Hotel Cram

Class: First

Style: Avantgarde

Rooms: 67

Architecturally-minded visitors to Barcelona can’t help but have high expectations these days — it seems every building is either an ultra-modern masterpiece or a centuries-old treasure. These expectations are more than satisfied by Hotel CRAM, a bit of both worlds: a tour de force of modern interior architecture behind an elegant 19th-century facade.

Here modern design doesn’t mean monochrome, either. The obligatory white walls and polished light hardwood floors are livened with splashes of color, from blood red and rust orange to subdued gun-metal grey. The bedrooms are on that highly desirable line between funky and futuristic — they’re sleek, to be sure, but eminently habitable, with plentiful natural sunlight, sprawling platform beds and all the modern must-haves, including 32-inch LCD televisions and wireless internet access throughout.

An outdoor swimming pool offers a break from the heat and the crowds of central Barcelona, while the lobby bar is the perfect transition into this city’s legendary nightlife. Most fortuitous, though, is the fact that the hotel just happens to be the new home of the Michelin-starred Gaig restaurant, where the chef of the same name serves his signature fare, a sort of back-to-basics cuisine with an emphasis on traditional flavors and stripped-down preparations. Four blocks from the Passeig de Gracia and six from the Plaça Cataluña and the Ramblas.