Torre Melina, a Gran Meliá Hotel

Look, if you’re looking for the 'authentic' Barcelona experience—the one where you’re squeezed into a damp room in the Gothic Quarter listening to a bachelor party vomit in the alleyway—Torre Melina is not for you. This is the other Barcelona. The one with wide boulevards, glass towers, and people who don’t look twice at a three-digit lunch bill. Located at the tail end of Avenida Diagonal in Les Corts, this place is a sprawling, unapologetic monument to the good life. It used to be the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos I, a legendary pile of bricks that eventually lost its luster and sat dormant. Meliá took it over, stripped it down, and birthed something that feels less like a hotel and more like a fortified sanctuary for the weary and the wealthy.

When you walk into the lobby, the scale hits you first. It’s massive. It’s the kind of space designed to make you feel small, but in a way that suggests someone very competent is taking care of everything. The renovation has replaced the dated 90s corporate vibe with something sleeker, warmer, and significantly more expensive-looking. But the real draw isn't the marble; it’s the 25,000 square meters of gardens. In a city that often feels like a beautiful, sun-baked stone oven, having that much green space is a flex. These aren't just 'hotel grounds'; they are the Jardins de Torre Melina, a historic landscape that makes you forget you’re five minutes away from a major highway.

Let’s talk about the pool. Beso Pedralbes has brought the beach club energy of Formentera and Sitges to the upper reaches of the city. It’s a high-stakes theater of oversized sunglasses, chilled rosé, and deep house. If you want to sit quietly with a book, go to the library. If you want to feel the pulse of a city that knows how to spend money, this is your spot. Then there’s the food. Erre de Roca, led by Iñigo Urrechu, is the heavy hitter here. It’s all about the grill—the smell of oak and cherry wood hitting high-quality protein. It’s honest, fire-driven cooking that doesn't need to hide behind foam or tweezers.

The rooms are what you’d expect from the Gran Meliá brand: crisp, tech-heavy, and comfortable enough to make leaving a chore. If you’ve got the scratch, the RedLevel service is the way to go. It’s the 'hotel within a hotel' concept—private check-in, a dedicated lounge, and the kind of service that anticipates your need for a gin and tonic before you’ve even fully processed the thought yourself.

Now, the honest truth: the location is a double-edged sword. You are far from the action. You aren't walking to the Sagrada Família or the Boqueria from here. You’re in Les Corts, near the university and the hulking concrete temple of Camp Nou. If you’re here for a match or a business deal, it’s perfect. If you’re here to play tourist, you’ll be spending some quality time in the back of a Cabify or on the L3 metro line. But maybe that’s the point. Torre Melina is where you retreat to when you’ve had enough of the crowds. It’s a place to decompress in the Thai Room Spa, where the air smells of lemongrass and the outside world ceases to exist. It’s luxury as a form of insulation, and sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.