but there's too few of them to be attentive enough to their guests. It's a great hotel for a short break but it's limitations are evident for longer stays.

I recently spent one night at the Gran Hotel La Florida in Barcelona. I am a frequent business and leisure traveller. The hotel is arguably the worst hotel that I have ever stayed in. I have stayed in Motel 6s that are better run than this hotel. From the time I drove up to the hotel, to the time that I left the hotel, it was one disappointment, and almost disaster, to another. When I drove up to the hotel, the driveway/entrance to the hotel was jammed packed with cars. I had to wait on the street to drive my car to the front door of the hotel so that I could unload my bags. I then had to wait for the valet to park our car as there was nowhere to park, but also because the valet was also the doorman, the bellhop and the concierge. One individual was doing it all. Upon entering our room (room 108 which is called the Japanese Suite), I noticed a foul smell in the bathroom, akin to sewage backup and that the room was directly above the hotel’s indoor pool with a large window overlooking the brightly lit pool. As that window afforded us no privacy, I immediately requested a different room. I was told at that time (around 7 pm) that the hotel was fully booked and that no other rooms were available. When I tried to go the bed around 12 midnight, I realized that I would not be able to sleep due to the light streaming into the room from the brightly lit indoor pool. It was at this time – around 12 midnight – that the hotel offered us a different room. I guess someone had checked out between 7 pm and 12 midnight. Since I would be checking out in about 6 hours, I decided to stay in the room. The front desk guy came up to the room to hang black curtains over the pool window to darken the room so that I could sleep while I lay in bed. Also, the wifi in the hotel was not working. I wish I could say that that was all that went wrong. Before retiring to my room for the night, I had requested a taxi in the morning to take me to the airport at 6:15 am. I saw the front desk person write the request down in a book. When I went down to reception at 6:10 am, there was no one at reception and the front entrance to the hotel was locked. Very unusual for a hotel of this size. When I finally managed to track down a front desk person, it was clear that the hotel had not called a taxi for me. Now, normally this would not be a problem in a major city like Barcelona. But at this hotel, it is a big problem. The hotel is on a hilltop overlooking Barcelona, some 20 minutes from the center of the city. The hotel had told me upon check in that it was necessary to call for a taxi in advance as there are no taxis nearby. Since they had forgotten to call for a taxi in advance as I had requested, there was nothing that I could do but wait for the taxi which was finally called after 6:15 am. I almost missed my international flight. Needless to say, I would not recommend this hotel.