On the way home from my birthday trip to Dubrovnik, I spent the night in Barcelona before returning to the USA. I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona, which is only about 10 minutes away from El Prat Airport.
Hyatt Regency Barcelona Review
Booking
I booked the hotel for €169, which was more expensive than going into the heart of Barcelona and staying at Hotel SOFIA, another Hyatt hotel I love, but it just made sense considering the late arrival and early departure.
Location
After arriving at close to 11:00 pm, I just wanted to get to the hotel, take a nap, and then get up and get my work done prior to the flight. The Cabify app would not work…annoyingly, I would request a text message verification and none arrived. I ended up just hopping into a taxi, where I paid just under €20 for the short ride to the hotel. I paid another €20 to go back the following morning.
This isn’t necessarily the hotel you want to stay in if you are a tourist in Barcelona. Although not too far from the city center, I’d certainly consider this more an airport hotel than a city hotel.
I found the hotel hopping. On the roof of the hotel, an architecturally odd building that looks like a relic of the 1970s, is a night club and being a Friday the place was hopping.
Here’s what the hotel looks like during the day:
I weaved my way through the crowd to the front desk of the hotel, which was deserted. The agent was brand new, but thanked me for being a Globalist and apologized there were no suites available. He offered me the drink of my choice (presumably from the hotel bar, located just behind the check-in desk on the lobby level), but I just requested a glass of water.
The hotel has a very odd elevator system in which you input what floor you are traveling to on a keypad and it then directs you to which elevator to use. Once inside the elevator, there are no buttons to press. This was not a very efficient system and wait times for the elevator were bad both late at night and in the morning when I was trying to depart.
King Room
My king room, 815, was small, but clean, with a “real” king bed (not two twins pushed together), desk, and small couch. The room had no character really…it felt like most Hyatt Regency hotels in the USA!
The wall above the desk had a universal outlet and a pair of USB-A ports.
A refrigerator had two bottles of water, though the promised espresso machine in the room was not present…instead, there was just a water kettle.
The restroom had a toilet, sink, and walk-in tub (it appeared my room was an accessible room, based upon the handlebar over the toilet). Toiletries were in individual bottles and by Pharmacopia.
Previous Stay – King Suite
As a point of comparison, I was upgraded to a suite during my prior stay at the hotel (which I did not review). That room, 2404, included a living room, a huge walk-in bathroom, a guest bathroom, and a bedroom about the same size as a standard room.
The views from the hotel are not stunning:
Dining
This hotel has several food and beverage options.
Breakfast At Azimut Restaurant
Each morning, a large buffet is offered at Azmiut, 7:00 am – 10:00 am on weekdays and 7:30 am to 10:30 am on weekends. Nothing struck me as particularly noteworthy, but I enjoyed a fried egg with watermelon and espresso as the sun rose.
Axis Lounge Lobby Bar & Terrace
The aforementioned lobby bar offers indoor and outdoor seating and is open until 1:00 am.
Skyfall Cocktail Club
Skyfall is why the hotel was so packed when I entered. It seems to be quite the popular place on weekends.
Terrum Restaurant
The hotel’s main restaurant, Terrum is curated by Chef Juanjo Martínez and open weekdays for lunch from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm and daily for dinner from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm.
Market
Also on the lobby level is a 24/7 market, with coffee, beer, wine, soft drinks, and food items like sandwiches, salads, and baked goods.
Regency Club
A Regency Club does offer evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, though I arrived too late and left too early to experience it. Breakfast is in Azimut rather than the Regency Club.
Fitness Center – Metropolitan Sport Club
Perhaps my favorite (and least favorite) part of this hotel is that the fitness center is located off-site. The hotel allows guests to access the Metropolitan Sport Club, a gym chain that is pretty posh. You’re given a token at the front desk which you can use to access the turnstile to enter this gym. The equipment is great and there’s a swimming pool, sauna, and steam room. It was perfect, except for the fact that it did not open until 9:00 am on Saturday…I only had 45 minutes to use it before rushing to the airport and had to eat my breakfast first.
Pool
Finally, the hotel does have its own pool, but it is small and only open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.
CONCLUSION
Both of my stays at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona have been pleasant, with kind service, a nice breakfast spread, and a great fitness center located next door. The location is not ideal if you are exploring Barcelona, but it’s a great place to stay the night before a flight.
As a half-time Barcelona resident, Cabify is essentially worthless. Technically the Uber app should call taxis, too, but it’s equally useless. I’ve had about 10% success rate with them. Free Now is the “preferred” app for taxis – as advertised on the sides of taxis vehicles – but even then it’s pretty garbage, too. I don’t know if the drivers just don’t use it or don’t accept rides or what, but you did it correct way – just hail a cab on the street or at the airport. If you need to actually schedule something. If you know you’re going to be needing a ride for more than two or so people, Welcome Pickups has been my best bet. It’s similar to Blacklane insomuch as it considers itself a chauffeur service, but I’ve had the best luck with it, specifically within Barcelona – especially to/from BCN if you’ve got more than just a carry-on and don’t want to deal with Aerobus or TMB (metro).
This looks like rather poor value- over €200 for a basic 4* room and the airport transfers. I suppose that BCN does get a fair few tourists during the summer, but I bet it would have been possible to find a half-decent business hotel next to a station on the metro line for less than €100.
I appreciate this review as I’ve given this property consideration a couple times for overnight layovers in BCN. It looks lovely, but you confirm my concern: it’s too far from the airport to be super convenient, yet not at all near anything interesting in the city center.
About the elevators – many tall buildings, both offices and hotels, in the USA are converting to this elevator system where you enter your desired floor and you’re assigned a car. I’ve even seen this on newer cruise ships lately. I read somewhere they are 30% more efficient than the old way. In a busy high rise hotel, that makes a huge difference, especially at peak times. I’m excited to see them – I assure you the waits would have probably been even longer without it.
The hotel looks great to me. Sorry it felt so “American”. You hardly live in this country anyways. Hyatt Regency branded hotels aren’t supposed to be a palace as your accustomed to. For your tastes you should always book at really, really expensive hotels with even more bells & whistles. And butler service to!
There’s nothing wrong with the hotel, apart from the ‘American hotel chain tax’ being applied. Whenever I visit Spain, I tend to stay in a NH, Ilunion, Sercotel, Silken etc, and typically pay less for a junior suite than what Hilton and Hyatt would’ve charged me for a standard room (AC may be a bit different as they are both a Spanish chain and a Marriott brand).
This hotel has not been built as a Hyatt I believe.
It was part of a spanish hotel chain and became a hyatt later or recently pre-covid let say.
There are quite a lot pf spanish hotel chains that I cannot remember which one it was. The markey is competitive for hotels investors so the concentration is not big.
This was a Hisperia hotel.
Disappointed you were not able to provide Regency Club photos and details. The “odd” elevator system is actually not uncommon in large hotels.
I hate the elevator system. Hate it.
Sorry about Regency Club – I was there from 11:00 pm to 9:30 am and it was closed the entire time.
The previous visit was just after the hotel had become a Regency and there was no club.
Actually like this hotel a lot. Across from the entrance of the Hotel (4 minute Walk) is a metro station. It does take about 30 minutes into the city so if you want to explore Barcelona nightlife would definitely not recommend but for daytime trips into the city it’s reasonably convenient. Especially as what you paid was on the high end. I’ve frequently seen this hotel for just over 100 Euro a night.
The fitness center as explained is a major upgrade vs normal hotels even though you have to leave the building.
Oh and if you are in good shape you can take the 46 bus from the airport (recommend getting a T-Casual that has 10 trips for not just this trip but also into Barcelona) which stops at the “Institut Català d’Oncologia – Hospital Duran I Reynals” on the other side of the highway from the Hotel. There is an underpass that goes from the bus stop and comes out at the Fitness club next to the Hotel. Cost is under 1 Euro per trip until the end of 2022.
Clint,
Would you please clarify if the breakfast buffet in Azimut is included with Regency Club access or if there is an extra charge for the breakfast.
Thanks.
Sorry Matt. For some reason I called you Clint. Too many Clint Eastwood movies I guess.