Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Barcelona

Without a doubt, the Mandarin Oriental Barcelona is up there on my top five list of hotels. I spent 3 days in Barcelona at the end of the summer last year, and stayed at the Mandarin for one night (my other night was spent at the Barcelo Raval). From the moment you walk inside, the smell, ah it’s heavenly. So much so they bottle it and sell it in the spa in the basement.

Back to the hotel, designed by Spanish Architect/Designer Patricia Urquiola, this former bank has been given been given the magic touch. Urquiola utilised the old bank safety deposit boxes that were left in the building before the demolition began, & the house bar is aptly named The Bankers Bar. The walls as you can see above, are covered in the original safety deposit boxes complete with keys! It’s quite amazing.

You walk into this space from the left side, up the giant ramp where you get the first glimpse of the scale of this building.

Spot the Moroso Bloomy Chairs, designed by Patricia Urquiola…

With designs by Artemide, Autoban, Barber Osgerby, De Padova, Flos, Foscarini, Knoll, Santa & Cole & Viccarbe, this hotel certainly qualifies to be one of the best design in the world. Over a dozen of these pieces of furniture & lighting are available for sale at Discover&Deliver, just search under Barcelona to find the link…

Then I jumped in…

While it might be out of most peoples price range, you should still go for a café or glass of something in the evening…