Experience slow travel on the quieter side of the city, at InterContinental Barcelona. This is the hotel for a return visit to the Catalan capital, when you want to see a different side of the city. Maybe you’re back in the city for a night or two before a cruise or beginning a road trip along the Costa Brava. Close to the airport, yet in an elegant, authentic neighbourhood, it offers stellar dining, a unique bar, and the kind of attention to detail that makes you forget that you’re in a big chain hotel.
Catalonia, Barcelona, Sants-Montjuïc
Intercontinental Barcelona
(5 stars)The hotel
InterContinental Barcelona, close to the parkland of Montjuïc, is renowned for its dining, home to Quirat, the Michelin-starred restaurant of chef Víctor Torres. The hotel has also developed a cocktail bar, Gebre, that ingeniously ages its drinks in Catalan clay jars.
My visit was the first time I’d been in an Intercontinental hotel in years. Yet the luxury brand has a real connection to Spain. InterContinental Madrid opened in 1953 as the first international hotel in the country. Barcelona meanwhile feels sparklingly new, as it underwent a major remodelling in 2021.
Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in the world, yet staying here, on the edge of Montjuïc, one feels worlds away from the tourist crowds. This neighbourhood of parks, gardens and galleries offers a more thoughtful urban experience.
Slow travel
Here one’s day can start with a stroll or run through the neighbourhood. Head past the magnificence of the Font Màgica and up the steps of the Palau Nacional. You can also visit the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion with its iconic Barcelona chairs and the extraordinary Fundació Joan Miró. The Teatre Lliure, the Mercat de les Flors, and the archaeology museum are also close by. It’s a different way to experience Barcelona.
Then enjoy a private breakfast in the Club InterContinental lounge. As a club floor guest you may invite a friend to join you, which feels extremely generous. There is Moët & Chandon, wines, beers and spirits during the day and a generous afternoon spread of sandwiches, tapas, treats and chocolate. It was a great place to work. The Club Lounge idea was pioneered by InterContinental Madrid in the 1950s, and the team here, led by general manager Enrique Escofet Giró, keeps it highly sophisticated.
Accommodation
I travel regularly and spend months of the year in hotels, so a hotel is often judged on how easily it makes my day work, from getting some exercise, enjoying a great meal, and getting some work done. Here the room is very comfortable, reflecting the InterContinental style. The layout is a touch corporate, but that means there is loads of space with a proper desk, large wardrobes, equipped with a steamer and an iron, as well as all the things that make travel comfortable and easy whether you are working, joining a cruise or staying for a celebration. Some rooms look onto the street and a school with its striking modernista facade in pink and green. Others look towards the domes of the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
Wellbeing
Below ground is Spa InterContinental, one of the largest in the city at around 1,200 square metres, with a hydrotherapy pool, steam, sauna and hammam, six treatment rooms and World Luxury Spa Awards for the last three years. The massage with their hammam-style Marjane oils was excellent, and there is a fitness centre too.
The hotel is also incorporating the notion of slow travel into its guest experience. In addition to inspiration for exploring the local area, they have created an internal courtyard garden, which feels like a neighbourhood space. It has a small ‘huerto’ kitchen garden growing some of the vegetables, greens and herbs used in Quirat and in Gebre. It is somewhere to escape the bustle of the city with a book and disconnect.
Gastronomy
Arrel, the all-day restaurant, is elegant, light-filled space. I tried some tasting dishes that showcased the diversity of the kitchen, from a salmon tartare with broad beans, to a prawn in its own bisque. This is also where guests enjoy breakfast and the acclaimed Sunday brunch twice a month.
173 Rooftop Terrace is spectacular, with a pool, Moët & Chandon branded sunbeds and a view across the city skyline, which takes in the Tibidabo, and on to the Sagrada Família and the Torre Glòries before drawing your eye out towards the sea. It’s a super spot for a light lunch, an afternoon tea or cocktails as the sun sets.
Gebre, Catalan for frost, the lobby cocktail bar that adds personality to the large open lobby area. Its principle is based on time. Cocktails are rested in oak barrels, in glass demijohns and, most unusually, in porous clay tinajas made by artisans in Miravet, for up to six weeks. In a masterclass with Jordi Roig, head bartender for the group and the man behind the concept, we tasted a flight named for Catalan places, from Eixample to Priorat, and the Fumo, a Boulevardier made with Basque whisky and smoked Penedès vermouth. The bar also holds what it says is the country’s largest collection of Spanish whisky.
Quirat is the destination restaurant at the InterContinental Barcelona, awarded a Michelin star. Inspired by the restaurant’s name, which in Catalan means karat, we indulged in the 18k tasting menu. Víctor Torres, the youngest chef in Spain to win a Michelin star, came to the table to present his new autumn menu, which included a grilled oyster with garlic soup and Ibérico papada, Duroc pork with lobster, pigeon from the Cerdanya, a suquet with trinxat and a menjar blanc with mandarin and olive oil. Albert Señor Casamitjana, restaurant manager and the hotel’s head sommelier (and one of Spain’s top 100), the pairing of Catalan wines. This is dining that truly has a sense of occasion.
The turndown
The attention to detail at the hotel also won me over. After dinner, the turndown gift was a bottle of Quirat’s Arbosana olive oil with a sprig of olive. The next evening it was a golden rose, a golden hour moment, and then the spa’s body oil. Each telling the story of the hotel.
Final Thought
Lots of people go to Barcelona more than once. After one has taken in the tourist sights, it’s a pleasure to stay in a real neighbourhood, yet also with an international brand and all the confidence that brings.
The Luxury Editor attended as a guest of InterContinental Barcelona.
