The bars. The beach. La Sagrada Familia. There are few more stylish cities in the world than Barcelona. Everyone has their favourite destination but even the most ardent Madridista could deny the Catalan capital belongs at the apex of the urban cool kids.
However, there’s little point in packing those chinos and sunglasses only to book yourself into a bedsit ten miles from the centre of town. No, you want a hotel every bit as stylish as your host city; you want the Barcelona EDITION.
There are 18 EDITION hotels around the world at the time of writing, and that number will shoot up in the coming years. They tend to be located in ‘gateway cities’ such as New York, London, Tokyo – the big boys, basically. As such, you might expect EDITION hotels to be gleaming behemoths the size of a cruise liner and possessing all the decorum of the Las Vegas strip.
Not at all. EDITION Hotels are sleek, subtle, sexy – and the Barcelona EDITION is no different. It’s located bang in the centre of the town, practically on the steps of the Barcelona Cathedral (not the Gaudi one, the Gothic one) and within walking distance of a host of other hotspots. The beautiful Ciutadella Park is literally minutes away. The Picasso museum is round the corner. But if you wish to explore the city, you don’t need Google Maps or a guidebook – just head up to the rooftop.
Loft suite
On the roof of the hotel you will find a bar, a terrace, a very cute swimming pool and views across the city that will take your breath away. You can see dozens of landmarks ranging across the centuries, from the colourful Mercat de Santa Caterina right beside the hotel to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Ma across the rooftops. You can see the mountains and the sea. Head up at sunset and drink it all in, along with a cocktail or two. Then back down to the ground for dinner.
Veraz mightn’t have the views of the rooftop – tricky when you’re on the ground floor – but you better believe it brings the swagger, with monochrome portraits of old film stars and very cool Spanish people adorning the walls. Seasonal ingredients are procured from the adjacent market to create a compact menu so fresh you could sniff its pages. (Please don’t sniff its pages that would look really, really weird.)
Veraz bar and restaurant
My partner followed her razor clams in white wine casserole with the fish of the day, an absolutely delectable brill large enough to feed a small family. (A large journalist did his bit.) Under normal circumstances the free-range cockerel chicken or suckling pig confit would have hit the spot. Yet our visit coincided with a special guest tasting menu from Martina Puigvert, Michelin Guide’s Young Chef 2024 and head chef of the two-starred Le Cols restaurant in the Catalonia countryside.
Four courses in total. Onion royale with breadcrumbs and licorice gets you going. There follows one of the most remarkable dishes that I’ve ever encountered: a fresh egg accompanied by green bean, carrot and red bell pepper – only the vegetables have been liquified and each one has its own blob of colour in the bowl, red, yellow, green. Corn, tuna and potato are also present. Every spoonful felt like somebody was playing a magic trick on me.
White cod is desalinated in the restaurant to taste as clean and pure as a fresh mountain stream. The carrot desert is both delicious and very, very carroty – I don’t know how the two are compatible but thus culinary genius. The tasting menu will be available at Veraz until 5 May 2024; otherwise Le Cols is 90 minutes drive from the hotel. Absolutely worth the journey.
The Punch Room
Not ready to call it a night? Head up a floor to the Punch Room, a gorgeous speakeasy with a golden-clothed pool table and specialty punches served in silver bowls. Alternatively, head down to the Cabaret, a tiny nightclub in the basement that can be booked out for private events. Basically, you can have yourself one hell of an evening simply by going up and down in the lift.
When the fun is finally over, you will return to a luxurious bedroom – or suite! – whose soothing decor and incredibly comfortable bedding will soon have you drifting off to sleepytown. A word on the blackout blinds: ensure you set an alarm because those things keep you cocooned in darkness even on the brightest of mornings. And when you visit Barcelona, the mornings tend to be very bright indeed.
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Av. de Francesc Cambó, 14, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona; Barcelona EDITION
