AC Barcelona

Class: First

Style: Modern design

Rooms: 368

Barcelona’s got some fine little boutique hotels, but in a destination this popular, there’s much more demand for high-design boutique-style accommodation than the little guys can comfortably supply. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the bigger hotels would get in on the action. The AC Barcelona is in a spot, and on a scale, that would typically call for a fairly anonymous business hotel — with nearly 400 rooms, a short distance from the Diagonal Mar convention center and commercial development, it’s refreshing to see a contemporary look, shades of Barcelona’s home-grown boutique hotel tradition. It’s a crisp minimal style, with rooms showing signs of a vaguely Eastern aesthetic along with their very up-to-date appointments. Towers mean views, and some of these rooms have those to spare. And a bigger hotel means a more complete set of services and amenities: there are views to be had from the outdoor pool deck, as well as the 13th-floor Planta Natura spa, whose fitness room faces the sea. Add a stylish restaurant finished in metallic surfaces, plus a mezzanine-level tapas-and-cocktails bar and a 13th-floor spa cafe, and the package is complete: small-hotel style, writ large, and it sure beats the business-hotel alternative.