Abba Garden Hotel

We spent three nights at the Abba Garden Hotel in Barcelona. The only minus is its location. Despite being beautifully situated on a hilltop, it is away from the city, requiring taxis for most sightseeing. The Metro is great, though, so you can go almost anywhere for a small cost. The hotel is new, clean, comfortable, and the rooms are quite large -- for Europe. The hotel has tennis courts, a large swimming pool, and a children's playground. The restaurant is good, but overpriced. We saved money (after the first night) by taking taxis to wonderful Catalonian bistros and retaurants. The help was SOOOOO friendly, efficicient, and made us feel most welcome. MUST SEES: Catalonian Natinal Museum; Picasso Museum; Sagrada Familia church; Joan Miro Museum.

Abba gardens....more like Abba Gard- ya! This place was just swell, great service, great consierge, great rooms. Only problem was it was a bit out of town but what the hell nothing perfect. Enjoy your stay!!

22 of us travelled to Barcelona for our friend's hen weekend in April 2004. This hotel was excellent however it is in the middle of nowhere and most of the taxi drivers you meet will claim to have know knowledge of the hotel! Many of our group were charged 30 euros plus for a journey that actually costs 9 euros. Beware - do not get into any taxis untill you have clarified that the drivers know exactly where you are going, otherwise you may end up very out of pocket like many of our group.

We went to Barcelona for three nights, the Abba Garden was a very enjoyable part of our stay. The room was very comfortable, with satellite T.V, hair dryer, telephone and mini bar. All staff were very friendly and spoke excellent English. The staff were always ready to help, recommending good restaurants, booking us a table and would also book our cab. This hotel had a lovely pool area, where we relaxed in the morning before going on our sight-seeing trips. The pool was important to us as this was the reason we chose to stay at the Abba Garden, we were not dissappointed. To get to the city centre we went by bus, the nearest stop was just 2 minutes walk away. Cabs were also very cheap.

Very good hotel, pool nice (if you need one when you are in such a fantastic city). Although there is a 10 minute walk to the metro (through a lovely park) you can catch a 22 or 63 bus from about 200 yds away which takes you right into the city in 15 - 30 minutes depending on traffic. The area and hotel are both clean and quiet - a major bonus in Barcelona. We found the location fine but not if you want door to door service. Beware the taxi fare from the airport - we paid 24 euros on the way and 20 on the way back - this was for 4 people. We heard that others had been charged 40 euros. Rooms are very good and spacious. The bar was expensive but because of the easy bus route back we ate out centrally and returned later so it didn't make alot of difference.

We loved the hotel itself. The room was bigger than we imagined, clean, and equipped with everything we needed (like refrigerator and safe). The hotel is very nice, the service is good, the buffet breakfast was huge, and the dinner in the restaurant, though very expensive, was exquisite and romantic. But, the location of the hotel is really bad. It's on a top of a hill in a residential area with a school and hospital, but nothing, and I repeat, NOTHING, to do nearby. The nearest metro is 15 minutes walk away, and the return walk uphill is very difficult, so you'll find yourself using cabs just to return from the metro to the hotel. It will take you a few days to figure out where in the 20 minute walk radius you can even find something to eat; In the first day, we walked around for more than an hour searching for a grocery store, restaurant, or something. In the next few days we learned that there is an expensive restaurant 2 minutes away (but it is opened only in very specific hours) and a cluster of cheap restaurants 20 minutes away, but that is all. For anything else, including a grocery store, you'll need to take the metro, and take the difficult hike uphill (or a cab) back from it, something that can easily take an hour. But, if you intend to only exit and return to the hotel once a day, and have good legs, you might want to consider the Abba Gardens anyway, if you can get it for a good price.

I stayed at the Abba Garden in May 2004. The staff are very friendly speak very good english and rooms are very clean. Unfortunatley the positioning of the Hotel is very bad it is not near any tourist areas and in order to access these you need you travel by Metro or get a bus which in both cases you need you walk for about 15 minutes. The catering facilities are not brilliant each night there is a set menu with not alot of variety. Drinks at the bar are very expensive we were charged twelve euro for a measure of whiskey, unfortunately there are not even any bars nearby again you would need to travel by Metro or bus. Hotel is not recommeded to anyone with young children or anyone seeking a lively holiday.

The staff at the hotel really helped to make our trip to Barcelona memorable. The hotel is fairly new, rooms were spotless with a balcony overlooking the patio and pool area which looked very inviting but we didn't attempt it in the rain! Everyone spoke excellent English which helped us as we didn't speak any Spanish and they were extremely polite and friendly. The hotel is situated at the top of a hill and there is about a 15 min walk to the nearest bus stop or metro, but it was nice to get away from the main hustle and bustle of Barcelona.

Lovely hotel, friendly staff, clean and tidy rooms everything you'd expect from a four star hotel - only don't make the same mistake we did, getting the street name mixed up with another street which is more central in Barcelona. However this hotel is easy to find and has great transport links, there is a bus stop at the bottom of the hill -numbers 78 and 63 then night bus 12, or a short walk away is the Metro station Line 3 - Zona Universitaria. The Hotel is located near a hospital - Sant Joan de Deu - don't worry though you won't hear any ambulance sirens. We stayed here for 3 nights and wished it were longer! 10 out of 10!

I staye dhere during Easter of 2003. It's a brand new hotel so lovely and clean, nice decor etc. The room I got was MASSIVE. It had an internal hallway it was so big. The bathroom was huge and had a double sink which is always great. Breakfast was lovely, they had fruit, cold meats, cheeses, pastries, cereal you name it. We ate it. Staff were more than willing to help with tourist questions and were lovely to us the whole time. The only bummer was the pool wasn't yet opened, but it should be now. They have a gym with spa and sauna as well which we didn't use, but it looked good. The other slight downside was it was about a 20 min walk to the Metro stop and another 15 mins on the train to the Las Ramblas. This wasn't that bad as the hotel was so impeccable. If you want to be close to everything then this may not be your place, but if you don't mind a walk (it's actually quite a nice walk and you can go through a park on the way) then it's worth it to have such a nice place to stay.