The best hotels in Barcelona city centre for a stylish stay close to shops, sights and nightlife

The bijou Hotel Bagués was once the showroom for a jewellery company, and a forensic attention to materials and details remains evidenced throughout. The hotel embraces a heady miscellany of styles and materials that fuses leopard skin and ebony, rosewood and gold plate, Venetian glass and wenge wood. The overall effect is exotic, ritzy, and curiously cosy. Bagués enjoys a prime position on La Rambla, a tomato’s toss from the Boqueria food market and just down from the transport fulcrum of Plaça Catalunya. After a day’s sightseeing guests can retreat to the hotel’s rooftop pool or book an in-room massage.

An unpretentious three-star hotel right in the thick of things, just saved from chain-hotel homogeneity by its monochrome jazz theme, and undeniably useful for travellers with a packed schedule, being close to various transport hubs. Its rooftop pool has a fantastic view, and there’s also a cocktail bar up there. Rooms are similarly decked out in monochrome hues, tempered with light-brown fabrics. They have surprisingly wide beds and black-slate-walled bathrooms with both showers and tubs.

You’ll struggle to find a hotel much more central than the Pulitzer, sitting as it does just off the Plaça Catalunya. Its large lobby and bar area, with white leather sofas and red lacquered cabinets, makes for a cool meeting place away from the hubbub, but better yet is the roof terrace and cocktail bar. This is where the party people stay, which is not to say that you could not have a perfectly peaceful time. Wood, leather and satin dominate the chic but modestly sized bedrooms, while bathrooms are tiled in dark marble.

The Catalonia chain has a collection of well-located hotels in central Barcelona, but what makes the Portal de l’Angel stand out is its garden area, with a pool — not that easy to find in the heart of the Barri Gòtic. It’s located in a handsome 19th-century town house with a stunning atrium. The street that gives the hotel its name is wide, pedestrianised and lined with shops. Busy during the day but almost silent at night, it’s hard to beat. Staff cannot do enough to help with travellers’ needs and have plenty of information on the city.

Although it is part of the Núñez i Navarro Hotels chain, the 1898 feels delightfully original, blending grand architectural features with quirky, colourful décor and a handsome colonial feel. It is also virtually unique in having both an outdoor and indoor pool. Situated on La Rambla, it is nothing if not central. In a refreshing departure from the minimalism favoured by most hotels of this level, the Hotel 1898 nods to its history as the headquarters of the Philippine Tobacco Company with a colonial look and bold candy stripes reminiscent of a Tim Burton film set.

Reasonably luxurious but unpretentious: the Méridien is comfortable but not frilly, with a small spa, a good gym, a restaurant serving excellent food and a location that could not be more central, on La Rambla, close to the Boqueria market. There are pockets of creativity in colourfully tiled bathroom floors, recycled wood coffee tables and red lacquer cabinets. There is a small spa, which includes a large outdoor heated hydromassage bath, next to which is a freezing cold bucket shower, sauna, steam room and a suntrap terrace.

A delightful little hotel with only 22 rooms and housed in a 17th-century mansion. What it lacks in facilities (no pool, no gym) it makes up for in style and location – just next to the cathedral, it could not be more central. Its terrace on an atmospheric little square and the leafy rooftop bar are extra pluses. Although beautifully sympathetic to the style and original features of the historical building in which it is housed, the hotel nonetheless embraces an unusually bold palette for its soft furnishings and large, splashy artworks. Glass chandeliers and crushed velvet sofas make it classy but cosy all at once.

A peaceful oasis in the heart of the Old City, housed in a building displaying various architectural styles from Roman times to the present day, sympathetically modernised by top architect Rafael Moneo. This place has all the essential facilities, including two restaurants and a pretty rooftop area with a plunge pool. It’s a short walk to the Born neighbourhood or the cathedral, and there are a plethora of transport options nearby – though not immediately, since the street is pedestrian. The hotel’s bare walls and ancient lintels are visible in many of the rooms, and the palette of the décor is sympathetic to the cream-coloured stone.

This is about as central as you can get, on Rambla de Catalunya, just a three-minute walk from Plaça de Catalunya and a five-minute walk to Gaudí’s wonderfully iridescent façade of Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia. Inside, the lobby is decidedly futuristic in its style, with moving projections of waterfalls on the walls and a flying saucer-shaped check-in desk, while the rest of the hotel opts for more muted elegance – think marble wall panels, polished wooden floors and brightly coloured armchairs. The highlight of the hotel’s facilities is its roof terrace, complete with a pool and some of the most amazing views you’ll find at a city centre hotel.

This hotel housed in the former headquarters of the city’s cotton guild has honoured its origins. As well as original features and antique furniture, you’ll encounter rooms with names like ‘Taffeta’ and ‘Damask’ and a small salon with displays of cotton bolts where you can have your very own shirt made to measure. It’s well connected for public transport, and a taxi can whisk you from here to anywhere in the city in a matter of minutes. The Batuar restaurant serves updated Catalan dishes all day long, and also doubles as the breakfast room.