Bring it on, Barcelona!

Well, what can I say? You twisted my arm. Last week, I posted about our plans to spend our fifth wedding anniversary in Spain this summer. I started off thinking we would visit the Andalucía region in the south, spending time in the cities of Seville in Granada. However, so many of you reached out and said that we couldn’t miss Barcelona! You said how beautiful, romantic, and inspiring it is. You spoke and I listened.

Over the course of the past week, our trip has morphed into several incarnations. We knew we definitely wanted to add Barcelona to our itinerary given your recommendations and the fabulous design scene (Hello Lázaro Rosa Violán!). After much thought and deliberation, it seems the best way to spend our week away will be to focus on Barcelona alone. Flight times in and out of Seville are sketchy and it seemed like too much to take on in one week, especially since Fabian requested minimal travel while we are there.

So, Barcelona it is!! We are both super excited and I can’t wait to share Spain with my husband since he has never been. We will probably take a day trip to Montserrat and perhaps another to Sitges or Girona. I think we’ll decide once we’re there. However, I would love your suggestions for Barcelona since so many of you were so passionate about this city. We have chosen a hotel in the Eixample neighborhood, but would love any ideas you might have for sightseeing, shopping, and dining. ¡Gracias!

Style Profile: Lazaro Rosa Violan

Yesterday, I blogged about the beautiful Hotel Pulitzer in Barcelona after having fallen in love with its design. Upon doing a little research, I found out that the hotel was designed by Spanish interior designer, Lázaro Rosa Violán, who has soared to the top of my list of favorite designers. Violán is a self-described “urban archaeologist” and “style hunter”, which I can certainly appreciate. Violán has been designing restaurants and hotels in his native Spain since 1990. His interiors are perfectly layered, with various styles blending together perfectly. Violán’s palettes are typically sophisticated and restrained and he balances masculinity with a touch of glamour nearly every time. In a word, his work is sublime. According to Violán: “The interior designer is an actor. He must dress up and change roles, understand new identities and integrate them with his own.” This personal philosophy of his further concretes my opinion of Violán as a true design visionary.

Hotels:

{Hotel Pulitzer Roma}

{Hotel Market, Barcelona}

{Hotel Praktik Rambla, Barcelona}

Restaurants:

{Big Fish, Barcelona}

We HAVE to go to this restaurant when we visit Barcelona! The design is incredible! I love the rough luxe look of it all. The combination of worn, whiskey-colored chairs, floating capiz chandeliers, industrial pendants, and black and white palette are too good to miss! Let’s just hope the food is half as delicious as the décor!

{Bazaar, Madrid}

{Fishop, Barcelona}

{Miu, Barcelona}

{Flamant Café, Barcelona}

{La Polpa, Barcelona}

{La Rita, Barcelona}

Retail:

{Felix, Barcelona}

Click on the images to enlarge them and see them in their full glory! I keep going back and looking at them in order to take in every detail.

Image Credit: Lázaro Rosa Violán

Sweet Temptation

So many of you were kind enough to leave personal advice and recommendations for our upcoming trip to Spain when I requested your help in Monday’s post. There were many helpful comments and I also received several personal e-mails with many suggestions. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it! Having personal recommendations can make a huge difference in one’s travel plans. Through all of the comments and e-mails, there seemed to be a reoccurring suggestion: don’t miss Barcelona! Originally, I was thinking we would just visit Granada and Seville. Then, I thought we might throw in Madrid for good measure, but everyone says Barcelona is so much more thrilling and inspiring, and alas, I’ve already been to Madrid.

So what are we to do? Getting from Barcelona to Andalucía in Southern Spain isn’t a huge deal as there are plenty of cheap flights and trains available. My dilemma is how to space it all out over the course of seven to ten days. I am afraid we would be moving around too much, thus foregoing the whole relaxing aspect of our trip. How many days would you allot to Barcelona, Granada, and Seville? Should we forego one of the southern cities? In my excitement, I looked into incorporating Barcelona into our itinerary and fell in love with the Lázaro Rosa Violán-designed Hotel Pulitzer. Both my husband and I are suckers for well-designed boutique hotels. We subscribe to the theory that the hotel is a destination in and of itself and the Pulitzer is so enticing. It is majorly increasing Barcelona’s appeal!

The Luxe Lobby

Dining Area Adjacent to Lobby

The Pulitzer’s VISIT Restaurant

The Dining Room at VISIT

So chic!

Rooftop Terrace

The Hotel’s Bar and Lounge

The guestrooms are so sumptuous and elegant. They would make for the perfect place to begin and end one’s day in a city as exciting as Barcelona.

It’s pretty tempting, isn’t it? Stay tuned for our hotel selections in Seville and Granada, along with more of Violán’s inspiring work.