The facilities are beautiful and the rooms are great, but the hotel doesn't work. There are simply too many people staying there with too few and often poorly trained staff.

It takes ten minutes to catch an elevator, the club floor is cramped and at peak times, the hotel is painful to return to.

The hotel feels like a very well appointed bus station. I won't be returning.

Arts hotel is one of the best hotels I' ve ever stayed. The rooms are modern and bautiful. The views from the higher floor rooms are just spectacular. Our teenage children loved it. The personnel is extremely pleasant and make staying in this really big hotel a very personable experience. The location is very convenient, as it is not in the center, but very close to it and the ride to the center is very easy.

we stayed at hotel arts for 7 days. the staff at the front desk was friendly and courteous. We were taken care of by Mark, who i have to mention by name due to his exceptional PR skills. Room was ok had views of the ocean and the old city. Some noise pollution with police/ambulance sirens at night. Housekeeping was excellent. Got wake up service and was very prompt. Now for the pool, it was astonishing that a hotel of its class wouldnt have a heated pool. We tried to get in the pool twice, the water was ice cold. I love to swim and it was a huge disappointment!
We ate at bar marina, loved the experience the waiters really took care of us. The food was great, the atmosphere, sunny day overlooking the marina...couldnt ask for anything better. watch out for the cocktails $$ 21 for a margarita! caparenna is also very good!

Bites, staff was really obnoxious. The salad i ordered was not fresh. Very bad service. Would not recommend this restaurant

Bar was expensive...bottle of corona $10
we frequented the barnebieri, which is a local restaurant/bar across the street, they had bottled hogaardens for $3...a steal !

Can Majo: exceptional paellas! Have to try their catalan cream (their version of creme brulee)
Gavani in port veil : Great food went there twice, nice view of the marina. Try their fish with garlic vinegar exceptional. Also their paellas are good! Great catalan cream.
Couldnt get into Cal Pep so tried the next door tapas bar called
longa de tapas: try their green salad delicious! deep fried shrimp, beef with foie gra, potato meat balls...
Comerc 24: Hated the experience! we got the 6 course festival menu! it was ultimate tortured with horrible food...i stopped eating after the 3rd course as I wouldve hurled...the only thing i liked there was the recreated egg...everything else was disgusting! service great .
Navarro on the rambla: forget the tapas go for the steak which are done very well.

Highly recommend montserrat trip through Hotel arts byJUlia travels our guide was JORDI highly highly recommend him... we had a group of 11 on a charter bus...the views to the mountain are amazing... $53 per person... the only problem was that the 1st day they cancelled the trip as only 6 people were registered...they need a minimum of 8...make sure you have ample days left in case of a cancellation when booking your trip

The other site seeing tip: make sure to book with barcelona city tour not barcelona touristica... for hop on hop off as the barcelona tours aka barcelona city tours is not jam packed like the other one....and both tours go to the same places...
Highly recommend: Sagrada familia, Park Guell, Placa Catalunya, MNAC
Shopping on the la pededrera i think thats what it was called and avenue diagonal

There is not much I can add that previous reviewers haven't already touched-on - this is a great hotel, much like the rest of the hotels in the Ritz Carlton family. I can perhaps add value in two areas: the location and traveling with children. Regarding location, I was a little nervous about it given other reviewer's comments, but I actually really enjoyed the location. The hotel is a 15-20 minute walk from most of the neighborhoods you will want to visit downtown, but it's a very pleasant walk, and you can take your time and do it along the beach boardwalk. We only took a taxi twice in the 4 days we spent in Barcelona. Second, we took advantage of an online special and booked a room on the club level. This was a GREAT way to travel with kids because it gave us another living space to use, as well as a constant stream of food on which our 2-year old could snack. The concierge service on the club level was excellent and they did an excellent job of making our children feel welcome. I would also mention the hotel has great outdoor space near the pool.