Abac Restaurant Hotel

Abac Restaurant Hotel

Breakfast at ABaC arrives in a walled garden in Sant Gervasi, birdsong from the neighbouring La Tamarita gardens standing in for the traffic noise of central Barcelona, which sits fifteen minutes away by car. The building dates to 1920 and was rebuilt in 2008 into a design hotel of just fifteen rooms spread across two floors, a scale a hundred-room lobby could never manage. The one thing this hotel has that almost nothing else in Barcelona does: Jordi Cruz's three-Michelin-star ABaC Restaurant operates on site, so a tasting menu and its wine pairing are a lift ride away rather than a booking made three streets over. Days settle into a rhythm of the heated pool, indoor pool, sauna and steam room in the spa, a massage booked at reception, or a slow morning in the garden's chill-out corner before walking up toward Tibidabo. Rooms face outward rather than onto a corridor or courtyard, and come with hydromassage bathtubs, bathrobes and slippers as standard. The hotel is adults only, so families with children will need to look elsewhere, and so will anyone who wants to be within walking distance of the main sights, since the centre of Barcelona is fifteen minutes away by car. It suits couples marking an occasion, solo travellers serious about food, and anyone who would rather spend the evening at a chef's table than a rooftop bar. Staff speak English, Spanish and French, and membership of Small Luxury Hotels of the World gives a sense of the register without labouring the point. Check-in runs from 3pm, check-out by noon, and the garden gate closes on a city that, for one night, stops mattering. A fifteen-room garden hotel in upper Barcelona built around Jordi Cruz's three-Michelin-star restaurant, adults only and fifteen minutes from the centre. Expect hydromassage bathtubs, a heated pool and sauna, and check-in from 3pm. Skip it if you want children in tow or a room in the thick of downtown.